Spring Flowers

Common Fringe-lily (my favourites!)

Ivy-leafed violets

With all the winter rain and now more rain, plus some sunshine and warmth, the spring flowers are bursting out all over, with more on show right now than I've ever seen. Along with them have come the butterflies! It's been seven years (since last decent rain) since I've been able to go walking and be surrounded by butterflies rising up from the undergrowth. It's a truly magical experience and one I wondered if I'd ever see again, to be honest. The drought seemed to kill off nearly everything living up there, even the ever-present bracken.Common Brown Butterfly

While the Bossiaea came and went a few weeks ago, gradually more and more wildflowers have been emerging, not just in ones and twos but in great swathes everywhere! Even the bluebells have re-emerged after an early flowering.
Last weekend I saw the following: Vanilla lilies, Milkmaids, Fringe-lilies, Early Nancies (above), Pink Fingers, Sun orchids, Mat rush, Billy-buttons, Bear's-ear, Bottle daisy, Cotton fireweed, Blue pincushions (hundreds), Bluebells, Sundews, Rice flowers and violets.
Unfortunately, we're also getting an influx of dandelions, due to a neighbour who has a huge paddock next to us that is thick with them. Time for action!

The Months Have Zoomed Past!

I can't believe it's more than four months since I last posted! I was sure I had at least put some photos up. I have been taking plenty of photos, all the same, just not getting to place them on the blog. (Mental slapping of hand.) What I can report is that there has been rain ... and rain ... and rain. So much so that I have been witnessing wetness in previously unheard-of, unseen amounts. The creek, which has only run once in the past seven years (and then only a dribble under the bracken) is almost a waterfall in some places, and there is water running down the tracks and creating new creeks of their own!

Around the house, we've been seeing the results of living on granite sand. Unlike clay, the water doesn't run off or turn into mud. Instead it runs through, so we've been dealing with unexpected underground water. Don't you just love soil testing companies who tell you what you've got (which you already know) but don't give you any information on what this means when it rains a lot? Or is it that it's been so long since we've had lots of continuous heavy rain here that they've forgotten how to provide useful information about stormwater and where it might go?!