Djilba- everything is growing!

Just part of my garden.

After a lot of winter rain and some warmer days, it is clear that Djilba is in full swing. I am really enjoying the lushness of the garden -there are so many flowers, so much abundance. Djilba is a transitional time of the year, with some very cold and clear days combining with warmer, rainy and windy days mixing with the occasional sunny day or two. Our water tanks have been full for months now. 

We are harvesting rainbow chard, asparagus and snow peas. The rhubarb is growing. Deciduous vines and trees are budding. The parsley has self-seeded, and so of course have all the herbs and annuals. We have bees back in the garden again- all over the rocket flowers and the happy wanderer vines. 

There are also a lot of very active birds! We are delighted with the tiny honeyeaters and the parrots and the wattlebirds which are zooming about among the flowers. They are picking off the pests from my plants too. One embarrassing moment for our cat Dora was when she went out casually (she is never out for more than 5 minutes) to drink from her favourite bird bath, and got swooped by the wattle bird! She had to beat an undignified retreat! 

The Derbyl Yirrigan is full and flowing nicely up in the hills. We had a lovely trip out here on a very rainy day, then popped into a pub in Guildford for lunch. Sometimes you just need to break with the routines of retirement life! 

Djilba is the start of the massive flowering explosion that happens in the South West. This starts with the yellow flowering plants such as the Acacias. Also colours that are around at this time of year are creams, combined with some vivid and striking blues.  We went for a walk through King's Park Botanical Gardens recently -where so many flowers are massed from the various regions of the state, and it is quite glorious. 

The Araluen Gardens have a different display -massed tulips planted by their volunteers -which made a great day out too. 

There is no doubt that, with so much going on in the garden, and available for free in national parks, we feel very rich indeed.