{"id":331,"date":"2008-11-21T09:45:57","date_gmt":"2008-11-20T23:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bronwynparry.com\/blog\/?p=331"},"modified":"2008-11-21T09:45:57","modified_gmt":"2008-11-20T23:45:57","slug":"spring-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bronwynparry.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/spring-rain\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring rain"},"content":{"rendered":"

After seven years of mostly below average rainfall, we’ve had a good spring this year, with rain nicely sprinkled through the past few months. This past week, it’s been gray skies and rain every day; not often heavy, but good soaking rain – around 2 inches over five days or so. There’s not been enough run-off to make much difference in the levels of our dams, but they have risen a little. We’re moving into summer storm season, so we’ll likely have a few brief late afternoon storms with heavy rainfall in the next couple of months – the type of rain that can fill the dams quite quickly!<\/p>\n

This morning, the sun is shining, the frogs are creating a noisy celebration down in the little dam in front of the house, the young choughs (black birds with white wing-tips) in the resident extended family group are screeching for food from their relatives, and the fairy wrens are flitting around the overgrown herb-garden. The landscape is, for us, quite green – not an Irish or a New Zealand green, but definitely more green than brown! And the trees and bushes are shooting out new growth at quite a pace:<\/p>\n

\"Green<\/a>

Green spring growth on a eucalypt<\/p><\/div>\n

The three callistemon<\/a> (bottlebrush) bushes near the house have been flowering for a couple of weeks. Bottle brushes come in a range of colours, and the ones we have are a deep pink.
\n

\"Callistemon<\/a>

Callistemon (bottlebrush)<\/p><\/div>
\nThey’re always a gorgeous sight – and, for me, they have a ‘Christmas’ type of feel – even though they will probably have faded by Christmas itself. They remind me though that summer is coming, and for us in the southern hemisphere that includes Christmas! <\/p>\n

I enjoy Christmas, and making preparations for it. This year, the DH and I are travelling to Canberra to spend a few days with my family over Christmas. We’ll travel down over two days, probably exploring a few back roads on the way, and staying overnight in Mudgee or somewhere else. We’ve booked into a nice hotel near the centre of Canberra, so we can spoil ourselves a little. I’m looking forward to the trip – my family are wonderful, and our Christmas celebrations are low-key but pleasant, without the dramas or the stresses that some families have, so it should be a lovely time. I’m having fun gathering together Christmas gifts, and I’m planning to make a Christmas pudding to take. I’ve got a bit to get through before then – another trip to Sydney for medical stuff, and of course a novel to work on! – but it’s good to have something cheerful in the not-too-distant future to think about!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After seven years of mostly below average rainfall, we’ve had a good spring this year, with rain nicely sprinkled through the past few months. This past week, it’s been gray skies and rain every day; not often heavy, but good … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bronwynparry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bronwynparry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bronwynparry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bronwynparry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bronwynparry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bronwynparry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/bronwynparry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bronwynparry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bronwynparry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bronwynparry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}