Warning...

Highly edited photograph ahead....

For so long I have been attempting to photograph the elusive bower birds that frequent our garden.

Never in the past thirteen years have I seen one eating from the lorikeet feeder.  

To spot one this morning, only metres from our dinning room window, was certainly a surprise.

The fact that the bower bird has come to the feeder might be a reflection of the reduction of food in the wild - due to the dry weather and the recent bush fires.

But, the bird did not stay long and I had to creep around the corner of the house to take photographs.  The result...another bad photograph of the female or young male satin bowerbird. (The mature male satin bowerbird is a beautiful shiny blue-black).

Time To Catch Up

I've been a bit lazy with my blogging lately.

So it's time for a very big catch up!

Because Second Son was visiting, on the 2nd of February we had an impromptu birthday 'cake' for Mr Honey Pie.

On his proper birthday I wrapped his gift in some of the marbled paper Miss Five and I had made here.

I think it looks quite impressive.

Miss Five, our Grand Daughter, had a sleep-over.

She loves books, especially old books.

Here she has set up her uncle's twenty five year old bears with a very grim Hans Anderson book from the 1920s.

This book is one of her favourite and when she asks me read her a tale from it, I have to tone it down heaps!

On his 'real' birthday, Mr Honey Pie got another cake - a proper cake this time, decorated by Miss Five.

The bower birds have returned to our garden and here is a bad attempt of a photograph. 

They are so elusive.  Their distinct whirring call is what alerts me to them but as soon as they spot me...they're off.

Then it was my turn for a birthday, and seeing it ends with a big "O" this year, I needed lots of help opening the huge present from all of my family.

After the birthday celebrations we had the obligatory 'girl' photograph.

Our family is big on girls and there are four generations in this photo. My oldest sister, who lives in Cairns, was unable to make it to Sydney.

Here are some yummy dishes I've been making with my new 'toy'-a Magi mix. Wow does it make life in the kitchen a breeze!

Above is a pumpkin bake,('cause we don't eat potato) followed by...

Pear and Almond Cake (gluten free and oh so yummy)...

Vegetarian (gluten free) pizza...

and last but not least...gluten free chai tea muffins.

Come Autumn

Come Autumn and the bowerbirds visit no longer.  Despite me leaving some bright blue objects for them, as offerings, they have returned only once since the first of March.  On that day, the birds did remove some of the offerings left to them, but the rest remain where I left them.

Total Fire Ban

Autumn is by far my most favourite season.
Today is officially the first day of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.
I slept in this morning, I mean really slept in.  Usually I'm awake at some ungodly hour, and then drift off to sleep again to "oversleep", and I hate it when this happens.
But not this morning.  I genuinely slept in until about eight.  I heard nothing...no showers running, no grand child calling out to mum, and no bowerbirds calling.  A stiff breeze was billowing up the sliding door curtain.
The temperature in our room was quite cool, yet still comfortable.  Confusion is what hit me as I walked out through the bedroom door because I expected  the temperature to be cool in the hallway too.  It wasn't and I had to ask my daughter if that wind was hot or cold.
"Hot", she said, "I've had to close all the windows because it's so hot."
At 9.30 a.m. the temperature had reached 26oC.
As the morning worn on, I began to wonder why the bowerbirds hadn't woken me.  The offerings I'd left them yesterday are all still there, perhaps they hadn't visited this morning.  Nor have the lorikeets.  Perhaps the birds know something I don't.
A check of the weather forecast, on Google revealed a most unusual start to Autumn.  You can read about it  here.

Bowerbird

Source

This morning I was up at six thirty trying to photograph the elusive bowerbirds that, for the past week or two,  have been making an early morning call just outside our bedroom door.

Twice I've managed to catch a glimpse of them but they are very timid and move on very quickly. They alert me to their presence with their most unusual call, a whirring is the best way to describe it I think.
Although I managed to get the camera out onto the verandah this morning, no satisfactory photographs resulted and you will have to be happy with Arthur's free Australian Clip art for the time being!