I love the term "sprinter" to describe the season we're in now. Flowering ornamental apricot today in <its cold there!> #Ballarat. (My annual reminder too that "apricot" and "precocious" share the same root word in Latin.)

2. Next day, walking the dog past a property maybe 5 km away. Here, the landowner has nuked the native grasses on their "nature strip". Undeterred, these sundews (Drosera) have come up anyway through the bare ground. Ah well, just hope the school kids understand #biodiversity, if they're left some.

Ups & downs of biodiversity across 24 hours. 1. Members & friends of our #Landcare group spent a winter's day yesterday alongside 60 enthusiastic school kids planting a biodiverse mix of grasses & forbs alongside the school wetlands. Photo shows part of our planting, viewed from the birdhide. /2

It's less well known by Australians that our native Allocasuarina species (sheoaks and the pictured swamp oak and desert oak) have the same symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. (No, they don't look at all like true oaks. The name honours the value colonists found in their timber.) 🌱

(3) In Australia, we are lucky to have so many native plants that flower through autumn and winter, and many that are scrubby or prickly to provide shelter for small birds. This Banksia is in full flower now (they're hidden amidst foliage); in summer a visiting echidna fossicks under it for ants.

(2) The bird bath is essential, especially on summer and particularly for smaller birds as it's somewhat hidden. /3

(1) Some studied neglect, if I'm honest. These Australasian swamphens (video) are enjoying the fact I haven't been able to mow the back lawn in midwinter. /2

Meet Woofa, the source of that blessing, resting inside while the world outside warms up. In the background, glorious winter sunshine highlights that our Liquidambar (sweetgum in its native North America) is still carrying its 🍁 leaves mid-July.

One of the blessings of having a dog is their relentless enthusiasm for a morning walk, whatever the conditions. So one gets to see views like this - morning light diffusing through the distinctive silhouettes of #eucalypts, #Ballarat.

It looks a lot like our Mt Morgan wattle (Acacia podalyriifolia). Our one is growing a long way from its QLD home, but always flowers well ahead of the local Ballarat species. So adaptable, yet unlike Cootamundra wattle it hasn't become an environmental weed.

On Schools Tree Day, we're not planting a single tree! We will be joining local school students in planting 300+ indigenous grasses & herbaceous plants at the wetlands alongside their school. Students have done lots of tree planting on the nearby reserve on past Tree Days - 2017 plantings shown. /2

2. Here's my shot taken today of the #snipe sign beside the wetlands. Photo by @toritorihkd.bsky.social highlights the beautiful cryptic coloration that makes snipe so hard to spot. Hoping that southward-migrating birds don't catch the spreading bird flu, apparently now found in eastern Australia.

A couple of Saturdays ago, we were replanting where needed in a #Landcare planting on a neighbour's property down the road. This was the "studied disdain" body language from the resident eastern grey #kangaroo. He looked a lot bigger, and even more disdainful, when he stood up.

Same, yesterday down our road, Smythes Creek. My fungi book doesn't give a common name, but "purple emperors" sounds apt. Cortinarius archeri - mycorrhizal on gum tree roots.

Yep. Two days to #midwinter's day in the Antipodes, and the scent of #wintersweet is filling our garden.

Monitoring part A of the Year 12 GAT (General Achievement Test) at my old school and thrilled to see a question there about the @birdlifeoz.bsky.social #AussieBirdCount . I think I can post this now part A is collected from students...

Sparkling in bright sunlight after a chilly Ballarat night, #Thryptomene 'F. C. Payne' is the harbinger of a wealth of Australian native plants that flower through winter.

My photo of the walled garden, from 2014.

Just in time, I checked and found my votes had been sitting in limbo waiting to be submitted for the #ABC #Classic100 GOAT. Hard to pick only 10, @news.abc.net.au !

"If seven maids with seven mops swept it for half a year, Do you suppose", the Walrus said, "that they could get it clear?" "I doubt it", said the Carpenter, and shed a bitter tear. (7yo me used to know all 24 verses, & would recite them to a patient & loving grandfather.)

Success! Via the ABC News website.

Our #liquidambar is looking its best after a #Ballarat #autumn week of cool days honed its colour contrasts. The tree's leading shoot used to be eaten out annually by possums who climbed a nearby wattle tree. When the wattle fell over, the liquidambar's apical bud took off, & it hasn't looked back.

I'd say it's two different species - the white ibis ("bin chicken") and the straw-necked ibis. My Pizzey & Knight 'Field Guide to the Birds of Australia' mentions briefly that the bin chicken flies "often with straw-necks", so presumably these two landed together.

These beauties were so aptly named. Callistemon, Australia.

So sorry to hear from the Antipodes of the closure of #Denby #Pottery via @bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social Denby's wonderful hand-painted Greenwheat mugs must've been produced in the thousands 60+ years ago - both my parents & aunt/uncle had a set. Superbly heat-retentive. share.google/nA51wQxXyGtj...

Such a beautiful fruit, the #quince. The aroma of ripe fruit greets you as you approach the tree. Now just to cut the darn things without any finger injuries...

The spent flowers of #Bells-of-Ireland (Molucella laevis), showing their tracery in yesterday's afternoon light. I learnt something from a quick pre-post check: the plant is native to Asia Minor, and not to Ireland. Beautiful though, even in autumnal decay.

Have to mention one of the species which British colonists in #Australia identified as robins - this is the scarlet #robin. A case of convergent evolution. Not my photo - from www.birdsinbackyards.net. Seen occasionally in our backyard, briefly, on its way between warmer and cooler climes.

I've used their paper maps as Maths teaching resources too. Also bought from them local topographic maps to guide my family history research. With SA's colonial bicentenary coming up, I'd hope that libraries and historical/genealogical societies will make sure they stock up. Shame to see it close.

Takes me back to our visit to Tintern Abbey in 2014. I stood amid its haunting ruins and saw in my mind a fleeting image of its former life as a place of worship. So good that a few (often remnant bits) of these wonderful buildings survived intact as testimony to medieval faith & engineering skill.