Autumn moving on..........

[M-L]

Hello Everyone,

The cold touch of winter is on the bare skin, invigorating and not
unwelcome. Autumn is relinquishing it's hold on this speck of dust
where we live in the universe, and slowly moving on. There is much
yellow in the landscape and some red as well, a yellow, red landscape
on a green background, constantly changing. The yellow and red
increasing for a time then decreasing and finally gone, only the grey
green hillsides remaining to enchant our senses. The yellow and red are
the European trees settling in to rest, the eucalypts are as ever grey
green with some sprouting light green foliage that will also carry the
flower buds for next years generation of their kind. The blossom will
mean nectar for the bees, and honey for the beekeepers. Not all
eucalypts are growing or budding, each is a different type and each
needs different stimuli to grow and bud.

Jake, one of our recently released wombats is sojourning under the
cottage this morning. He has dug a burrow under the concrete slab, it's
one of his places to sleep during the daylight hours, he has several
burrows over the hills, and he stays in them all, over a period of
weeks. Percival will be next to go out into the wider world, and Titch
and Sebastian have a way to go yet, another 12 or so months before they
are released back into their land and forest, which they share with us.

There is a lot of feed about for the native animals at the moment,
kangaroos and wombats are well fed on green grasses of various kinds
and the possums must be finding plenty to eat as well, because they're
not coming in to harvest the ripe or ripening apples which are dragging
down the branches of the parent trees.

The older hens have stopped laying and the young pullets are just
beginning to lay and will supply our eggs over winter. The sheep are
fat and the wool has been sent away to be sold. We have a pantry full
of preserved fruit and though no goats yet, have found a supplier of
goats milk. The mountain is free of snow still, though we don't expect
that to last much longer and hope to be able to go over twice more
before snow will make the journey too long and arduous with wheel
chains fitted to allow us passage to our favourite town in which to do
our fortnightly shop. Winter is the time we head toward the coast and
the main population centre in that direction to top up with the things
we need and can't supply ourselves.

There is much to do during the winter, cleaning up the areas round the
shed and cottage in preparation for the summer, when we expect we will
again be under some kind of threat from wild fires. We live very much
in one season preparing for the next, but it's always different, always
exciting wondering what the next day will bring, and what lies ahead -
if we're spared.

Hope everyone in the northern hemisphere is finding spring as pleasant
as they anticipated.

Be well,
Charlie
--
Registered Linux User:- 329524
***********************************************
Should not every apartment in which man dwells be lofty enough to
create some obscurity overhead, where flickering shadows may play at
evening about the rafters? ....Henry David Thoreau

***********************************************
Debian GNU/Linux - just the best way to create magic
_______________________________________________

--
Hey - Thanks for being here and sharing your thoughts:
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "AllTrees-AllPeople-WholePlanet" group.
To post to this group, send email to
alltrees-allpeo...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
alltrees-allpeople-wh...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/alltrees-allpeople-wholeplanet?hl=en?hl=en