Noisy visitors

I was sitting on the sunny back verandah having breakfast today when I heard the squawking of cockatoos and looked up to find at least ten of them flying around in the back yard. I quickly ran to get my camera with the terrific zoom and managed to take a photo of one of them sitting up high at the very top of the huge pine tree next door.

 

Then I noticed that they had been in the mandarin tree and had picked some fruit for their breakfast. They are so cheeky! 

 

 Yesterday they were nowhere to be seen when I got up to take a photo of the sunrise. Well, seeing as the sun didn't rise until 6.45am I didn't really get up all that early :-) Since I have been retired though it is easy to just lie in the warm bed on a chilly morning.

This afternoon it was warm and sunny once again and I didn't feel like working on one of the patches of nettle which needs to be removed as it is taking over the garden, so picked a few of the winter flowers not that there are many at the moment.

There aren't many snowflakes flowering as yet and the few we have were hard to find as there are hundreds of bulbs planted in the front garden and the snowflakes tend to get a bit lost under the bigger plants.

The jonquils always look pretty and pop up everywhere without any TLC. 

I was pleased to see that some of the nasturtiums had survived the frosts (and the CEO) so far....

...as I had been thinking about making some more Nasturtium Vinegar with Rosemary and Peppercorns like I made a couple of years ago after seeing it on Food and Beverage. It is very tasty with salads.

I am still baking two loaves of sourdough each week using my starter, Gertrude, in one loaf and Chris' Griffin in another. It is sad but I actually talk to them and ask them which is going to make the biggest loaf. LOL! Considering I make one with Bakers flour and spelt flour and the other with Bakers flour and rye flour, they never look identical when they come out of the oven. I always bake at night so the photos are always dodgy but as long as the bread isn't I am happy. 

We are having quite a mild winter and, as we head off to the beach in a fortnight, hope that that trend continues. I quite like the cold nights which are great for sleeping and the warm sunny days when you just want to get outside and work in the garden. I do hope though that the above average temperatures aren't an indication of another dreadful summer like the last one as I don't cope with the heatwaves very well. Still... summer is still a few months away so for now I will enjoy the cooler weather and think of my friends in the Northern Hemisphere sweating it out during their summer :-)