Everybudgie Loves Uno

Uno must have "it". All the boy budgies want to chat her up when her mate Goliath isnt looking, and sometimes even when he is! Here its Magellan who is chatting her up. And look at her! She is definately interested in whatever he is saying to her. Tsk! Tsk!

WW - Johnny Jump Up!

If its spring where you are, get yourself a punnet of seedling Johnny Jump Ups. Pop them into your garden where ever theres a bare spot. Enjoy the flowers, and let them run to seed. Next spring you will be rewarded with twice as many of these little charmers. As they spring up from the earth you will see how they came to be called 'jump up'. The 'johnny' part of thier name? That I cant explain.

Common Myna, Surprised

"What a lovely little spot for a bath!"


"What the? What are you doing taking pictures of me in my bath?"


"Right! Im outta here!"

The Common Myna is an introduced species, and outcompetes Australian native birds for habitat and nesting sites. For more information on these birds, visit thier factsheet at birds in backyards.net

Lovely Bearded Iris

Katie was the little old lady who lived next door. For several years we admired each others gardens and swapped plants and cuttings. When the day came that she had to leave her home, she sent a box of mixed bearded iris rhizomes over the fence. This one was among them.

Katie, if youre out there, the garden is going well and we miss you.

Budgie Sunday - Meet New Friend

This handsome lad is a four year old Dark Blue Budgie (parakeet). When Magellan, Verdigris and thier siblings were nearly finished being hand reared, this fellows mum kicked him out of the nest. So I brought him in and introduced him to the group as thier "New Friend".


Since he didnt have as long a bonding period with me before he was ready to join the main flock in the aviary, he wasnt as tame as the other hand reared chicks. Its just recently that he has decided he'd like to have a go at thumb wrestling with me. He starts out innocently enough, but then he begins to bite. Then bite harder, and harder. My solution to this is, when he starts to bite my fingers, I pet him with my other hand. Since he doesnt like to be pet, he flys off.

Below we see New Friend with Uno. He has his head feathers all fluffed out, and is leaning in toward her while speaking sweet nothings. She seems unimpressed, doesnt she? And sure enough, her beau Goliath arrived about a heartbeat later to chase New Friend off. Better luck next time, Mate!

Jasmine, Freesia, Rain

What a gorgeous pink these buds are. Its been rainy the last few days, but this morning the sun came out for a brief appearance. I hopped out to the garden to take a few quick shots of some blooms soaked in rain gems.



I rather like that the weather has been so gloomy. I wouldnt want any of the 'world leaders' here for APEC deciding to stay longer, LOL!

"Happy" APEC long weekend, Sydney!

Im sure tons of people are writing about APEC lately, so I will only make you suffer one opinion I have on the subject: Havent any of these people heard of tele-conferencing? Video-conferencing? Net-meeting? Wouldnt any of these be a more sensible way to hold one of these things.

Now with that out of the way, here is a sign outside of a garden centre I saw in my travels yesterday. I thought that was pretty clever- even though I want to meet George about as much as Id like to meet a rabid dog....Oooops! A second opinion! Id better pull me head in...

Lets make the most of it!