Lovely time of year for flowering plants

 I love this time of year as summer dawns and many of our garden plants burst into flower. I took a tour of the garden two days ago and this is what I saw. Apologies for sheer numner of pictures! At last the rain has stopped - for a while - and the sun is shining. This raised the daily maximum to 25 C!

AS

Exciting Halloween

 The Armidale Regional Council helped to organise an interesting Halloween event in the town's central Mall yesterday evening (Friday 28th October). It started at 5 pm and I arrived perhaps 15 minutes to find one of the most raucus events I've attended there. The Mall was absolutely crowded with enthusiastic and excited participants of all ages from 1 to 100. And many were dressed up as skeletons or other creatures. Musicians were there to entertain us and there were queues to see scary displays. In addition, plenty of multinational food stalls served interesting meals. Excited conversations and attempts to rein in children also yielded a lot of noise.

Here are ome images of the event that took.

AS

Endless Rain

 Some parts of the world are experiencing extreme drought and all its associated problems - such as fires, melting glaciers, painful heat, starvation. Others are awash in rainfall and consequent floods that destroy crops and livestock, damage property, raise commodity prices, and take lives. Much of Australia now falls in the second category, even in locations that are desert or semi-desert. Many farmers are delighted to receive abundent rainfall after experiencing years of drought, but many others are experiencing abundantly the downside.

Here, in Armidale, we've just had a very cloudy week with abundant rainfall and lower than usual temperatures. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecast temperatures for the week averaging around 20 C (68 F), but in reality we were rather lower than that. Last week's rainfall totalled 78.8 mm (3.1 inches) rainfall. And in 2022 as a whole we have had 1016 mm (c. 40 inches) so far compared with the annual average of 793 mm (or just less than 32 inches). So things are wet right now and the forecast for the next week sees a lot more rain. It's annoying that the sun has gone into hiding!

As usual when it rains like this, Armidale hosts a flood event as shown in the pictures below. Traffic is diverted from low level creek crossings so that traffic jams become more or less permanent - except overnight.

These first pictures show why loew-level creek crossings are closed when the flood is 1 meter deep!

Here a kid's playground on the right is under water.

You can guage from this next phto that the water was flowing fast. that explains why I can't see any of the ducks that inhabot this area. They've gone into hiding.

Would you want to drive through this torrent of water below?

Please, rain, stop for a while so that we can get back to our normal lives!

AS

Bird Surgery

 While out for a walk two days ago, I and my friend Alun came across a young Australian Magpie in a dire condition. This beautiful black and white bird had two twigs stuck on its feet and those two feet were bound together by a glue-like substance. So it could not fly.

We picked it up and I held it my hands for c. 10 minutes while Alun went to collect his car from where it was parked. On his return, the Magpie had a 3 km ride sitting on my hands. Amazingly, it was quite calm and seemed to enjoy looking out ofthe window. Once home Alun, his wife and I performed a kind of surgery to remove the bird's impediments. It seemed delighted! We took it back to the pick-up locattion and released it. It hopped away singing to itself and then we heard a response by another in the species - presumably its mother!! Job well done! Look up AUstralian magpie on-line to see what it looks like

The magpies are not only pitcturesque, but a renowned as being self assured. Most birds fly away as humans approach, but not the magpie. They look at you with interest and can tell whether you live locally. Interesingly, they also appear to have a complex language which they use when having a conversation with another of their species. However, they do attack humans during the nesting season if you encroach on their territory. Here are some pictures.

Here I am standing in front of Alun's house, bird in hand. I'm glad I was wearing a pair of gloves!

Here I am holding the bird just after the operation commenced. Here the surgeons are removing the twigs.

Later in the operation we also removed the sticky stuff.

AS

Spring has Sprung

After all the rain we've had and the rising temperatures, the multitude of flowers and shrubs in our garden have burst into life. So I walked the garden yesterday taking pictures  of them. They're shown below. Enjoy.

We're looking forward to many of these plants and shrubs maintaining their flowering capabilities through the rest of Spring and even into summer!

And Dot has to take most of the credit for maintaining and encouraging their displays.

AS

Coffs Harbour International Buskers and Comedy Festival

During the school holidays last week our the Armidale Regional Council (ARC) put on an epci show that they hoped would attract visitors to the town and entertain local residents. The show was brillaint! ARC brought to town the Coffs Harbour International Buskers and Comedy Festival. Dot and I drove down-town around 10 am to see the start of the event and we were highly enthused by the performers. Because I had another event to attend later, we only saw the first two performances which maybe lasted 90 minutes, with the first being an acrobat and the second a magician. Both performers occasionally sound participation by kids in the audience. 

Here we have the magician asking a young kid about where something had disappeared to.

And here's the acrobat on his tall monocycle.

And this young kid was probably wondering if he could have a go.

As you can see from this pictures our central pedstrian mall had heaps of young on-lookers.

The acrobat was highly skilled at juggling things. Here he's rotating what looks like a blue plate or cushion, while there's a pile of things on the pavement awaiting his attention

Below you can see that ARC provided viewers with rows of seating and, while I stood the whole time taking pictures Dot and some our friends were happy being seated

 

Here's another picture of the mall looking southwest. And you can see some of the viewers were seated. Dot was seated close by.

Here's the stall occupied by Council staff taken before the perfomance began.

This, by the way, is the same Mall where the Tandav dance festival occurred.

AS