From Easter (sic) Rosella to Easter(n) sky

Reasonably early on the morning of Easter Sunday a squeak from Frances' study alerted me to the presence of 2 Eastern Rosellas on our main lawn.  Of course, as I opened the door to snap them thy flew off.  One was kind enough to pause briefly on a branch.

 I reckon that beats an Easter Bunny hands down, even though it is a tad deficient in the chocolate egg department.

The upcoming flower images, from a snuffle round the block on the Sunday afternoon, are somewhat a repeat of other recent images, some from other places,  but are put here to record recent events on the block.  First is an archetypal Pultenaea procumbens.
 Then a Bossaea buxifolia
 I found 3 more colonies of Diplodium truncatum (Little Dumpies).  This colony had at least 25 flowers in it, and many rosettes.
 A somewhat fresher specimen from another colony.
 I had thought that our Eriochilus cuculatus (Parson's bands) had all finished flowering.  Not so: both pink and white forms available.

 As dusk fell I looked out the window to the East and saw this rather nice cloud effect. 
 While taking that image I spotted an even better show to the West so walked about 100m to take this snap in that direction.  By the time I turned back for home (perhaps 3 minutes) all colour had vanished from the Easter(n) sky.
I did think of the English saying 'Red sky at night, shepherd's delight.  Red sky in morning, shepherds warning."  This can be interpreted as follows
  1. English weather often comes from the West and thus if the clouds are lit by the setting sun rain will come over night;
  2. In the UK it rarely rains for more than 12 hours without a break so the next day will be fine;
  3. If the clouds are lit by the rising sun the rain will fall through the day.
Of course, this overlooks the fact that in the UK, for lambing season at least, and Palestine around late December, the shepherd is likely to be up for a fair bit of the night anyway watching his flocks so won't be too delighted to get wet as well as tired.  I also suspect it doesn't apply in Ireland, where the rumour is that it rains for 15 minutes every quarter of an hour!

Comments

Denis Wilson said…
Shepherds are mythological creatures, along with Easter Bunnies. The rotation of the earth dictates that unless you live in the Trade Winds zone, most weather "comes from the east".
Eastern Rosellas are real, and very beautiful.
They belong on top of a chocolate box.
Perhaps Pascall confectionery could resurrect their company with the name of Paschal Chocolates and put an image of an Easter Rosella on the lid.
Cheers
Denis
Joy Window said…
Perhaps the Easter Bilbies and Easter Bunnies could "hold hands" and frolic on chocolate boxes :)

Your photos of clouds remind me of this interesting cloud formation: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/04/08/desktop-project-part-14-the-cloud-streets-of-southern-greenland/
Flabmeister said…
Thanks Denis and Joy.

If anyone wants some bunnies (of any season) we have several available here. Bilbies are, alas, not around.

I loved:
> the reference to Paschal chocolates from Denis; and
> that cloud image from Joy. Pleased to see the glider reference in one of the responses.

Martin

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