Category: Musings

Taunting the Photographer

Good photographers make us look more closely at things we may never have considered before.  They have an artist’s eye for subtle differences in light, colour, form and texture, and they’re able to frame their shots in a way that pose a question, or highlight a detail. When I first bought a good camera, I thought … Continue reading Taunting the Photographer

Begining the Discussion: A Facebook Experiment

As my Fifteen Acres blog grows and changes, I’ve been thinking more about its central themes.  I’ve settled on a couple of rules which shape my posts: Everything I write about happens on our fifteen acres of mostly bushland Through photographs and my thoughts, I’ll try to show you what I found interesting or unusual. … Continue reading Begining the Discussion: A Facebook Experiment

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting – Momentarily Glorious

Momentarily Glorious … I wonder at the promise of a parched sandy landscape and one tiny orchid leaf waiting for rain to unfurl sensuous silken blooms … the fleeting moments of a violet sky calling corella flocks to roost somewhere other than here trailing sounds of raucous joy from North to South then silence until … Continue reading Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting – Momentarily Glorious

Rainclouds through Sunshine

I’ve always been drawn to images which show a hillside, or a tree, in full sunlight with dark, threatening clouds in the background. There is something in the combination of bright green and thunderous grey that appeals to my sense of colour.  The vivid contrast of sunshine and darkness  is also a metaphor for life, … Continue reading Rainclouds through Sunshine

A large fast-moving grass fire…

Intellectually, I’ve known that life-changing events can happen almost randomly.  This idea became a crushingly clear reality over the last two days after a large grass fire swept through our area, burning at least 16 houses and 18 out-buildings to the ground.  The fire took hold some 500 metres or so away, on land across the … Continue reading A large fast-moving grass fire…

Waiting for the end of Summer

I’d imagined Summer would be a hive of activity, with new birds arriving for the water in the dam, flowers appearing everywhere, and an active planting season in the vegetable garden, but I’ve come to realise Summer is a time of waiting and watching. Waiting for the vegetables to grow, waiting for each high fire … Continue reading Waiting for the end of Summer

Hot Northerlies, Cooling Southerlies, and Rough-Barked Trees

Over Summer, we’re forever monitoring the wind direction. This is new for us.  Living in the city, we monitored temperature throughout the day, but wind direction was just a vague acknowledgement that  North Winds were hot, and South Winds were refreshing and cool. Also, when the Southerlies came in on the back of a hot … Continue reading Hot Northerlies, Cooling Southerlies, and Rough-Barked Trees

Off-Camera Moments

For this post, I thought I would  move beyond sight, and explore some of the other senses. Twelve things I can’t capture in a photo: Breathing in the scent of peppermint eucalyptus after rain, and feeling it in my body all the way down to the bottom of my lungs. Being drowned out by the … Continue reading Off-Camera Moments

The Fairy Wrens and the Cat Enclosure: A happy story

In an earlier post, I worried about disturbing the Superb Fairy Wren’s habitat in our back yard. I also worried about our cats killing the wrens if they were able to find a way into the newly constructed cat enclosure.  Most of all, I lamented that I would no longer see their cheery form hopping … Continue reading The Fairy Wrens and the Cat Enclosure: A happy story

Too hot for swamp wallabies, and for me too!

Yesterday, the temperature here reached 39 degrees celsius.  We were lucky – many parts of the State had temperatures in the low 40’s.  Even so, we didn’t feel lucky – high heat, high winds and dry vegetation is a dangerous mix.   In our former life, in the middle of a large city, we would have … Continue reading Too hot for swamp wallabies, and for me too!

The end of the painted parrot

When we bought our house, a colourful wind parrot adorned the near end of the jetty.  From the house, it looked almost realistic.  More than one person thought it was a real bird, and went down to investigate it.  In high winds the rotating wings gave the illusion of fluttering, and it was very cheery.   … Continue reading The end of the painted parrot

Taunting Kookaburras: Photographing our environment

Every night, just when the light is too low to capture them on film, I hear kookaburras laughing in the trees.  It sounds like they are taunting me because try as I might, I simply can’t get a good photo of one.  During the day, the kookaburras call from neighbouring properties, or the opposite end … Continue reading Taunting Kookaburras: Photographing our environment

Rain, Heat and Fire Plans

This week has seen a shift in the weather. As I walked around on Monday, the dry soil and drying grasses seemed so different from the lush green growth we have had here for most of our time. I didn’t see many native flowers in bloom, and the bracken had grown in areas which needed … Continue reading Rain, Heat and Fire Plans

The Cat Enclosure Dilema

As responsible cat owners, we will build a cat enclosure before we allow the cats outside.  Our intention was to have this enclosure built before we moved in, but the existring fence structure was not strong enough to support the cat netting we need to secure to it.  The new fencing materials are due to … Continue reading The Cat Enclosure Dilema

Boxes, Birds and Wood Fires

For a week now, we’ve been living in our new house among a sea of boxes.  Piece by piece, we unpack our old life and see how it fits with our new life.  Already we find that some loved items simply don’t fit into this (smaller) house.  We knew this would be the case.  Part … Continue reading Boxes, Birds and Wood Fires