Spring garden

Spring means it's time to work on the garden again! It has been quite warm, with days already in the mid 80s. We have started tomato, eggplant and capsicum seedlings inside and have planted greens and root veg (beets, radishes, turnips and carrots) outside. We planted garlic and shallots over the winter which are doing okay as well as fava beans, which only came up so-so. Last weekend we planted zucchini, melon, cucumber and peanuts.

Sprouts one week ago

Sprouts today

Going around our yard a lot of the plants are starting to come back. Last year's poppies are blooming, the strawberries are starting to flower and our mandarin orange tree is covered in tiny fruit. It's still a long way off and there's a lot of work between here and there, but I can't wait for the summer harvest!

A heron in the front yard

It seems like it must be dry if the preying mantis has gone white..

Raspberries!

Peach and apple trees with spring leaves

Back garden bed

California poppies springing back

A line of radish sprouts

This weekend is a long weekend (October 2 is Labour Day) so we have a big project lined up. We're going to work on some hard landscaping, putting in a pathway to the front door and a little patio sitting area between the front yard trees. It will really help the front garden come together—hopefully in a few weeks it'll look really good! When that time comes I'll post some photos.

Itty bitty preying mantis

Two weekends I found a very small preying mantis on my hat while we were cutting down the big arborvitae in our front yard; I almost brought it inside when we came in for lunch. (More on the tree we cut down in a future post.)

Much to my delight, after I took the insect back outside it stuck around long enough for us to eat lunch and come back out with the camera to take a photo. We've seen a couple other preying mantises down here, but this little one was much greener and much cuter than the other ones we'd seen before.

Bugs and slugs

Being here for almost two years now, we've seen a fair number of creeping and crawling things.  It seems like this summer we've spotted a few more bugs than ever before (but perhaps fewer spiders, thank goodness.)

Starting in November we were finally able to find one of the noisy bugs we hear all summer (think cicada-level noise level, only lower pitched; and less of a buzz but more of a drumming sound), we saw a big preying mantis on the roof, and of course other beetles and butterflies. I also saw a very large slug when taking out our recycling.

These green bugs blend in perfectly with the summer leaves

The only way we spotted him was by honing in on his sound.

This preying mantis was at least twice as big as the one I saw
last year. It was huge!

Our 20c pieces are about the same size as a quarter.

He was hiding under the recycling bin but was pretty quick
to retreat to the shade. He looked even bigger when on the move!

Assassin beetle

A huge buzzing beetle we saw in the Blue Mountains

Not the actual insect, but a rather impressive exoskeleton left
on a tree.  It was a big one!

Tweed Heads

The Gold Coast to the north of Tweed Heads.  There seemed to be a fire.

The state line (and sporting a dapper new hat, if I say so myself.)

Jumping into Queensland

New South Wales coastline

Point Danger

The reasons behind the naming of Danger Point and the nearby Mount Warning

Capstan replica from the Endeavour, charting Cook's voyages

While we took our picnic lunch we saw another one of those huge moths.
(I still don't know any Australian moths so I have no idea what it is.)

Swarming Bees [video]

Native Bees

High clouds and low clouds from the back yard.

I thought the clouds were really beautiful today and wanted to get a photo of the sky without any trees, powerlines or roofs in the way, so I took a quick walk to the nearby playing fields.  On my way I noticed the sound of many bees buzzing about; at first I thought there must be a really popular spring flowering tree or shrub in the vicinity, but upon closer inspection I saw it was actually a hive swarm of Australian bees!  I was very excited since I have never seen anything like this before.

It was quite the sight!  I took a short twenty-second video which I will plan on posting tomorrow.

On my way down to the playing field, after I'd had enough of bees buzzing around my head, I noticed the eucalyptus trees were still flowering.  There are at least two types of eucalyptus trees in this stand of trees, with the low-hanging branches I could see both white and pink flowers.  Other than that, however, I don't know what kind of gum trees they are.

Flowers and gum nuts

The uninterrupted clouds, viewed from the open playing fields.