Whistlers Rest

We went out to the Rest today, to have a rest from all the spring cleaning we've been doing at Burnbrae.  As always I did a tour of the block looking for new things happening.  When I ventured over to the far corner there was a noticeable humming of bees.  I looked about thinking there must be a hive somewhere but looking up saw the high canopy of the big gum tree was in full flower ... and so wonderful to see blue sky after all the drab grey of recent weeks ... enough to make me hum.

Julie it seems that I have not shown the "garden" which is nothing more than fenced off area with a gate.  You can see the small lemon tree near the gate.  Now I am assuming it was an old garden rather than animal pen because we found an old spade, some old pots, a couple of bordered areas that could be garden beds and a rose and passionfruit vine growing on the fence.  The other thing is that it is fully fenced with chicken wire to the bottom on all sides which I guess is to keep the rabbits out.

The peach blossom has turned into little peaches and there is a dwarf lemon tree near the old garden gate which has decided to flowers, perhaps some lemons too in a few months time.

Julie also mentioned Pardalotes which are a tiny little bird with a beautiful big voice that live high in the canopy of the eucalyptus trees.  I know they are impossible to capture with my lens but I was trying to get a shot of the galahs which are bigger and were settling on the branches a bit lower down ... but I ended up with yet another shot of a Wattle Bird.  In this shot you can see its red wattles. These birds are honeyeaters and have an unattractive, loud, distinctive call. Also high up in the canopy the Eucalypts are flowering.  I would have no hope of getting a photo except for the fact that the birds sometimes snip off the flowers so I found some on the ground.

A comment from Julie about the Quaking Grass reminded me that there was a "minor" version of this plant and when I looked up the photo I realised that I had seen this on the block as well. This one is known as Shivery Grass though unlike the Quaking Grass I was more taken by their tiny heart shapes than by their shiveriness. Talking of shivering.  The weather has been very changeable lately with it hot one minute and cold the next but the past two weekends out at the Rest have been beautiful, sunny but not too hot.