Beautifully wet

I was so happy on Sunday to walk around Lake Wendouree and watch the swans feeding and nesting.

The dogs are too old for long, cold, wet winter walks but I'm not.

Water is filling up Lake Wendouree again, a mix of natural rainfall, stormwater and top-ups from other water systems. While I don't think this is the best use of our scarce water, my feelings are quite different. I am full of joy to see water gleaming in the lake again.

The sun came and went between showers of rain. I just walked on, drinking it all in. As the rain came and went, so the light changed.

It was a bit chilly but I had a little thermos of hot tea in my jacket pocket to keep me warm.

 Mist and rain over the town.

Flowers and foxes

A full day. I went for a walk and some Op shopping around Ballarat East. I love the way the streets of old brick houses go up and down.

I found a glass necklace just right for the season. The necklace reminds me of the early wattle that's about to flower here.

I made some more fox prints - a mix of lino printing and paper cutting.

They are a little rough as I'm using up some tatty bits of beautiful paper, left-over from some booklets I made last year.

A storm came over and I watched the tulips blaze red against the darkening world.

I love these wintery months.

Driving out past Garibaldi

Midwinter is well past. Days are silvery-grey with mist or quiet rain. We drove out past Garibaldi to see friends.

Through green paddocks full of sheep and magpies.

Along roads with kookaburras strung along the powerlines. The kookaburra pics did not work out, but here is the road.

I feel so peaceful travelling through this cool, damp countryside.

I made the pics very big, so if you click on them, you will find the whole photo to look at. I rather like having a bit more to discover in the images.

Psychidae case(ment) moths

Here's a link to a good site on these insects. Case moth makes more sense as a name, I  don't know why we called them casement moths when I was a kid . It's clear they are not just native to Australia, but the one in Grace's picture looks very like the ones I find everywhere I go at the right time of year.
If you can get hold of an empty case to play with you'll find the moth's silk is very tough, almost like silk and elastane in texture. Quite pleasant to touch.
Psychidae is a most elegant name for this moth family, and I shall use it for them from now on.

Expatriate?

Grace at Windthread found a caterpillar in her garden that is a native here. It shouldn't be living on the other side of the Pacific ocean and in the opposite hemisphere. Here's one in my garden last year. How did its cousin get over to Grace's place?

I've always loved these little creatures who travel around in their camouflaged sleeping bags. I don't know if these Australian insects are desirable residents overseas, however, and I assume they hitchiked over to the USA with the eucalypts.

Here are some pics from the wonderful book Snugglepot and Cuddlepie written in Sydney in the 1920s and an Australian childhood staple ever since.
It struck me, looking at Alicia's summer reading list on Posie gets Cozy, that while Australians read the great books from the UK and the USA, very few people outside Australia know about the fantastic, marvellous books that get written and read here. Pity really.

If you watch the beastie for a while, Grace, you may see it poke out it's head and front legs and haul itself off to a gum tree - or a rose bush. They seem to like rose bushes as much as the old gum tree now. They are completely harmless to people. Don't know about rose bushes.

I took the pictures from my very old childhood copy of  The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, so the pages are torn and faded. I hope they worked out well enough.

Floating

I was given this book, a retelling of  Longfellow's Hiawatha, when I was seven, and I adored it until I lost it, but I never forgot it.

I found this battered copy at the Clunes book weekend.

I feel just like this now - floating, waiting. Maybe something will surge up from the deep waters.

Vegies

Lovely winter vegetables from Buninyong farmers market. Cauliflower, kale, parsley, parsnip carrots and walnuts, all grown locally, just around Mt Warrenheip.

Luxuries from Mildura from Larry and Monica's farm, mandarins, dried peaches from their  orchard and sultanas from a neighbour. 

In this mild and wet winter it's easy to ignore the continuing drought. Larry thinks his peach trees will be dead in two years.