Spring has sprung......

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!!! OH HAPPY DAYS!

after going through the driest winter in..... FOREVER spring has spring and the garden is rejoicing..... now just a bit of rain to top it off would be nice..... (hint, hint to whoever is in charge of the weather)...


Each year for the first weeks of spring I drive my mother absolutely NUTS by walking around our house, yard, school, etc. saying, "Spring has sprung, the grass has ris', I wonder where the birdies is", now living in a climate where we do not get snow, and therefore not all of our birds migrate somewhere else for winter, none of my friends understand why I say this rhyme/poem/phrase.  The bird I sing it for is the Channel Billed Cuckoo, this noisy, raucous bird is
the largest parasitic bird in the world, and to me it
is harbinger of lazy summer days spent in the bush to the sounds of grasshoppers and cicadas, or a day in the sun lazing around at the beach, or just long daysfull of gardening at home.  it also symbolises rain, and storms, and new growth, and the whole cycle starting anew... it's amazing how many things I associate with this bird.  well, after having a big long chat to my neighbour on Saturday about how they hadn't arrived yet, and how I was so looking forward to when they did, would you believe, low and behold, I arrived home from school yesterday and the Call of the Channel Billed Cuckoo was the first thing that greeted my ears when I got out of the car. so whooping and hollering I ran through the house yelling "THEY'RE BACK, THEY'RE BACK", I then sprinted across our backyard and hurdled the 4 foot high fence between my house and our neighbours and told them the good news, in case the hadn't heard them :)... which if the following link works, Call of the Channel Billed Cuckoo, you'll realise, it's very hard not to hear these beauties, I don't know why I love the call so much..... I just do :).

 Oh isn't spring just a wonderful time of year?  all that possibility, where will the next long forgotten bulb pop up and flower from, how much are the trees going to grow, how many mulberries will I get to eat before someone else notices them, all those wonderful things LOL.  and it is the time of year when I love waking up early, to the beautiful crimson sunrise above the gumtrees in the yard across the road from mine, to the sound of the Kookaburras, Magpies, Channel Billed Cuckoos, Gallahs, Cockatoos, the roosters crowing in the back yard and the the myriad of other bird songs going on all at once.... oh the joy of it all :)

 Just a couple of Orchids now, this is my Mormolyca rigens, this is a brilliant species, it has been in non-stop flower for the past 6 MONTHS would you believe it, and it is just a pleasure, I'm really looking forward to when it gets bigger and i get multiple flowers all open at once.  a species that I highly suggest to all orchid growers.

 This is an unknown soft cane dendrobium that I got from a lovely lady in a cafe while we were on Christmas holidays, u spotted them in the garden and i said to the lady inside that the must look brilliant when they flowered because the plants were HUGE! well we sat down to have our lunch and when the lady brought out the tray of sandwiches on the tray were also a pair of secateurs and the lady said that because they were such large plants, and because i seemed so interested she said i could have a couple of "small" cuttings.... well, they weren't small, they were the size you would expect to buy from an
orchid nursery, and boy are they beautiful, the white one displayed in the photo has been in flower for a couple of weeks now and it is just divine, and I've had the second piece, this time a pink one, just open a few days ago so I'll have to try get some nice photos of that one too.

 To many of you this is just a normal old violet, however these are as rare as hens teeth where i live, and when we went away for the weekend where my mum grew up, i talked about the weekend in the post; Adventure in Paradise, well on the way up, as i said, we stopped off at a little stall selling plants, and i picked up this guy, now I've heard stories all my childhood about mum growing up and the violets they had in the garden as kids, so this might just be a $2 Violet from the side of the road, but to me this is a genuine Beechmont Violet, and will remind me of all the happy stories mums told me about her childhood.

I got bored on the bus in the mornings this week so i made these two collages :)

 

Once again my Dockrillia schoenina is in flower, i was given this marvellous plant by a friend in my orchid society last year and i was so worried that it wouldn't flower again, but alas, right on time it has.  this is a picture of it this year.  it's not exactly a fast grower LOL.
The following two are pictures I took last year

If you want to see much larger versions of these images just click on them.

I hope you've all been well

Happy Gardening/Birdwatching/etc. ..... you know what.... Happy Living everyone


Michael