Many have been confined for lengthy periods over the course of Covid-19. I therefore thought I’d start a set of postings that are within the confines of our own back garden. I thought I’d begin with January and proceed through the seasons.

The ever changing assemblage of plants made a short ramble stretch into a most pleasant exploration.

This is part one of a series to explore the Riverina on another Friends of Grasslands Field Trip.

Day 1 covers:

a) Fivebough Swamp

b) Galore Hill Reserve

In 2018 I went on a Friends of Grasslands tour to the Riverina. It would appear that I have no chance of getting there in September 2021 so by way of recompense I am sharing this as a virtual tour. I hope you enjoy.

Three locations today; amidst the various desk commitments ….. and all within my LGA….

and a correction: that “fly” is actually a Metallic Green Carpenter Bee

A day, indeed, without zoom meetings … a day free to meander ….

And what better way to clear the head after three days/nights of Zoom meetings than a short walk…. especially after the morning was spent bent over while painting the balcony.

There is no monetary value that can be placed on this

What better way to finish a day after a long Zoom meeting than to head out into Royal National Park and discover why one spends so much time advocating for its protection!

A short inspection on September 6th 2021

Those of us who carry a camera privilege sight over all the senses and, come to think of it, everyone who reads this photographic essay also privileges sight. It’s buried in our language. We are the “clear-sighted”. For us to be “out of sight” is to be “out of mind”. Indeed, as Shelley said, “where eyes are shut, nothing can be seen”.

But I am going to ask you to go further today! Most know that I am, amongst many descriptive, a “birdwatcher”, another term that privileges sight! Most who have been “birdwatching with me will also know I am more of a bird-listener”, attuned to the merest sound coming out of that bush, be it the tiny chirp of a Beautiful Firetail (yesterday, twice) or the loud squawk of the recently-arrived Channel-billed Cuckoo (on September 1st). So, please, after you read the following just close your eyes for a moment and imagine the trill of a Fan-tailed Cuckoo, the warbling of a Grey Shrike-thrush, the screech of a flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos as they move from one location to another! All were present today. Those, and more, and the soundscape was all the richer for their presence!

But I also want you to touch. No, not Prickly Moses, now almost all its flowers over! But who cannot but touch, even fondle, Persoonia pinifolia when one passes?

And I want you to smell! Yes, crush a few leaves of that Prostanthera and take a whiff! It’s heady stuff!
Ok, you can also taste! There must surely be a few berries left on that Leptomeria acida!

Now, they are the “five senses”. However, as I headed out today, I had another sense or two: of anticipation with what I might discover; of dread with what I might hear at 11.00am after I emerged from my little slice of solitude.
So let us head out into that solitude with anticipation and use all the senses, even if we are privileging sight as we travel.