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We have masses of honey bees in our garden at the moment. My jasmine, despite being unperfumed, is always popular.

Honey-bees

I haven’t looked at my photos from our trip away yet. Had a great time. Got sunburnt across the nose and cheeks, rather badly. I’m usually pedantic about using sunscreen, but this time I just kept forgetting.  I met lots of people who had lovely things to say about my grandma.

So the pandemic is official. Despite the supermarkets saying warehouse stocks are plentiful, Aussies are having a run on toilet paper and tissue. Not a single roll to be seen in our supermarket this morning! Fortunately, I always stock up when on special – got a 12-pack just last week. And my usual box of tissues.

Do have a great day. Stay safe.

🙂

Bees & Bugs

Honey-bees

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While I was taking photos of the Teddy bear Bee the other day, these three Straw-necked Ibis flew overhead. The Nikon focused on them easily for a change. Single birds often elude the lens and are gone before the camera locks on, and other times the results are not worth sharing. I like these ones.

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You can tell these birds aren’t White Ibis as they have black wings in flight. The wing undersides of White Ibis are white. You can even see the yellow throat-plumes that gives the bird its name – Straw-necked Ibis.

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They travel all over mainland Australia, except for the arid parts. I don’t normally see large flocks here, but have once or twice. They love grasshoppers and locusts, and so are nick-named Farmer’s Friend.

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It’s lovely to see blue skies. Today is dull, wet, and dreary. It rained all night. The rain gauge says we’ve had well over 2 1/2 inches since it started yesterday. We’ve had the Autumn break early, methinks. The paddocks have already greened up with the rains we’ve had during February.

The forecast is good, though, with the weather clearing by tomorrow. Just as well, for we are attending a Back-to, a celebration of 150 years for Rupanyup, my mother’s hometown. Affectionately known as Rup, the small rural town holds fond memories of visits to my Grandma. We’re taking the camper. Let’s see how my newfound blogging resolve holds up! According to one website ‘the Ibis is a symbol of communication, probing, transition and trust.’ Apt.

Thanks for visiting.

🙂

Birds

Threskiornis spinicollis: Straw-necked Ibis

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It’s been a long while since I’ve spotted a Teddy Bear Bee in my garden. With the onset of cooler weather, the general honeybee population is more obvious, making me grab the Nikon D3000, at long last.

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I’ve been struggling to blog. It’s taken a long time to shake of the blues, and guilt, after putting our dear little Vika to sleep on 24th October, 2018.  I’m not there yet.

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Forcing myself to blog didn’t work! It turned out that making my photos square and producing images for Beccy’s ‘words ending in light’ challenge was beyond me! I found myself reluctant to pick up the camera. Perhaps I just took too many on our travels. Thousands of unshared photos lurk on my hard drive! On a few attempts, I couldn’t decide which ones to share, so shared none.  I still intend to, though. I promised. Think I even crossed my heart on my writing blog. Ooops.

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Since Christmas, I’ve said to myself, just another day on the family history binge before getting back into the swing of things. Two months have drifted by. Summer has come and gone, with my bit of the country unravaged by fire. A few smoky days was all we had. Now, as if constant reminders of the global warming threat aren’t enough, we have the coronavirus. (Not literally – yet.) Gosh, it’s hard not to feel like we’re on the cusp of the apocalypse and the end of civilisation is looming.

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Anyway, here I am. I have to get all this shit out of my head. I’m wondering if everyone else is feeling this way, too, and it’s not just me.  The teddy bear bee prompted me to pick up my camera again, and come share it with you.

I ended up sharing more than that. Thanks for reading, if you did. Thanks for looking at my photos!

🙂

Bees & Bugs

Teddy Bear Bee visit!

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