Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas!!

 
Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends!!
Please enjoy this short video of Kobe playing with a balloon.
 

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Last of the Christmas lights

Our final  drive around took us across some of the northern suburbs.  The first house was very different to the rest with mainly animated models.








I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Christmas in Rundle Mall

Since coming to Australia I find it very odd celebrating Christmas in the middle of summer.   These photos of some of the decorations in Rundle Mall were taken on the hottest December day in 82 years.  The temperature hit 44C (111F)





Friday, December 20, 2013

More Christmas Lights

In the week we took another trip out to look at more Christmas lights. this time we headed west, to Pelham Street in Ethelton, where many houses in this street decorate their houses.




We then headed towards the city, and the riverbank by the West End Brewery.  They put on a display each year along the banks of the River Torrens.  Some of the displays depict nursery rhymes, others childrens movies.





Skywatch Friday

 
Stunning sunrise from my backyard,
Adelaide, South Australia

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Christmas Lights - Northern Suburbs

Every year we take a drive or two to look at Christmas lights in nearby suburbs.  Last night we went to Salisbury East to see a favourite of ours -  Len's Christmas Lights. Len's lights never fail to please with their magical mix of Christmas Carols and lights.



 Len also has some lovely little scenes, including a Nativity, and even the North Pole!


Next stop was Salisbury North, where we visited a couple of houses.



More lights to come soon...........

At last another post.........

For the first time since I started blogging I have missed a month - in fact two!  I have been struggling with my health for about three months now and so don't get out happy snapping so much.

This is a collection of shots from the few trips I have made. They are mostly from short walks with Kobe around "our" wetlands at Kaurna Park.

Early in spring the wetlands were full, and on calm clear days the reflections were wonderful.

By far the most common breeding bird this year is Red Wattlebird.  The chicks look so funny with no tail, but they soon grow one!


This is a Little Raven - it looks like a young bird to me, but I am not 100% sure.

This spring I added a new bird to the park list - Barbary (or African Collared) Dove.  There is a growing population of escaped aviary birds in Adelaide, but up till now the closest I had seen them was at Greenfields, about 10 kilometres (6 miles) away. I first noticed it on call, obviously a dove, but very different from Spotted Dove.

Waterbirds were loving it - lots of ducks around, especially Pacific Blacks.   As the water level dropped, more wading birds turned up. As usual, Australian Ibis was first, closely followed by Great Egret, Royal Spoonbill and White-faced Heron.



On a quick visit to Belair National Park, the only thing of note was a very confiding Koala, sitting low in a gum tree by Playford Lake.






Sunday, September 22, 2013

Springtime = Orchid Time

In spring, I always take a trip or two out to look at the native orchids, so today we headed up to Belair National Park to do just that. We saw lots of Bulldogs, the most common orchid in the park


There weren't many Green-hooded Orchids this year, and we only saw a couple of Nodding Greenhoods.

There were some Common Pink Sun-orchids, and lots of Purple Cockatoos


It is always a thrill to see Spider Orchids, and along with the usual King Spider Orchid we also saw some Narrow-lipped Spider Orchids.


The creeks were still running, and there were lots of Arum Lilies in the damper areas

At the last spot we visited, we saw Cowslip Orchid, and some Rabbit-ears,


Of course, Belair is the Koala capital!! and today was no different. We saw at least five different individuals including this very co-operative one low down in a gum tree.