Brrrrr it’s cold …

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This morning my outside thermometer read 3 degrees !!

This is the coldest morning I have recorded since moving to my new house four years ago, and the first time that I have ever seen frost in my “bottom paddock”.  For people who live in colder climates, 3C is nothing much to complain about, but this is supposedly sub-tropical Bellingen, and when you consider that one day last week we recorded 29C – one of our hottest ever August days – it’s all a bit of a shock.

Last week lorikeets were hurtling around the garden feeding on early blooms, the mango had started flowering nearly two months prematurely, and I was busy pruning and tidying up in anticipation of Spring.  But this morning my family of kookaburras, who usually visit the veranda for a breakfast snack, were hunched up high in a eucalypt  trying to catch the early morning sun. As for me, I’m eating my muesli in a patch of sunlight warming myself like a lizard.

Early morning visitor …

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Wallaby Visitor

There’s a patch of lawn at the back of the garden that catches the early morning winter sun, and around this time of the year I sometimes see a wallaby with her joey warming herself and nibbling the grass.  I remember earlier this week wondering if she would visit again this year, and this morning there she was …

She’s very timid so I had to take the photo through my bathroom window.  I suspect from the size of her tummy that she has a joey in her pouch, but this time it didn’t show its face.

Don’t bad-mouth a bromeliad …

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Favourite Bromeliad

Bromeliads used to be on my list of ugly scruffy plants, to be politely rejected if offered as a gift.  But I’ve changed my mind.  I now realise that they were just un-loved or in the wrong spot.

In the interests of economy, I’ve rescued them from a friend’s skip, dug up a weed choked clump at the back of my property and picked them up from the roadside where they have been discarded by other gardeners.  Given water, early morning sun and food, they have rewarded me with pups and in many cases surprised me with beautiful technicolour flowers.  Some have even flowered in winter bringing a touch of colour to an otherwise dreary garden and, dare I say, rescuing me from a touch of post Sri-Lanka holiday depression!

Little Wattlebird
Little Wattlebird

And if that wasn’t enough, frogs hide and breed in the pools of water between their leaves, and honey eating birds drink from the flowers.  I’ll never say another bad word about bromeliads.

I’m hooked…

Sri Lankan frogs …

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Inevitable, but a long time coming … a post on Sri Lankan frogs!

Six Toed Frog?
Six Toed Frog?

Many times during our holiday I heard frog calls, but without suitable clothing and equipment a frog expedition was not really practical, so I had to wait patiently until either the frogs came to me or until I stumbled upon one.  Considering that there are 118 frogs recorded as existing in Sri Lanka my chances were pretty good.

High up the mountain in a lily pond at Dambulla Caves there were several very plain, not particularly photogenic and as yet un-identified frogs. But at Lunuganga, with the assistance of Damien the in-house wildlife expert, we spotted multiple frogs, two of whom I managed to photograph.

Dambulla Frog
Six Toed Frog?
Skipper Frog