Sunblock comes out, buy t’shirts and shorts, get some hats, new crocks (hey they are the ugliest shoes in the world but just great for kids), barrier spray house, watch for allergies appearing, update outside toys and throw out worn ones, start collecting eggs from chickens, pack away heaters, blankets get stored, lighter quilts come out for all 14 beds/toddler bed/cots, step up the bleating at hubby to clean the pool, get poodles groomed, and it all happens about two – three months earlier than it would in NZ.

Oh and yeah the garden, funny how themes come up – was talking to Fractelle about gardening in another thread earlier today. I have a smaller garden now so know my little plants a lot more personally. I think I will be able to grow a variety of plants bigger and better than I did in the hard frosts of the winters in Wellington or Christchurch. I’m still scared of all your weird bugs though.

And I notice the different bird sounds now but really have no idea yet which is which. And the sound of teenagers which goes like this “I don’t want to it’s too hot…”

But I don’t feel Spring arrive here on the Central Coast, the winter temps were closer to NZ spring.

PS – no I don’t do the top paragraph in one day (or even in one week) and yeah I would miss all of it.

Rabaul Exam?

Dear Ludwig,

This is for you:

"Spring - when all the world is new again
and even gnarled old trees wear coloured blossoms
on their scarred grey limbs
and reach the sky to capture, once again,
a passing bird or honey bee -

In time we shall return to purple hills
and yellow wildflower in the valley -
to willows rustling softly in a summer breeze
and crystal waterfalls that play their merry game
half hidden in a chuckling creek -
to scarlet breasted birds chattering of their freedom
in the tops of cool, green trees
and all the sounds that do not shatter silence
but are part of it .....
In time perhaps we'll learn to live again ....."
---Nan Witcomb.

I'm a bit of a dreamer Ludwig - (but it's useful -
when you're a writer).

The other thing that signals spring is the arrival of the rainbirds or koels, with their superb far carrying call, delivered at any time of the day or night.

http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/education/programs/eco-online/courancove/infobites/images/Common-Koel.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObwGd64yTTs&feature=related

Xammy, George and his mussus sound like tawny frogmouths.

Marge and John might be bush stone-curlews. I thought of flying foxes. But it doesn’t seem to fit.

Spot is presumably a house gecko. The native one (Gehyra dubia) or the introduced American bugger (Hemidactylus frenatus) – not sure which.

How’d I go?

Ludwig
Well done two up one down
The stone curlews nest(hmm. a small depression on the bare ground) in the local park. Locals avoid them so they can raise their chicks. 2 out of 3 nestings successful so far. Last year the violent storm and excessive rain put an end to that. They were at it again last night too talk about family arguments.

The tawnys roost in a neighbour's pergola during the day. Nests (hmmm, two twigs and a lot of faith) in the nearby trees. Even brings the chick to the pergola. A few years ago they successfully raised triplets...imagine mum one end three chicks and on the other beam, dad. All trying to look like broken stumps on yellow beams..amusing.

Cranky Spot is a Dollar bird a yearly visitor from PNG to breed that nests locally. He spends most day either sitting on the power lines 'clicking '. Or chasing other birds away and clicking. Do you know how to sex them by sight, I don't. I'm too concerned to get too close to the nest site (the same each year) lest I frighten them off.

After having lived in the tropics for 20 years or so, I now delight in living somewhere that has four distinct seasons. Where I now live in rural Southern Queensland, spring is characterised by:

* blossoming fruit trees
* sprouting deciduous trees
* planting, weeding and spraying
* lambs and calves
* stirring snakes
* greening paddocks
* days that start below zero and end up being warm to hot
* beanies exchanged for broad-brimmed hats
* crustaceans emerging from the river and creek beds, and the consequent reawakening of the fish
* magpies and plovers swooping, native pigeons dancing.

I like spring!

"Spring has sprung
The flowers has riz
I wonder where the birdies is?

Some say the birds is on the wing
But that's absurd
The wings is on the bird!"

I'm not so sure spring has sprung. It feels more like we've gone straight to summer here in SE Queensland - 35 degrees a few days back - and winter's not yet over!

Having, as well, spent some of June and July in the UK in their summer (and it actually was a summer too this year), I don't really feel we've had a winter here. I just haven't had my fill of firelit evenings and snuggling up under the thicker doona, we've got the thin old summer one on already.

Since this heat burst, we've been invaded by little black millimetre-long flea-like insects crawling round on the walls and flat surfaces inside and outside the house - and in the cupboards, grrrhhh. We're surrounded by bushland and there seems to be more of them in the parts of the house nearest the trees, so I'm thinking there's a connection there, but I'm really quite mystified. We're coming into our sixth summer in this house and I've never had this happen before.

I love nature but these little blighters are pests. Does anyone out there know what they might be and what might have brought them on?