@ Head

Although it’s the midst of winter, some of the fruit trees are already in blossom (wild pear above).  I still have a LOT of pruning I should try to get around to.  I’ve also decided that I will try to plant one or two new fruit trees every year, to help build diversity, plus it’s a lot easier than do mass plantings all at once.  This year I bought two peach trees, an Elberta and a Red Noonan. While I was at it I grabbed a Valencia and a Navel orange tree.  It’s pretty marginal here for oranges, but I couldn’t resist ;)

The veggie patch is pretty quiet. Celery, silverbeet, carrots, beetroot for the harvest at present, broad beans still promising to have some pods, but nothing yet.  I planted some garlic which is growing well, and will plant potatoes soon.

This is one of the flowering climbers I planted this year, with it’s first flowers.  Hopefully, eventually it will cover the wire fence :)

Elsewhere in the garden, the proteas are coming into bloom:

This one is one of the first I planted:

This is the first flower I have seen on this little plant I planted a couple of years ago. It struggled through the drought, but is doing well now.  Only one flower on it this year:

The Drynandra is also in bloom, and making a great comeback. The giant yellow tail black cockatoos almost stripped the plants completely last year.  Seems they did a great job mulching them, and no doubts they’ll visit again this year ;)

Another paler pink protea is also in flower:

and has lots more about to open:

The wattles are getting even more intense (see last month’s photos) .  There’s seas of yellow across the countryside. Here, the tree lucerne is also in bloom, adding a snowy effect :

As I took these photos today I also caught a few of the local birds.  You’ll need to look at the larger versions fro the little birds. This is a Spotted Pardalote. Hard to get a good photo of:

And this guy is a Red-Browed finch.  Click on the photo to see the large version:

And of course the Crimson Rosellas had to get in the photo :

And the magpies are pretty active at present.  I think they may be breeding:

There were plenty of other birds as well including Kookaburra, what is probably a Satin Bower bird, some other finches and robins I hope to get some photos of in the coming months :)

The weather has been mixed. Some nice days, a few heavy frosts and some decent rains.  July was good for rain, but we are still way down for the year.  I glanced at some historical figures, and the closest pattern I noticed was 1937, which ended up having heavy rains around the end of the year, instead of the usual mid-year rains (more tropical than temperate).  More rain would be good.

Oh, on a site I check for weather reports I noticed it said only 60 or so more days till day light savings begins again. :)