Spring has sprung!

What glorious weather - I love spring! All around us is evidence that here in the Adelaide Hills it has finally sprung. Outside the sun is shining, and up the hill I can see our neighbour's horses contentedly grazing on our pasture, basking in the sunshine.

Honey, Moni, and Sassy posing nicely for me

A symphony (or cacophony) of happy birds surrounds me, and the bird baths are getting a real work-out, with White Naped honeyeaters doing laps of the pool, watched by their mates,

White-naped honeyeaters - very polite birds.

 and New Holland honeyeaters simply revelling in a wonderful splash around!

New Holland honeyeaters - they are such characters!

Driving up our track to the road I come across a neighbour's ewe with her newborn lamb. This protective mother kindly allows me take some pictures of her precious baby.

What a gift is new life!

My neighbour Sharyn, Tuska the dog and I head off for one of our regular walks on this beautiful day.

Tuska and I blaze the trail

Yours truly

Native Grevilleas in bloom

Through the bush the spring wildflowers are just beginning to emerge, and on a day like this it's just good to be alive!

Three ducks in a row? No, three Sulphur-crested cockatoos!

Then on the way home, down our track we come across three cheeky Sulphur-crested cockatoos, feeding on nutgrass.

 Mmmm! Nutgrass - it's the best!

and as I approach our side gate, I pass the beautiful rosemary bush in full flower, intermingling with viburnum. What a day!

WELCOME TO A NEW FOLLOWER

A warm welcome to Ana Garcia, who has just joined the little company of friends who follow our blog. Ana makes the tiniest and most exquisite porcelain mini babies. Her blog is misminipekes.blogspot.com

'Neigh'bours that horse around

We have interesting neighbours. They often seem to think that our paddocks are nicer than their own, so they frequently visit us, and spend their day grazing, rolling around on the grass (rats - just missed that photo opportunity!) or relaxing under the tall gum trees nearby.

Most of the time we co-exist peacefully. However, when we need to venture away from home in a hurry, our horsy neighbours don't seem to have an appreciation of our need for a speedy exit. On these days it sometimes takes 'some time' (pun intended) to manoeuvre our way around, or through the horses!

Honey and Sassy

I have discovered a good trick is to keep a brightly coloured shopping bag handy, and to wave it furiously at my equine friends. This is usually successful, and they amble far enough out of the way to allow safe passage through.

Bandit and Yours Truly

Encounters like these continue to make living here fascinating.

E

Wedge-tail Eagle

You never know who (or what) you're going to meet on the 1 kilometre track in or out. Here are a few pics of our other neighbours, some of whom have featured in earlier posts.

Highland cattle

Kelvin Koala (the original)

Eastern Spinebill

Fat-tail sheep

Peekaboo!

Our neighbour's cattle

Crescent Honeyeater

NEW FRIENDS

• Welcome to Lily, and daughters Adel and Dania. Take a look at  Lily's blog
• Welcome too, to Melisa Nichols, of Melisa's Bears. Melisa makes exquisite bears and other critters.

BAAARY GOOD SHEEP 'ROUND HERE!

I never know what I'm going to see when I leave the road, and start down the one kilometre dirt track that leads to our house. To get home we have to drive through two other properties, and through three farm gates, opening and closing each gate as we go, so there's plenty of opportunity to see interesting things along the way - if we look around, that is.

Earlier this week, after turning on to the track I rounded the first bend and came across the flock of sheep belonging to the neighbours on the first property. The flock, a mixture of fat-tails and merinos often graze along the track.

It's lambing season, and I love to see the newborn lambs with their mums. I couldn't resist taking a few pics with my mobile phone, and thought I'd share them with you.

This little lamb just sat there, quite undisturbed by my presence.



But Mother sheep suddenly noticed my interest in her beloved, and began calling to her little one to come away from the big bad human, and baa-ing at me to 'back off'.

Baby took even less notice of its mum than it had of me, so Mum charged down to her baby and shepherded it away from danger.

I called out to her, and tried to reassure her that I thought her baby was beautiful, and that I meant no harm. She stopped and turned around to look at me, before deciding that it wasn't worth continuing the conversation. Last seen, they were heading up the hill to join the rest of the flock.