Sunday Selections #537

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.

 

Huge thanks to Cie who gave me this wonderful Sunday Selections image.

 

The meme was then continued by River at Drifting through life.  Sadly she has now stepped aside (though she will join us some weeks), and I have accepted the mantle. 

 

The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to me. Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.

 

I usually run with a theme. Towards the middle of last week our Bureau of Meteorology forecast some extreme weather for much of South-eastern Australia.  Snow, buckets of rain, damaging winds, record cold temperatures.  Some of the forecast was truthful, and some communities have a lot of cleaning up to do.  A couple of people have died in flood waters.

Not here.  No snow, and a teensy smidge of rain.  It was breezy but not dangerously windy.  Chilly but not frigid.  It was grey though. 

Early morning skies looked like this.

 

On the first day that some sunshine was making valiant efforts to break through we headed down to the lake.  I go there often for solace and heart balm (and a roo fix).  As is always true there was a lot to delight us.

There were black swans.

The lake was serene and lovely - and even on a mostly grey day there were reflections...

We got our kangaroo fix.

This isn't a good photo - but I did love that very pink tongue.

I love our magpies too, and this dapper male is a beauty.

A small and noisy flock of sulphur crested white cockatoos were feasting on berries.  These are for you David.

 

On our way home we stopped in at a small suburban shopping centre to see if the locals had rugged up 'their' statue.  They had.

 

 

She has her scarf - but her feet are still bare.

 

There was other public art too.

 

I thought that this bumper ornament on a tradies ute was unusual - but was pleased to see it just the same.

 I hope that even on your grey days (literal or metaphorical) you find beauty and fun.

 

 

 

Sunday Selections #384

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen. 
 
Like River I usually run with a theme.  We have had rather a lot of grey days recently.  Wasted grey days.  We desperately need rain but our heavy clouds have produced tiny sprinkles rather than the downpour we need.  And, as an aside I wonder whether repairing our roof so that heavy rain no longer pours into our kitchen is responsible for that.

Even the greyest of days have had splashes of colour though.

I hope I am never too old and jaded to watch clouds.

The birds have brought colour too.

Eastern Rosellas - who arrive early to beat the rush.

Corella

Rainbow Lorikeet (aka Piggy-Grunter)

And wandering out the back door I noticed that the cymbidium orchids are in bud.  LOTS of flower spikes.  It will be months before they flower but I smiled broadly to see the promise.

Lucky, lucky, lucky

Today we woke up to fog and grey skies.  The weather was chilly (some said cold) as well.

At around eleven the skies were still grey, when we were blessed with splashes of colour.  First the cockatoos arrived with their feathers fluffed up to defeat the chill.  We see cockatoos almost every day but they are still welcome.

Then a pair of adult Crimson Rosellas landed on the feeder.  Lovely, lovely birds who are bringing their adolescents to visit.  Just the adult birds this morning.

Next a family group of King Parrots came to join us.  We were still pleased - but also much more excited.  Months can go past without them appearing in our neck of the woods.  This group seemed to include not only adult birds, but also some juveniles.  The adult males have the red head and beak, where the females are green.   It is often difficult to determine the sex of the juveniles - until you can see the colour of the beak.

The adults were being extremely patient with us as we took shot after shot of them.  So I wondered whether they were hungry enough to eat from our hands.  They were!!!  Each of us was able to hand feed the male, and the female ate from the hands of the skinny person's sister.

When we came inside again all of us were on a high.  And shortly afterwards the last of the fog and low cloud cleared away to a bright and beautiful day.

PS:  I am just starting to be able to visit blogs again but have discovered that I have a problem.  If your comments are embedded beneath your post and you have the reply to comments individually option I can no longer read your comments or add my own.  This has happened to me before - but has usually been very temporary.  So my apologies if I am unable to join in the fun at your place.