PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
A Week of Joy in Nature and my Children
Week 1: November 5–11, 2021
This morning I went up to open the gate and saw a Grevillea flower sparkling in the sun with sprays like fireworks. It rained most of the night and the droplets are still hanging like little mirrors from petal, leaf, and needle, refracting and turning the world upside down in their magical depths.
I decided that it was time to try and do a week in photographs. I haven’t downloaded my camera for a couple of weeks so phone photos are it! Next week I will attempt to do it with my “proper” camera.
Last Friday, our resident Magpie father showed up on the patio with his latest hunting success, a spider with a very large abdomen. He appeared concerned that I might want it, but I reassured him he was welcome to keep that one to himself!
On Saturday, my son went to a birthday party. He’s still at that age where a parent has to go too. For the first time, my partner took him. This meant a “girls day” for my daughter and me. We started with coffee and babyccino, scones and cupcakes.
Afterward, we went to a certain famous Swedish store with furniture and homeware and managed to leave with only one bag. An achievement! We also went and bought Christmas fabric to make reusable gift bags. Finally, the boredom of groceries with a sneaky potato scallop on the way home. Seriously the potato scallops at the service station near where we live are THE BEST!
On Sunday, I went for a walk in the gully to collect firewood and was delighted to find that the Slender Hyacinth Orchids (Dipodium variegatum) were getting ready to bloom! A treat indeed!
It may look like a bumpy stalk, but these plants are amazing. They don’t have any leaves and the only part that emerges from the soil is the flower stalk. The rest of the time they get all their nutrients from fungus. Orchid enthusiasts can’t cultivate these because their needs are too complex. The only place to see them is in the wild!
When the flowers appear I’m going to take photos and write an article about them!
On Monday it was time to clean the stick insect enclosure and put in new leaves. Everyone had to come out of the enclosure when I cleaned, so the children giggled and squealed while the stick insects used them as jungle gyms. Despite their size, they are still juveniles. The one in the photograph is probably male and is starting to develop his wings. He’ll be able to fly when he’s an adult but the female will be too big so her wings are just for show.
Last night, I stepped out onto the patio and surprised a Striped Rocket Frog (Litoria nasuta). These guys are not named Rocket Frogs for nothing. They are fast and they can jump far! For this reason, they are rarely photographed. He’s only about 1.5 inches from nose to tail. I was thrilled to get even this subpar shot on my phone. There was no way he was waiting for me to get my proper camera!
This was originally published as a part of the Photo a Day Challenge in the online publication Snapshots
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