It's the time of year..

It's the start of another week, thankfully, a much cooler week. How was the weather in the southern states? Crazy; but we survived, thanks to air conditioning and swimming pools.

It's the last week of the school holidays in SA. Izzy will start full days at kindy this year. I will have to cherish having her home this week, I will miss her and be thinking of how her day is going...for the first couple of weeks. She did so well with pre-entry last term, I am sure she will be fine, although tired at the end of the day.

Eucalyptus Ficifolia at the front gate. Just to keep us gardening
nerds on our toes they've changed the name of this tree
to Corymbia ficifolia. It's native to WA.

I love this time of year. The way the sun makes the garden look as it sets. The colours are spectacular, the greens striking and the whites brighter.

Musk Lorikeet 

I love the native birds that come to visit. Particularly the lorikeets that come to feed on the Red flowering gums in the driveway every year. I stood out there watching them a couple of nights ago, such a treat. We've seen rainbow lorikeets too and the usual cockies that all arrive at sunset with their raucous banter, in the gums that line our back fence.

Have you ever seen a drop tail lizard? There are lots of them in our garden, thousands. The girls and I sat out on the grass in front of the veggie patch, watching for them darting around for a bake in the morning sun. We caught a few when I was a kid, they're bloody quick, I don't know how we did it. 

Common Garden skink

I did try to take better photos of them, but when I crouched down Sum would climb on my back, choking me with her arms around my neck. She loves doing it, like a clingy monkey.

I thought this one might be preggers, but apparently they lay eggs at this time of year. I've never seen any, I'm surprised, there are shitloads of them running around.

What do you love about this time of year?
Do you have any natives coming to visit your backyard?