ABOVE:  I think this is a ‘snowball’ tree, it still has old balls hanging from it. It has gorgeous red buds opening. [I’ve since discovered it is an American Sycamore]

The sunrise was gorgeous this morning. Only minutes after this photo, the fiery red sun sprang above the horizon, bathing the lounge in a red glow, and giving me spots before my eyes! Serve myself right for looking at it.

A pretty little bird looked at me through the kitchen window today, and hung around long enough for a few terrible photos. I really must clean that window! A striated pardalote, methinks, though not as dark on top as the sample from Wikipedia: a juvenile perhaps.

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It actually looks more like this … from Wikipedia

By Ric Raftis (originally posted to Flickr as Striated Pardalote) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

fly on succulent flower, Sept 29th

LEFT: This succulent, featuring here in early August, is now flowering.

RIGHT: I was taking the photo before I noticed the fly, so I chased it around a bit.

BELOW: This last photo taken on my walk yesterday shows a tree with these weird, green catkins which seem to opening into leaves. I’ll take more notice tomorrow. I have no idea what type of tree it is.