Canberra’s summer: Red Hot Pokers, Cockatoos, and sunsets…

Every morning in summer we walk down to the shops to buy the paper…and we always stop to admire this view…

This garden is on the verge of the road and the footpath. It has been planted and cared for by a very generous gardener who lives in a house nearby. He and his wife bought and prepared the soil, fertilizer, and plants. They have even installed a watering system, and keep it watered all summer at their own cost.

How is that for a gardener’s generosity of spirit!

Red Hot Pokers

These colour co-ordinated Eastern Rosellas are up early and enjoying the morning sun.

Further along the path is a neighbouring garden spilling over with a shrub that seems to be saying…”It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and summer”.

Acca sellowiana, Feijoa of the Myrtaceae family

 

Every morning we pass the cockatoos and galahs enjoying breakfast at this bird feeder …(a mixed blessing)

The galahs seem to understand the pecking order, and wait for their turn. Occasionally they all eat together.

And far off on the lamp post, a female cockatoo is on parenting duty….

Nearby, a young cockatoo is holding on tight to the branch …. perhaps his first flight without his mother..

Oh dear, he had a slip, but luckily his beak is strong enough to steady him.

His tail feathers look like a wedding dress!

As we walk across the playing fields, we often see the male Red Rumped Parrot and the lighter coloured female….these parrots are always feeding  in the grass, and are totally unperturbed by sporting events going on around them.

By the time we walk home, it is getting hotter, but the Red Hot Pokers are still a treat to see as we walk…

This summer we have had a heatwave and dust storms ..

This makes for some beautiful sunsets across the Brindabella Mountains

When I look across at this view of the Brindabella Mountains,  I think there really is no place like home..

I hope you are keeping warm or cool where ever you are in the world, and enjoying your home as much as I enjoy mine.

Copyright:  Geraldine Mackey: All Rights Reserved.