Winter starts to happen

When we were first thinking about moving to Canberra I told Frances that, based on my many work trips, one of the joys of the place was the clear cool days of Winter.  Of course, our move in 1983 coincided with the breaking of a drought so the weather was cool, cloudy and wet: what I term English Summer weather. However, at present the weather is being delivered as I had promised. (Of course there have been other pleasant Winters in the interim - I haven't had to wait 30 years for the climate to deliver!)

Today has dawned with the promise of another good day (unless you want some rain for the garden).

Up in the top paddock the scene is peaceful and pleasant.

The willows along Whiskers Creek have lost nearly all their leaves.  Many of them have fallen into the creek.

It is rather surprising that the Creek is still flowing, as we have nod had any significant rain for 31 days.  Clearly the downpours earlier in the year have topped up the ground water so springs are still running in the upper catchment.

The proceedings are being supervised by our Frogmouths while they bask in the morning sun.

In this image they are sitting in a high roost in a Yellow Box outside our sun room.  I had developed a theory that they liked this site on cold mornings as it catches the sun early in the day.  However a small amount of systematic observation has shown that on some cold mornings they have roosted elsewhere and at least one morning when they were in this spot it wasn't particularly cold.  It is always a pity when facts get in the way of a good hypothesis.