A Golden October And Thieving Ravens

We have been having really intense sunsets lately that are just fantastic. When the cloud is not blanketing the area these satin pink fingers seem to span out and caress the under belly of the sky and then the colours seem to pinwheel through the spectrum with such subtle changes and nuances that sometimes you are not quite sure just what the colour is that you ae looking at.

The yellows, pinks, reds and mauve against the waining blues as the night creeps in are most surely the inpiration of many great European landscape artists. I suppose that the hues are somewhat dependant on our relatively close proximity to the arctic / northern lights.

We have been having for the last two weeks what the locals refer to as a Golden October. Mild days but calm and sunny with the temp up around 22C but still falling to around 8C at night. Very much the same sort of weather we were having in my last couple of weeks in the Blue Mountains. All very pleasant especially with the Autumn colours really starting to take hold of the oaks, elms and ashes.

The walnut tree out the back has been dropping bucket loads of nuts which we collect to crush and feed the birds and squirrels during the Winter. I don’t think I am in the good books particularly with the local red squirrels as I have collected all the nuts each day and they are no doubt sizing me up for an attack onn my kneecaps. I watched the other day as one of them scurried around collecting walnuts in its mouth and then proceeding to bury them in the garden near the tomato bushes. Unfortunately for Squirrel Nutkins there was a large black raven perched high over head in the old cherry tree watching each mining expedition with great innterest. As soon as the squirrel took off to find another nut the raven was swooping down and pecking the nut out of the soil and zooming off with it. Kind of like a drive through take away for birds.

I have been flipping through a book on the birds of central europe. I have to admit at being somewhat amazed by the number of birds that are found here and in Australia. Eg: spoonbills, azure kingfishers, stone knee curlews and powerful owls. Others that surprised me as I thought them to be American / African were the buzzards and vultures.

There are a lot of chestnuts as well on the pavements around town which shall no doubt bring about a serious in-house conkers championship within the next few weeks. The little blighters are a serious pitfall when walking later at night as they shoot from under your feet like a ball bearing. My boots have a smooth leather sole and this is a really dangerous combination especially after a few ales at the English Club.