Magnificent May

I love the month of May, the temperatures are becoming deliciously cool, the rains are becoming more frequent, and, best of all, it's the month for magnificent sunsets. 

As the cloud clusters intensify, the colours and light that peek between are a sight to behold.

 The creek should start running in a month or so, so I am trying to get the bottom of the creek dug out again.  I did this last year, digging out years and years of built up sand until I found the hard, gravelly, actual creek bed below.  It was a big job last year but totally worth it, as we got to admire a pretty, gurgling creek with little pools instead of a big flooded area.  There's not so much to dig out this year so I'd best get on with it before the creek starts to run!

 These are the back garden beds just outside the kitchen.  They are looking really good, the plants all grow massively this time of year, and I am staggered by the amount of colour.  But.... I really need to do a huge prune, but it's so hard!  It's too pretty!  I shall leave it for another few weeks and then think about it again :-)

These gorgeous little birds appreciate my overgrown, flowery garden.  This is a male Redwing Fairy Wren, he and his harem of girlies spend a lot of time here as do the troop of Splendid Wrens, a few White Browed Scrub Wrens, a few Western Spinebills and a bombardment of Silvereyes.  The nectar feeders are in heaven, as many of the plants I put in produce nectar, I did that quite deliberately to attract them.  The wrens love the thick cover of foliage and spend their days foraging through the undergrowth looking for bugs.  They also love desiccated coconut that I put outside for them.

 Speaking of birds, relative peace has descended in the chook yard.  Everyone has pretty much learned their place and our eight feathered friends spend most of their day harmoniously free ranging in the orchard.  Here they are having breakfast together, the new girls are starting to grow their new feathers so don't look quite so scruffy. 

 Although we have a cosy chook house with roosts and nesting boxes and plenty of soft hay for sleeping and laying eggs, the new girls still have their own ways of doing things.  None of them would venture into the chook house at first, choosing to sleep in the corners of the chook yard.  Once it started raining I put a few protective measures out for them, I stuffed a load of hay behind the feed bin and one of two of them were snuggling up there.  I also added this old washing basket in another corner.  I cut out one side and lined the floor with hay.  This has become the preferred nesting box and we find most of the eggs in here now.  I think now, 2 weeks on, that most of the girls are sleeping in the chook house at night, although one still chooses to sleep under the washing basket.  Each to her own hey :-)

 This is the old girl Patience.  We thought she had past the age of breeding like Lucy has, but we were surprised recently to notice that she has a very definite bulgy pouch happening!  She's doing it at a different time of the year to most of the others, the other girls only have the beginnings of teeny tiny pouch bulges.  It will be lovely to watch for the first sighting of the tiny little face peeping out.

We had a visit from the rams again, just for half an hour or so.  I still don't know where they live, and it's pointless ringing the ranger as they flit in and out so quickly the ranger would never find them.  They look very well cared for so presumably they find their way home.

 As I am the queen of unfinished items, I am rather proud of myself for actually finishing the project we were given at our recent embroidery workshop day.  It's a needle packet holder.

 That's the inside, it holds four needle packs, or 8 or 12 if you stuff them in, then it just folds up.  It will be useful.

 This is the progress I have made with my crocheted squares that will become a blanket cover for our bed.  It's a crochet-along, so each week we are given a new pattern for a square, which we crochet using our own pre-chosen colour scheme.  I am way behind but that's okay.

Speaking of crochet, I think it's time for a cuppa and a look at this week's new crochet square pattern.  See you next time! xx