LEON JANE

The curlews chicks have hatched and they are as cute as can be! It's amazing how close you can get to these pair of Bush Stone Curlews with their babies. The father is very protective however and he'll start to 'hiss' if you get too close. The mother will 'hiss' but after a few 'clucks' to give the chicks warning that danger is present. Bush Stone Curlews with two chicks Can you spot the chicks in the above photo? They have great camouflage. They also have a great defence strategy of laying flat and still like their parents when danger is present. If there is great danger like an overhead flying predator (hawk or eagle) then the chicks will hide under their mothers wings. Haven't found the chicks yet? Try looking at the mid right of the photo. Here is a close up of the Bush Stone Curlew Chicks... Bush Stone Curlew Chicks

It’s a sad day for our daughter as we are taking back to the store one of the chickens that we have raised from three weeks old. The chicken is now thirteen weeks old and ‘she’ came with a rooster guarantee which means we can return ‘her’ if ‘she’ turns out to be a rooster - which ‘she’ has. Yes, ‘Nancy’ the Gold Laced Wyandotte is a rooster. Gold Laded Wyandotte Rooster is at the back We can tell ‘she’s’ a ‘he’ because his growth was quicker than the other chicks, his colours are more brilliant, his comb is larger in width, his neck feathers are longer and brighter and his tail feathers are starting to show more height. He hasn’t started calling/crowing yet - which I am sure the neighbours would be glad about. But our daughter isn’t too sad because we have a substitution plan as I’ll be buying a new chick at the same time as returning our little rooster. She’s picked out either a Light Sussex or a Rhode Island Red as her preference. I’d personally like to get the ...

Today we were busy picking mulberries which have come on in abundance. Two of our mulberry shrubs have exploded with a mass of fruit, possibly due to receiving a good cut back in winter or from our prolong cold and dry weather. We are collecting a punnet or two every day. Punnet of mulberries It’s great to take our daughter down to the mulberry bush (or shrub) in the afternoon and pick the fruits that have turned from red to deep purple. She loves eating them as we pick them, which we don’t mind as they make for a healthy snack. Mulberry bush in fruit We think the fruit isn’t getting attacked by insects (who usually drink the juice from the fruit) because a colony of Green Ants (or Weaver Ants) has found the shrubs and seem be protecting them. We are lucky to not have any birds discover the sweet taste of mulberry either. Fruiting mulberry plant So spring at our place has definitely sprung as the fruit trees are flowering and the birds are nesting. ...

Brugmansia 'Bruce's Pink' Today our hot pink Brugmansia called ‘Bruce’s Pink’ was on show with a beautiful display of colour. We’ve been keeping an eye on it for about three days now and the colours are deepening as the flowers slowly grow in length and the petals unravel. From these photos you can see the different stages of flowering, from the small green beginning to the whole white flower then to the deep pink. Brugmansia ‘Bruces’s Pink’ is a single flowering Angel’s Trumpet which means the flower only has one ‘trumpet’ shaped petal structure as opposed to getting a double or triple drop ‘trumpet’ in the petal structure. Although we love the double and triple flowers for their extravagance you have to admit that Brugmansia ‘Bruce’s Pink’ is gorgeous. See all the different stages of flower colours in this display of Brugmansia 'Bruce's Pink' Angel Trumpets have had a bad rap here in tropical north Queensland. This is due to the fear that ...

I self published my first written piece, a  novella called Shadow Valley, on the 12th of June 2018 through Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). The following is my marketing blurb about the story: "Mary lays broken, incarcerated in the kingdom’s dungeon, with only her pet cat to confide in. She doesn’t remember why she’s there. She has no idea of the horrible plans that the evil princess has instore for her. As an amulet mysteriously ‘awakens’ in a blue aura so too begins an unstoppable chain of events that will change Mary’s life forever. It’s a race against time for Kingsgate’s master wizard and his apprentice as they rush to save the kingdom from imminent danger. Along the way they discover evil forces and dark secrets hidden deep in Shadow Valley. Will they make it in time to bring unity to the kingdom or will the fate of evil take its stranglehold and finally crush the broken royal family who have struggled to keep up their happy masquerade? Can Mary escape her physical ...