The feel of an impending summer

Despite a cool undertow of some light wind, the feeling of the warmth of summer pervades today.

She has reared her head and starting to wake up, though 'winter' is not over yet.

This is important for me, as one who loves to garden, to pick up this tactile information from my surrounds.

There are consequences which relate to some food plants I have thriving at the moment.

.

Broccoli and leek, being cold season plants, (just like southern relatives) will be ready to leave soon.

So I will eat them whilst they are at their best.

The heat, which will just increase from now on, will be the end of them so I need to get them first.

If humans didn't pick up these nuances in the past, we would have died out.

Broccoli has such beautiful coloured leaves. 

A lovely change of hue to the evergreen of always green, of every kind of green kind of plants we live with 'cause this is the tropics!

Bring on some flowers, I say.....

Nasturtium and marigold (Calendula officianalis) 

Beautiful to look at and lovely to eat...

The nasturtium flowers; which I have been sharing with friends for the last 2 days; are stuffed with a philly cheese and mixed with spring onions and garlic chives from the garden.

The marigold gets tossed over the salad greens which dresses them up beautifully.....

....and the days are warm enough to enjoy salads all year round.

Oxheart in the tropics

 This has been my pride and joy.

The oxheart. An acid free tomato grown from seeds given to me by my dear friend, Nell.

I am so happy at least one of them have bloomed and pumping out some really great tomatoes.

 I rang my friend Nell last Saturday night and mentioned to her about this beautiful robust tomato about to come out as a debutante.

My concern was about the change of colour which would let the birds know.

It was the race against time. 

Will the birds get it, or me?

 It was the birds.

The very next morning I went out to check on the oxheart at 9.30 am.

So between daybreak and 9.30 am they had some and hopefully swallowed some seeds which they might bird-poop everywhere, consequently spreading these tomatoes around.

Look at the size of it in my hand!

You can see on the far left of the fruit is where the birds ate from. 
What an achievement for the tropics!
I have spent some time this afternoon saving seeds from this robust parent, placing them out onto paper towels to dry.
I will sow them next dry season and assist in their evolution.

...and share and eat them.

............they're magic.

Sunbeams for a sunbeam

I forgot the leeks from the list!

So here they are, leeks, leaking through a sunbeam, chasing sunbeams.......

Progress

The prodigal returns....

I have been really busy in my garden and I am about to fill you in on what I have growing since the last post.

Um.......edible plants, that is........

Here we go:

pepper (white/pink/black);

Paw paw (lots);

Lemon tree (10years old and a housewarming present);

dwarf lime;

dwarf orange (Washington navel); 

dwarf avocado;

dwarf blueberry (this is the folly one!);

basil, (lemon, thai, purple and common);

pineapple (lots, with about 4 just starting to fruit);

Louffa (also known as Italian luffa);

cherry tomatoes (self sown and lots of them);

lemon balm;

shallots;

coriander;

galangal;

ginger;

tumeric;

sweet potato;

eggplant;

beetroot (for the leaves mainly);

broccoli (also for the leaves);

thyme;

oregano;

passionfruit (leaves for the leaf eaters and then they leave my other plants alone);

garlic chives;

spinach (2 varieties which perform well in the tropics);

chilli;

jasmine (the flowers are those used in tea);

pumpkin (risen from the compost soil I spread around);

mustard, osaka purple (which have a bit of heat in them when they are raw);

peppermint;

spearmint;

lettuce (about 3 different varieties of what some people call 'fancy lettuce');

marigold (calendula officianalis, the edible one for its leaves and flowers);

nasturtium (leaves and flowers also edible);

torch ginger (edible-these I have transplanted from where they were crowded out by mondo grasses and stopped flowering. The build up/wet will be the time for me to find out if they like their new home. They are an understory plant so need some protection from direct sun. I have planted them under the terminalia tree.)

Not sure if I have listed everything so I will add more as I go along........

Metaphor of old and new year

In the driveway. They get knocked over when I open the gate.

Terminalia again. Old giving way to new.

Terminalia babe. Note the tender, new, shiny leaf.

Down by the beach. Fresh new starts, tendrils reaching out.

Old and new, brown and green, water and sunshine.

Hi, I am back after a 3 month hiatus. 

Thank you for waiting with me.

Hope your 2011 is filled with life in all its mysteries and beauty.

May you find some magic in your everyday.

mysterious oak from Sherwood Forest (UK)

Here is our local Terminalia spp. again however I have also put in two photos of oaks from Sherwood Forest (UK). 

Which numbers are they?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

oops!.... the mother got left behind

female sunbird

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                        


                                                                                               photo courtesy of Uta Heidelhauf. Copyright.

Birds of the sun

The yellow-bellied Sunbird, Nectorinia jugularis is a real star here in the tropics.

 

Male sunbird
with dark blue-black feathers on throat

About 2 weeks ago a couple of sunbirds were checking out the real estate at my place but decided not to build here. 
They have built their nest elsewhere though because the male is feeding alone, which means his partner is caring for the chicks. She usually comes out later for a feed and both mother and father bird assist in feeding their young.

Today, September 9th is the first time  since nesting began where I have noticed the mother appear along with the father out feeding again.

The exotic passiflore they love grow outside my work window so I see them feed several times every day. 

passiflora

I spray the the leaves of the torch ginger, Etlingera elatior with the hose and they bathe in the water drops nestled on the leaf. They turn it into a bit of a roller-coaster ride the way they slide up and down these leaves. Very entertaining to watch.
I have never seen them use the birdbath placed nearby for other species.

Sunbirds, originally from the mangroves, have adapted well to our urban life.

Nesting close to us humans is to protect their young from predatory species who are nervous about approaching our territory. 

They lead a nectarivorous lifestyle coming from the family Nectoriniidae. They are the only representative from this family in Australia and exist only along a narrow range of the northern tropics, from Cape York to Gladstone, QLD.

Their bill is long and slender to sip nectar from tubular-shaped flowers and they feed their young with nectar and insects. They check my windows for spiders every morning when attending to their routine food gathering. 
Great way for observing them closely.


Their call is a high-pitched dzit dzit or a hissing whistle, tss-ss-ss. Try it yourself!

torch ginger

break-fast

photos of sunbirds used with kind permission from Uta Heidelhauf, Copyright.

1st day of spring, September 1st, 2010

Terminalia babe

Great, it's just we don't get spring up these parts. 

Happy springtime to all you southerners, lucky you are leaving behind the coldest winter in 20 years.

I was heading south into town yesterday and noticed all the winter evaders, scurrying off south for the summer, towing their snail homes behind them.
Nothing like a bit of humidity and wet weather to scare them off.
It will be nice to have the roads back although they are getting congested without the annual invasion.

There has been no 'Dry' this year.  The longest break of no rain was 13 days straight in June. So.....by mid-August, 9mms of rain was enough to wake up many plants earlier than usual.  
 I worked frantically in the garden and fed all the plants as the new growth was introduced to the sun and rain. 

With the rain from the past few days totalling 64.5mms the carpet will remain green for now

Nature is certainly displaying her unstable tendencies, an early message for an unpredictable, unstable buildup/wet season perhaps.


Rainfall is measured every morning as close to 9am as possible. All mentions of rainfall volumes on this blog have been collected from the rain gauge in my front yard unless otherwise stated.

Now August has finished I have been able to tally the months rain and the consecutive tally.

Total rainfall for the year up to the end of August is 2082mms which has surpassed our annual average of 2000mms. Still 4 months to go before years end. 
It was at the end of July we surpassed the 2000mm mark.
We will just have to wait and see.......I will keep you posted.

Green carpet or brown?

Green carpet or brown?

Looks like it's going to be green. Rain has been filling up the gauge.

August is the new October.

The weather warmed further about 6 days ago. Trees have been pushing out new growth and flowering trees are 1-2 months early.

The crocodiles have woken. A few of us spotted one at the beach about 2 metres long only 2 days ago. 

We gathered together unconsciously, in the mammalian way of forming a defence position.

Bobbing along in the waves near the creek mouth entrance, the same creek where I had earlier taken photos of the mangroves, the young croc dared not take us on.

 So, what this croc is telling me is the current climate conditions are perfect for reptilian cousins.  Now I will be on the look out for snakes.

What a bountiful, abundant place this part of the world is, the northern tropical belt of Australia. Good rainfall, lots of foodstuffs, tea, coffee, grown locally, sold locally, consumed locally.

Perhaps the build up has already started, we will have to wait and see... 

More of today......

Italian loofah

young pineapple

oregano

Today in the Garden

prolific chilli

water spinach     

cherry tomato buds

This week, back at the ranch....

A walk around the garden...... 

Italian loofah will produce zucchini-like edible fruit...

nepenthes

lettuce

spinach bush

just about ready......

                                                                                          

the office

                                                

                                 






















  

remnants of a sunbirds' decoy nest

Today, 10th August 2010

Sooooo......today I received an email from Katherine (the town) in the Northern Territory (approx. 330kms south of Darwin) letting me know the dry season is in full swing. Which means in 'Territorian', tropical terms, it's now safe to organize a BBQ or other outdoor pursuit knowing it won't rain.

Having lived in Darwin in a past life, the tropical seasons in the 'Top End' and here in North Queensland are quite different.  

In the Top End they experience an intense build-up season, generally good 'wet seasons' with days and nights of endless heavy rain and predictable dry season days. 

I had an interesting experience in Darwin where I stood in the middle of my abode. When I looked through the window towards the front yard it was teeming rain and when I looked out the backyard the sunshine was bouncing off the purple bougainvillea!

The Top End also have life-enhancing storms, magnificent shows of nature, some of the best on earth I would contest. Words fail to describe the sensations experienced when witnessing these shows choreographed by nature. 
They are common too, just about everyday in the build-up, somewhere a storm cell will appear in the vast, blue background.

So the tropical season in Queensland? 

Seasons here stick to no routine, just do what they want, when they want. 

Good metaphor for us locals and why people are invading us in peacetime. 

They love our laid-back demeanor.

Here is what today looked like, in the middle of the dry season:

 These photos were taken about 4pm.

We get few storms here but cyclones are many.

According to Testaments from the Bureau of Meteorology (www.bom.gov.au), Queensland has on average 4.7 cyclones per year. I will research the NT and WA  tropical areas and report in another blog.

 The Bureau of Meteorology website is like oxygen to many in the northern tropical belt. 

  

www.bom.com.au is affectionately known locally as the 'bom(b) site'.

Comprehensive enough for me to check it out in the rainy season to decide whether to hang the washing out or not! The site is an excellent source of information about cyclones, so if you're a recent invader to the tropics, you can combat much fear if you inform yourself all about these natural phenomena.

Check it out for yourself. 
It covers the whole country and is tax money well-spent.