It is a rainy overcast morning here in Victoria .. but I have reminders of lovely blue skies from a few days ago. This is like the underside of my favourite umbrella .. sombre exterior but underneath cheery blue skies .. that is why I like using that umbrella for long rainy walks! It reminds me that the skies are not always gray .. although I like those too. For long dreamy walks throughout the city.
Ahhhh .. here is another one ..yummy! Looks a bit like a mackerel sky developing on the right side.
A few days I went for another walk with my exercise pals .. this time at Gyro Park. But, instead of starting along the shoreline, we veered off to the left, to begin up and down hills on cement pathways. Here are some lovely little Mallards settling in for the morning. I must start to bring flattened oats with me to scatter for these little guys!
One of the moss covered rocky little outcroppings that we climbed up. This section was a bit slippery and I did a lovely graceful slide, the most important thing on my mind was to “not drop my camera!”. Successful! Yea. And I continued onwards.
A little pathway took us through this little wooded section. Lovely to know these areas exist in our city. Habitat for all kinds of little animals and birds.
A few days ago I was outside, getting ready to go somewhere and noticed the incoming murder of Crows. There are some great tall trees down the street, a favourite perch for the local Eagles, Hawks, Ravens and a myriad of other birds. These trees overlook the valley down below, wherein lies the highway and Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary. A vast array of bird life that provides us with the most interesting insights into their lives. We are lucky.
Quite often I’ve noticed that the crows have surrounded a Hawk or Raven in the trees. The clever “hunted” stay hidden for long periods of time and sometimes make a dash for freedom. It is quite challenging to be a robust raptor, one against many lesser birds in the food chain. I couldn’t see if there was such a raptor tucked away in the branches and the placement of the crows reminded me of a decorated Christmas tree.
Speaking of birds, here is one of my recently purchased feeders .. I like the open nature of this feeder, it allows a number of birds to feed at once. And they can swiftly fly away without encumbrances.
Well .. I was going to talk about violins and what I have learned in the past few days .. but there is so much I want to write about and time is flying by this morning .. I’ve decided to share that till tomorrow.
I am happily learning so much of what is going on and just want to share that.
🙂
On with this lovely day.
The waves were a constant .. and slowly building to a crescendo … (what is a crescendo, anyway, 🙂 ) sounds veddy dramatic, dahling …
And I had planted my potatoes late also .. these are supposed to be purple potatoes. I’d planted them in a huge oversize container in the back of the yard and they didn’t get much sun at all. Still, a respectable amount of potatoes despite all that. And that green thing that looks like a lime is totally strange. It grew along with the potatoes and is a strange vegetable .. one which I will not eat!
This is the rose that I’d planted many years ago. It survives on nothing, I swear. I don’t water it or feed it and it keeps growing on. The root system must be very deep. Anyway, I’d given it a very hard pruning months ago and was surprised to see the new growth. That’s my kind of plant. Tough and independent and at the same time, so very beautiful.
I know that there are many ladybugs in the yard but I really hadn’t seen many until I saw this shiny new one, resting on a bucket lid. Did it prefer the red colouring? Seems so.
The pigmentation is starting to change in the bean plants ..quite pretty, I think.
Despite this .. all of the pole beans are growing like mad and there are so many flowers and beans growing!
A morning photo .. dew on the bean leaves .. I like the effect.
Sweet little Gold Crowned Sparrow .. doing the shuffle shuffle dance, looking for food amongst the fallen leaves of the wild and crazy tree (pear stock).
And the tiny tomatoes keep on growing ..there are quite a few. I don’t give them any special care and they just flourish. See the tiny one growing on the left? Is it a tomato or is it a tiny garden sprite, camouflaging itself so that I wouldn’t notice? The top part does really look like the kind of headgear that a little sprite would wear during the summer, to blend in and no one could notice. 
There are sunflowers in all stages of growth near the bird feeder. This one is at the seed forming stage …
And the versatile and under-appreciated dandelion! Good for medicinal purposes, dying fabric, culinary and, again, just plain pretty. Remember putting a dandelion beneath someone’s chin, as a child, to see if it reflects and if it does, you like butter?
My Lovely Garden … Mon Joli Jardin 