B-b-blog Birthday

Hello and welcome to the second anniversary of my blog. So what are we doing to celebrate? “Cracking the champers?” you say, checking the fridge hopefully. Something much better! I’m going to show you a photo I took early last spring of a boobook owl.

Tada!!!!

It caused a flurry of excitement inside and out (willy wagtails appearing from nowhere to buzz around it) when it did a couple of laps of the courtyard outside my office window before finally settling into a plane tree for a nap in the sun.

Not being an expert on boobook owls I don’t really have anything to add from here, so, before the party dies… anyone for cake?

Happy Halloween – the black cat edition

Earlier this week it suddenly occurred to me that Halloween is coming up this weekend. Maybe I could do a Halloween post I thought and as my brain ran through a list of Halloween themes (spiders seemed to have potential) it came to black cats – bingo! Black cats abound around here. My Gardening Neighbour has two and last weekend I spotted another black cat lurking around, this one wearing a collar – oh, a stranger…

Anyway, let me introduce you to Shadow, the share-cat. He is the most un-cat-like cat I have ever met with an extrovert personality and a great hunter of birds (bad cat) and rats (good cat).

He is the recognised ruler of my back yard (even though he is one of my neighbour’s cats) keeping it clear of other cats... well, as long as they are smaller. Prior to his arrival on the scene my backyard was like the neighbourhood cat super highway, being pretty much the only dog-free yard. Once he and his sister, Blackberry, grew out of kittenhood they joined forces and ran all the other cats off. Then Shadow staged a backyard coup and now even Blackberry only manages to sneak in from time to time when he is napping somewhere.

Happy Halloween all!

Hello Polly!

This bird, gallivanting around in my backyard is my gardening neighbour’s escaped, caught and then set free King Parrot.

He has been living the semi-free life for around a year now I think and comes in to be hand fed on a daily basis. He wolf whistles which pretty much sets him apart from the rest of the birds in the neighbourhood.

And I am including my attempt at a bit of artistic photography in today’s post. This is the fountain head in my fish pond. I spotted this view from the kitchen window and thought maybe I could capture it. It’s not too bad for a point and shoot camera.

Happy gardening!

Sue