Whistlers Rest

Back in the spring I took this photo of a briar rose on the block.  I was annoyed to read sometime later that these are considered an environmental weed and decided to reject their opinion.  However this weekend having spotted yellow rose hips in several parts of the block I may revise my attitude.

This is of course the time of year to be looking for seed heads.  The everlasting daisies are beginning to set seed.

I found only one plant of this daisy-like flower on the block ... nearly pulled it out when I was attacking St Johns Wort because it was a yellow flower. I left it because I don't know if it is native or a weed. I was somewhat surprised to see it set seed like this ... must be some sort of dandelion.  There is a native dandelion but is that one or them I wonder? There is a clump of giant dandelions down near the back fence.

There was train at Clandulla station this weekend. Triple Alco 44 Class locomotives (built between 1957 to 1968) pulling heritage carriages from Sydney to Kandos and return. The local with the dog told me that coal trains go through at 2 or 3 in the morning and cement trains at 4 or 5 in the afternoon so I will try to photograph a cement train one day. This train had to stop here while the drivers did some stuff in the little shed that is the only currently functioning part of the station.  They did their thing, then locked it up again, tooted the whistle and waved us goodbye as they headed back home. Also being back at the station reminded me that I didn't answer one of Julie's questions. The iron things in my recent photo are steel rail sleepers which seem to have taken over from the wood or concrete ones.

The neighbours are wary of me.  As soon as I neared the fence to take a photo they scooted back to put distance between us.

There was a spider's web stretched across my path and I noticed a tiny spider that glinted with a little bit of colour in the sunlight. My eyesight is not up to fine detail any more so I poked my camera in her direction and clicked a few times as she scurried along her web ... thinking something interesting might be picked up by my lens. I had no idea I had captured one of these exquisite creatures that I have seen once on another blog.

I noticed on the drive to Clandulla this weekend that the tree trunks in the forest are suddenly creamy yellow because the trees are shedding their bark.  I therefore looked keenly at the trees at Whistler's Rest to see if they were stripping.  Some are.