I’m late. I’m late. That is the tenor of my life recently. One of my sons is house hunting and like hundreds of other parents, each weekend we trudge around with our adult children hoping against hope that we will find something in their price range.
The houses are always so interesting. The building reports are complete fiction and the marketing descriptions are pure comedy. Sometimes the effort is rewarded in unexpected ways. Yesterday we went to a house that was redolent of Sarawak. I once lived with some people who hailed from that region. It was a real blast from the past. A gift. Thank you, house.
Canberra, Australia – Turns out we have our fair share of tools.
I downed gardening tools the other day to go for a short walk with my love. I’ve spent a lot of time looking down lately at the garden so it was a nice change to look up.
March got a little merry when I met up with Mary. Hairy Mary, aka Anthela varia, mistook me for a tree. It crawled up the inside of my trouser leg. It was a good photo opportunity. No nudity involved. Check it out.
Many of my readers know that I have been focussing on some landcare activities at my local park over the last year. I have met some wonderful people doing that, but every now and then, such as when people continue to illegally dump their garden and other household waste in the park, or when they pull out our plants, or they ignore our greetings, it is dispiriting. I am actually shocked by the mean and petty behaviour we have encountered. I would be really embarrassed if I have behaved like that. Anyway, if I have few words to say here on this space, that is the reason why.
So my sanity saving strategy is just to plug away, pick up their rubbish, plant our government-approved plants and complete the government-approved weeding. And hope like hell that the culprits’ dicks rot off. One can only hope.
Now, where was I? The small woodland birds have returned from their summer homes in the hills. Their migration through our woodland is proving unexpectedly challenging due to the increased presence of larger predators attracted by the increase in insect numbers. [L-R Grey Fantail chick, Spotted Pardalote]
I have learnt that there is a subtlety to an Australian autumn. How have I not appreciated this quite so much before?
Boisduval’s Autumn Moth waited for the cold front to arrive before she emerged.
G’day, Readers. I hope you are all well and keeping busy. It seems I have lost the ability and will to blog at 3am. These days, 5pm seems to be my bedtime. It is all a bit strange really. I’m sure I have mentioned this before but it has been a long time between blog posts and I am sure you would have forgotten.
I’ve been watching a doctor show on the tele. The head doc is rude and his offsiders are pretty FITH. But they know their stuff. Amyloidosis, anyone? Since I am a real hypochondriac, it passes the time pleasantly. When I take my long list of ailments to my doctor, I get sent home with a fact sheet on menopause. What a cheek! Despite this, I am happy. A sure sign that I have really lost it.
However, continuing with all things positive, I thought I would overshare my dogs first bath in about three years. I bitch about my phone camera, but it sure does take nice dog photos. Makea had her bath last week when I was sleeping, so it was just Fynnie and Ama that faced today’s particular torture.
Actually, Ama was a little champion. She always is.
Plus, a well placed distraction.
Say cheese.
Excuse me!
Hope your day brings you a little slice of happiness.
Who knew that watching the grass grow and grow was so interesting?
I’ve written a thousand blog posts in my mind over the last couple of months. I’m usually down the park at the time undertaking landcare activities (aka weeding). One of our team members described me as indefatigable. Sure, I can spend five or six hours weeding in oppressive heat but I don’t feel indefatigable. I feel exhausted. Many a time I have just wanted to lie down under a tree and have a sleep. The ants would like that. I think anxious would be a better term to describe me rather than indefatigable.
The hot, humid conditions and the shutdown over the Christmas break has led to an even greater explosion of African Love Grass (Eragrostiscurvula) across Canberra (Australia). African Love Grass consumes all other grasses in its path and is highly flammable. So yeah, I am focussed on weeding as much of it out as quickly as I can so that the native grasses can provide it with some competition, improve biodiversity and mitigate fire risk. I’m not doing this alone by any means. Do you think I want to kill myself? Fortunately, our urban park has also been designated a conservation zone because it contains a patch of critically endangered box gum grassy woodland and hence a native grass-friendly mowing program has recently been established for it. Without that change to the mowing regime, there would be no hope of containing that Love Grass.
Australian native grasses are touted as a way of mitigating the fire risk of African Love Grass. A patch of Themeda triandra (below) holds the moisture in the ground. It can compete against Africa Love Grass in sunny aspects given a modified mowing program and some TLC. This patch took much weeding and new mowing arrangements to bring it back to match fitness. Themeda triandra is native to Australia, Asia and the Pacific.
African Love Grass is not a fan of shade. In the shade, our lovely weeping grass (Microlaena stipoides) can put a break on it and other tall, weedy exotic grasses.
Microlaena growing under a stand of deciduous trees is flanked by African Love Grass.Microlaena under a eucalypt in one of Canberra’s nature reserves. Not mown, except by kangaroos, completely surrounded by exotic weeds.
Unfortunately, the general population doesn’t appreciate the distinction between native grass and weedy grasses like African Love Grass (ALG), Chilean needle grass and serrated tussock. Except for the Rural Fire Service, who would know this stuff? I certainly didn’t know until I started my landcare activities. Moreover, what government is going to admit to the fire hazard in the heart of our city? There is no asset protection when ALG is allowed to grow unchecked across Canberra. That’s my personal view. Our local government must indeed be worried. When hot dry winds are predicted, one can hear the constant buzz of municipal lawn mowers racing to slash the grass across the city. But mowing in those conditions can also be a hazard. Late last year, one of our landcare members saw a mowing crew trying to stamp out a grass fire started by their mower on a hot and windy day. Scary. Thankfully the fire was on a median strip.
It must a real conundrum for the government on how best to educate people about the fire mitigating properties of native grasses without encouraging lunatic fire bugs to take advantage of our city’s vulnerability. It would be a brave government that would try that. Instead, governments and oppositions exhort the benefits of increased mowing even though this is to the detriment of any native grasses that might be just hanging in there. Nuance and politics don’t go together. I feel their pain. It is really not practical or economic to massively scale up the sort of weed reduction and rehabilitation efforts that many of Canberra’s landcare teams are undertaking. Nevertheless, call it biodiversity protection, call it landcare, call it what you will, educating people about our local grassland assets and their care can benefit us all by at least starting a conversation on what can be achieved with community support. At the very least, people may be more inclined to mow their ALG infested yards.
Native grasses re-establishing under eucalypts. We have our eye on the African Love Grass beyond the conservation bollard. It will take time to get there but get there, we will.
Thanks for reading this far. I have to rush out now. Bit more ALG to pull out before it gets too warm. Plus, we have identified a second remnant woodland in our suburb and it too needs care. I’ll leave you with this presentation from the Bredbo Rural Fire Service. They know their grass and they know fires. Best we do too.
My ever evolving verge garden has faced a number of challenges in the last 18 months. The weather has been temperamental – overly wet or overly dry. Consequently some plants have rotted and some have fried. I also have one of those eucalypts that are known for being allelopathic to plants growing underneath them. I have recently replaced some of the moisture-happy plants with more dry tolerant plants. Hence, it rained. Rather a lot. Unsurprisingly the plants that are doing best are the unobtrusive ones that are local to our area that can still be found hiding in some of our urban green spaces. What do you think? Is my verge looking more Australian bush-like?
In order of appearance below – The Glycine clandestina (Twining Glycine) has been a star performer in this rather harsh environment. It delicately weaves its way between sticks and leaves. It is so delicate and unobtrusive that the Brittle gum barely even notices that it is there. Another scrambler is Einadia nutans (Climbing Saltbush). It loves the sunny spot I found for it. I love how it is climbing its way through the Themeda triandra (Kangaroo grass). I bought three Bossiaea (possibly the prostrata variety) but only one has survived. It was too hot when I planted them or maybe they are difficult to get started? I hope it survives because I love the muted orange and olive tones among the meatier brown of the fallen leaf litter.
I fell in love with the Dichelachne crinita (Long-haired plume grass) growing down at our nearby park, so I planted some on the verge. It likes water so I sprinkle it from time to time but it seems reasonably adapted to both wet and dry conditions. I have also incorporated plantings of Wahlenbergia stricta (Tall Bluebell). My verge plantings will provide seed for our neighbourhood park restoration project.
And finally, one last photo. We had a family of Superb Fairy Wrens visit us for the last year. This year they made it to our front yard. We have also seen them venture to the edge of the park. We hope that one day they will be just as comfortable in the small thicket of shrubs our landcare group is establishing for them there. Plant some dense shrub cover and native grasses, invite the insects in, and the little birds will come.
A late entry for Patti’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Empty Space. I think the emphasis is on negative space in the photo below. Close enough. Naturally, this photo was taken by my True Love.
Into the Empty Seeking the apex of all that life has to offer. A chance to thrive, a chance to fall. Thunder beats a primal rhythm. Stretch your wings and ride the wild sky.
Today I thought I would share some fairly ordinary photos in response to the Lens-Artists Challenge hosted by Anne of Slow Shutter Speed this week. For this week’s challenge, Anne has chosen the theme of Filling The Frame. I’ve told myself all I have to do is take the photos. They don’t have to be good. How hard can it be?
Anyway, I’m not a fan of my phone camera so I thought I would take a few photos with that. My phone is mostly stuffed down my bra so it is readily available. With some effort, I could even explore some of the camera functions.
Let’s start off with the garden. Because of our rodent problem we had to fence off some of the backyard from the dogs. Over winter, the warrigal greens consequently managed to populate a good section of the fenced off area. Not bad for a plant that apparently does not like frost. By the way, my True Love managed to evict the rats from the ceiling and wall cavities. Or perhaps it was just too hot for the rats inside the inner recesses. No aircon.
And again. Full frame this time.
I’m feeling a bit like Fynnie. Here he is growling at Makea because she happened to glance his way. I think Fynnie might be depressed or a psychopath.
What else have I got here? Oh yeah, I went to the dentist and took a snap of our city centre while I was in town. Also, I like tiles. The dirt just adds to the patina.
I fiddled with the tone in the phone camera and got something quite true to colour for once. A learning experience.
Thanks to all the gracious people who have put up with my depressed sarcasm. So now for the good stuff in appreciation of your support – a few bird photos taken by my True Love.
When the sign says “Swooping Bird”, one tends to think of magpies or masked lapwings, not Collared Sparrowhawks. This photo was cropped to within an inch of its life. And I thought I was unhappy!
Here it is again a bit further away among the trees that are filling the frame. Beats going to the dentist even if the sparrowhawk does swoop you.
A female Red-Rumped Grass Parrot.
Now the male.
I would like to thank Anne for her choice of theme this week. I really did enjoy it.
Reflections of An Untidy Mind 