On Monday morning I went for an early morning walk and as I walked up the stone stairway through the bush I heard a butcher-bird singing up in a tree. I looked up to the sound and could see him clearly, his head tipped up, singing and welcoming a new day.
Today I was reading a chapter from 'I Find Australia' by William Hatfield, an Englishman travelling and working in the outback of Queensland just prior to World War 1. He, too, saw and heard the butcher-birds in the early morning and said that they, '...gave out their clear sweet call, on surely the most beautiful notes in the range of music.'
November and the Jacarandas are flowering and magnificent...
The softest mauve carpet
That ever was spread,
The deepest mauve canopy
Over my head.
A haze in the warm air
Of loveliest hue
That seems to envelop
The garden and you.
A.S.H. 1931
That ever was spread,
The deepest mauve canopy
Over my head.
A haze in the warm air
Of loveliest hue
That seems to envelop
The garden and you.
A.S.H. 1931
And so are the Hydrangeas...
This morning I had another early walk and apart from the lack of corellas (I saw crimson rosellas instead) I could have lifted Hatfield's description out of his book to recount what I saw and heard:
Butcher-birds warbling their throaty, flute-like song, magpies chortling back at them in derision, galahs screeching above the trees and down at the edge of the waterhole, pigeons cooing and yodelling back in the scrub on their dainty approach towards the water, big white cockatoos and cheeky corellas putting in their harsh screams...
From the flower in the crannied wall to the glorious firmament on high, all the things of Nature proclaim without ceasing, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord, God, Almighty."
Charlotte Mason, Ourselves
12 comments:
Beautiful words and photographs! I love your journal pages also! Thanks for sharing!
Oops I mean Hatfield's journal pages! :)
How lovely - I live in Canada where everything has become bare and grey now, so it's amazing for me to see trees in full bloom! Just beautiful.
Hi Laura, it's hard to imagine having bare trees every winter. We might not always have blooms but our gum trees don't lose their leaves en masse like deciduous trees.
So lovely! We're expecting our last warm day in Ontario, and then there's snow in the forecast. But our grass still has a lot of green, unlike Laura Jeanne's.
It's just under 40 degrees C here today (104 F) & very dry which is more bearable than high humidity. As much as I don't like the hotter weather, I don't think I could handle what you Canadians go through each winter.
It is also cold, dark, and bare here in Wisconsin, USA!! I love your nature photos! My heart longs for spring and flowering trees already and winter doesn't officially begin here until late December. Your nature journal is very inspirational...keep up the great work!
Blessings,
Melissa
Beautiful Carol! The hydrangeas are magnificent this year.
My gardenia is covered with blooms and so fragrant.
There are mangoes in the shops... it must be summer!
I dont enjoy 40degree heat though:)
Margaret.
Thanks, Melissa.
My two gardenias are very perverse and only rarely flower. Can't complain too much about that hot day - it dropped 20 degrees overnight here and it's been cool since then.
It's so interesting to see the flora and fauna from your area since much of it is so different from we were are in North America. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Your journal is so interesting. I keep a journal but it only includes words and sketches. Thanks for stopping by and commenting on my blog post about a book by Lyn Hancock. - Margy
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