Today I inspected the orchard. I have planted 7 new fruit trees to fill in between the established trees. Soon the new growth will be shooting as the weather gets warmer. I added a peach, an apricot, a quince, a fig, a nectarine and a mulberry. The seventh tree was a walnut which I planted in another spot outside the orchard. Some trees already established are several apples, pears and plums and nashis.
Because it gets very dry here in summer there are irrigation lines all through the orchard so I can turn on the water when required. To save the fruit for myself I have to throw nets over the trees to protect the fruit from the birds that come to nibble otherwise I would not get any for eating myself and making jams and sauces.
The property next door to me is naturally timbered but in the middle there is a magnificent stone house. It is used as a retreat which is ideal because it is far from traffic noises and other distractions. The people who go there can meditate, walk in the bush, listen to the birds, watch the wildlife, hug trees and totally relax and renew themselves.
Since I last wrote, Spring has arrived with a riot of flowers and blossoming trees. There is also perfume on the air. The extra beautiful thing is that the birds have come out of where they have been hibernating. There are fairy wrens and Mr Blue is courting Miss Jenny and they will nest again in a shrub outside my kitchen window. They are creatures of habit and like to return to the same site every year.
The Eastern Rosellas, like this magnificent fellow are in the area and a pair of Crimson Rosellas are darting here and there through my orchard. The thrush flies round near me to get my attention. She wants to nest in my fernery but I have told her not this year because she takes it over as her personal property and guards the nest until the babies can fly and go out into the big wide world. Two swallows got past my guard and had their mud nest built in my carport before I discovered it. I won’t disturb them till the babies are flown from the nest but they do make a mess on my wood pile below!
I have a variety of finches that fossick through my lawn and shrubs. There are Fire-tails, and some little ones that look almost like canaries with yellow bodies and dark grey wings and heads, and other very small ones, buff-coloured that blend in the grass. I especially love to have the Rose Robin and his lady visit. He has a bright chest but she has pale rose. There are also honey-eaters that drink from the flowers and Willie Wag-tails. There are magpies and kookaburras that laugh when rain is coming. There are always sulphur-crested Cockatoos around and they have chosen to nest in hollows in big gumtrees over round the double dam. The goanna knows they are there and he comes out of the forest regularly and tries to get the eggs or the babies from the nests. I hear the noise of their protests and often see them physically attacking the poor goanna who retreats when the odds are against him.