My Friends are Growing

Thank you sincerely to everyone for commenting so favourably on the giant quilt.  I do appreciate the feedback.  The purpose of this post is to share the progress of some of my 'friends'.  Now, I have to tell you all, a gardener I'm not, and my house/garden will not be appearing on the cover of Country Style magazine any time soon.......................  But, I have some very special plants that are flourishing at the moment, plants given to me by my friends, so they have been affectionately named after them.  The birds' nest fern above was given to me four years ago today.  When my friend brought it here, it was a small lopsided 'baby' that she'd pulled off her larger plant.  I simply could not get it into the full frame, it has grown so much.  It measures more than two metres across now.  This time last year the fronds had unfolded and looked lovely and fresh, and then we had days where the temperature was in excess of 40°C.  It doesn't get a lot of sun, but at the time, the fronds just burnt badly.  Not so this year with our milder summer.

Another that I love is this cardboard palm [Zamia furfuracea], which was given to me by another friend.  It was a housewarming gift when we moved here in early 2005 [my friend knew I had been searching for one of these plants].  Again, I really can't get the whole plant into the photograph.  It needs to be repotted I feel, but I can't see it being a one man [ahem......woman] job, so that will have to wait until I can get some help.  It was only a very small plant at the time.  Both of these plants have dressed up a rather untidy service area around the house.

Of course, I could not post about 'my friends' without sharing the owls.  As I've told you, we were fortunate to have three more babies for the season.  That makes five young ones this couple have shared with us this summer.  I feel privileged to be part of their world.  They sit so quietly in the trees during the day, and swoop down  quite close to our big glass doors each night as they gather little frogs and grasshoppers for their food.  Most mornings I 'find' them and have a little chat.  They offer a peace of mind I really can't explain.  The photograph opposite was taken with the little borrowed camera [only 2x zoom], so I hope you can see the babies clearly enough.  On Saturday I tried the largest zoom on my new camera.  The following photograph shows the largest of the three.  It certainly has grown and will soon be on it's own way I expect.  

 
Thank you for taking an interest in the things that are happening in my part of the world.  It's nothing glamorous, but most of the time it's a peaceful way of life, ie no crowds, no traffic, no noise...........................

Fascinating Birds

I'm back today with a quick update on some of the bird life around our house.  We found the owl in her nest!!!  It is such a thrill to have them back breeding here again.  They've moved their nest to a tree that is really close to our house, and thankfully, it looks a little more protected from the elements.  Here's hoping for happy families soon.  I hope you will see the nest and owl sitting.  Remember, it's about 30 feet off the ground.  I had my camera on 12x, so the photo is a little 'grainy', but, if you enlarge it you should see what I'm talking about.

I also noticed the plovers have hatched already.  I thought I could see little ones around the adult bird when I was driving out yesterday morning.  I did have my camera with me [essential these days!!].  I decided to torment the poor birds again and try for some photos, thinking the little ones probably couldn't get away on me.  What I witnessed was absolutely fascinating.  The parents ran off a short distance, starting screaching, holding out their wings and half limping, as if to let me know they were hurt and easy prey.  The little ones immediately dropped to the ground, without taking a step.  If I hadn't been looking for them, I could easily have stood on them.  They never moved a muscle, just lay there, and pretended to play dead.  I managed to photograph two of them quite closely [there was a third one], but got out of there rather quickly, so as not to upset the family any more than I had already.  Goodness, survival is an extremely strong instinct, and obviously inground from an early age.