The bush sunflowers are busting out all over our sea-cliffs, making “very effective masses of color, in fine contrast to the blue of the sea below and the sky above”, as Margaret Armstrong rightly observed over a hundred years ago. The bees are happy, and later when the seeds have set, the birds will be too.
Five years ago, we planted a Norfolk pine on the downslope below the lemonade berry, with the goal that it would block the view of the neighbour’s flagpole from our living room. It’s now about 3.5 metres tall and doing its job with pride and gusto. These trees will always remind me of Kiama, where I happily spent my childhood summers.
I’m pretty sure this is my most-sketched tree here. We’re unsure why it’s chosen to grow so tall and skinny, but we’re now watering it further from the trunk to see if we can encourage it to spread wider.
S & I spent a lovely hour or two at Point Dume, sketching the view and watching the whales (six!) and dolphins. It was unseasonably warm and the sea was silky smooth. Gah, I am so lucky to live in this beautiful place (with the colours of the Ukrainian flag) 😊
I’m thinking someone’s been feeding the birds at Legacy Park, because these two Canada Geese waddled right on over to check me out. When it was clear I had nothing edible to offer, they lost interest and toddled off.
We’ve got some nice low tides during the afternoons this week. La Piedra Beach is one of my favourite locations for poking around the rock pools. We saw a bit of hermit crab-on-crab activity—not sure if they were attempting to mate or eat each other. Love is in the air (water)? Or it was just dinner time?
It’s easy to take the wrong turn on the Corral Canyon loop trail and end up climbing way up the mountain. I managed to do so AGAIN today. I eventually realised my error and backtracked; I’m *pretty* sure I won’t make that mistake a third time.
There aren’t many wildflowers out yet, but the grounds of the burned out house are full of naturalized garden flowers, including African flag, periwinkles, and the ubiquitous oxalis. I gathered a baggie of sour flowers to try making ink — more to come on that!
The birders at the lagoon, with their scopes and massive lenses, told me that the raptor on top of the pole was an osprey. It was there when I arrived, and was still nibbling away at its fish when I left an hour later.
Spent a lovely morning with V & S at Point Dume, picking up both trash and treasures, looking for whales (none seen) and enjoying the warm winter day.
hashiworks 