The Land of Summer

I’ve been revelling in contradiction: though the heat and short nights do tend to exhaust me, there is so much to love about these abundant summer days. 

New Year's Day: earth – water – sky

Many small beauties have caught my eye in the garden over the past month (most of them inhabiting my calendula flowers), including the most adorable grasshopper I have ever seen!

A blue-tongue lizard visited our backyard.

And though there are always birds here throughout the year, at the moment there are so many swooping and fluttering through my days, it has been quite overwhelming.

An always wary Wonga pigeon

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

In early January I was blessed with the sight of a brown falcon harassing a flock of cockatoos. Having it glide right above me left me awestruck.

And a juvenile eastern spinebill—one of spring’s babies—has been feeding at the fuchsia bush, getting dusted with pollen in the process. I watched her/him take a nap, making sweet little chirping sounds.

She/he will grow up to look like this.

I separated and re-potted some yarrow that has been just holding on in a waterlogged and too shady spot, producing only small, sad leaves. Now look at it! It’s bigger and greener and happier than ever.

Though I now find myself more drawn to the cooler months, I try to appreciate the gifts of each season, including the often oppressive heat of this time of year. There is so much going on, so many colours and swoopings and songs, including (in some places) the chant of the cicadas, singing the heat-drenched shimmer song that is summer.

Pink gum blossoms; I am not sure of the species