Owls and Orchids

Let’s start our gentle  walk with a quick   reminder of how beautiful the sky looks after a shower. The gorgeous rainbow highlights how clean and fresh the air is, washed away of all those negative ions that give me headache. (Well that and the awful meds I’m taking, all for a good cause).

On this day we saw both the right and left of the rainbow but missed the complete effect, perhaps next time.

Then we have the majestic rolling of the waves as they rush towards the shore.

I’m sure the surfers would have loved to catch some of the beauties we saw.

The cheeky Eastern Rosella eating all the pollen off every honey producing plant in the garden. Here we have one on the New Zealand Bottlebrush, just checking to see if he’s being watched.

It’s hard to go past such a beautifully intimate picture of mother feeding her baby in the Sandra Gordon Grevillea.

From ducks eating the lawn daily to cockatoos invading the area, there is always the songs of the birds around us.

Mother Magpie and baby checking us to see if it’s safe. “My what beady eyes you have”. They don’t miss anything.  Next we have my mystery bird. I first saw him ay our place in Nerang and was unsure what he was, Since then we have identified him as a Black Headed Peasant Coucal. This is the male. He puffs out his chest and the feathers at his nae and emits a loud “Coo, Coo, Coo,” to attract a mate. He has the most beautiful long tail shown here.

His tail is easily as long as his body if not longer and spreads out in a beautiful fan as he flies. Then it was time for a little grooming. He loved the vantage from the Sandra Gordon Grevillea but didn’t win any friends with the local Rosellas or Indian Mynahs who tried to loudly persuade him to leave. He took it all in his perch and stayed until ready to leave.

Rolling waves and delicate flowers on the Spathiphyllum  or Peace Lily.

Yes I am real, in the sunshine getting the fresh air and sea breeze. My beautiful camellia is still flowering.

New Zealand Christmas bush before the parrots have attacked it.  Beautiful flowering wattle.

These have always been called Autumn Crocus and on the right the flowers of the Desert Rose.

I can’t end my walk through the garden without reminding myself of the beautiful and magical sunrise.

Which means a moment to reflect on the day’s end with the mysterious and magical view of the pink moon.

This wouldn’t be complete without my blogs namesake emblem – the orchid, in full flower today. Isn’t it beautiful?

And to round things off, the rest of my blog namesake, the beautiful and mysterious Powerful Owl. Whats not to love?

There is beauty all around us if we take a moment to see. It’s peace and tranquility can lift you fro the depths of despair.  The final words in my soliloquy go to George Gordon Byron.

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more”
― George Gordon Byron

Know that you are loved deeply and well.

Ciao

Susan x

Related articles

• Inspiration from my back deck. (owlsandorchids.com)