Over the past few weeks there has been a bit of rain, enough to green up the sides of the roads, but ultimately it hasn't done much at all for the bush. All that has happened is a bit of new bracken has come up (the slight tinges of green you see above), but nothing more than that.
I have no new photos of plants or flowers, because everything still is just dead. We see kangaroos regularly, and our one lone swamp wallaby, but haven't spotted the wombat - just the piles of poo where he's been! I have to be content with small delights - a magpie gliding up to a branch, its wings spread to show the beautiful black and white pattern; the wrens squabbling in the bracken; occasional kookaburras swooping around and sounding off. The butterflies have disappeared early this year - usually by mid-April there are still plenty around. Melbourne dams are sitting around 28% full (72% empty) and the forecast says no real rain until June. It all continues to look pretty grim.
It's like a little forest on top of a tree stump...
Yet another year of little rain. On the one hand, I can say that our 20,000 litre tank supply is full after only about 3-4 weeks, yet by looking around the area carefully as I walk, I could see that there wasn't much evidence of persistent soaking rain - usually I see fungi on tree trunks, a lot of moss and lichen, toadstools and fungi everywhere on the ground. This year was very sparse up until about 3 weeks ago (when our tanks started filling). But I hate to think what might be ahead of us this summer.
