Happy Anniversary, house

I realised today that it was just exactly 5 years ago that we first walked in the door as owners of the property.  What a good idea that was!  Here, more or less as a traditional diary-blog, are a few notes and photos of the day.

I shall begin with some pretties from the garden.  The first are some oriental lilies with a white one in the foreground and the much taller maroon ones to the back.
 These pineapple lilies used to lurk in the background.  Frances has put them in pots and they can now be appreciated.
These are known as N@ked L@dies (that should fool profanity filters, assuming they are as stupid as most security mechanisms).
Staying around the house, the small dog joined us about 3.5 years ago.  Here she is, sitting on my lap scanning the lawn for wabbits.
Looking out the window myself I spotted some Striated Thornbills having a bath.  The following are not great images but all amuse me for one reason or another.  The first shows them poised on the perch ...
 .. this is more interesting for the trail of water as it takes off ...
 .. and this shows the wingspread rather well.  The one staying on the rim shows some of the features of the species also.  ( A better image for ID purposes in on my Carwoola Birds site.)
I have become interested in insects in the last couple of years and here are some images from today.  The first two are of a hoverfly  - firstly hovering off a Bursaria and then dining on same.

 This one is a honeybee: mainly because I haven't taken a photo of a honeybee and this nicely shows the pollen stuck to its tarsus.

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