A lovely start to the new year

How spoilt are we - two long weekends in a row!

Which means that The Groom has been home with us and we've had some breaks in the weather to get some things done around the house and yard.

And I've had a chance to get out and do some photography. I'm keeping a pictorial record of changes we're making/made, as well as where water sits and flows.

The picture below is of some fungi I found at the back creek fence. A tree was growing where the new fencing wire had to go; originally all the fences were barbed wire and not suitable for children or dogs! This is near where I have found a baby curlew once before, so I often wander down and peek into the grasses for any fluffy bundles.

I love the orchids on the rain trees. It's a shame one of the trees is riddled with borer and needs to be removed. I'm still trying to work out where I will transplant the orchids and stag/elk horn ferns that are growing on it. And I shall miss the beautiful shade the tree throws (but not the mosquitos it harbours).

We have finally got the chicken yard finished. There are old cut down power poles as fence posts and half of the yard is surrounded by mesh as high as the posts go. Then there is fishing line zig-zagged across the top to form a 'roof' and closer to the chicken house is some bird netting off-cut. The rest of the yard has mahogany trees growing in it for shade, and hopefully, protection from flying predators.

We've now got four Isa Browns (two are crosses from a neighbour's flock). They're named Maude, Augusta, Ginger and Morgan. In 3 days we've collected 3 eggs. So far, so good. We were going to be given some young birds but they're still too small and would easily slip through the fencing wire. We'll wait for them to get bigger before receiving them.

This ant was on the fencing wire. We don't know what it is, but there were a couple of them around and we've never seen them before.

New Year's Day brought us four owls in the rain tree outside the back verandah - the one that must be cut down. They stayed there all day, watching us come back and forth from the chicken yard as we were building it. I joked they were watching us prepare dinner for them! We haven't seen them since they flew off that night. I think they are barking owls.

I wonder what else the new year will bring?

I know it will shortly bring rain - I can hear the thunder getting closer and the sky is darkening. I should check for more eggs (one already this morning) and then sit down and eat the tuna salad The Princess has just made us for lunch. Yum!