Postcard From Cairo

Well actually it was posted in Italy: it arrived this morning, a reminder that Keith and Barbara will be back to retrieve their bus in a few days time.
A whole month of Autumn days has passed since they parked their bus and flew off ...

Foggy mornings;

Rainy days; and for the first time early in April, I saw the garden's bellbird feeding within inches of my kitchen window. His mossy plumage with white wing flashes usually makes him hard to find high in the trees as he chimes his lovely call: "like small bells exquisitely tuned," according to Captain Cook. This little nectar feeder had been feasting on the late pears, but the end of supply and wet weather drove him down to hunt insects on spent perennial seed stalks, as well as using this potted tree to hunt weatherboard spiders from. So close at times I could see his beady black eyes, but never easy to photograph through wet glass.

After the rain there is always sunshine again, and a return to outdoor dining. 
Finding ourselves in Lyttelton on a warm sunny afternoon inclined us to ambling, eating ice creams and viewing the street art.

There hardly seems anything left of the commercial area of the port town

but the local community responded to the destruction caused by the ongoing earthquakes, with optimism and creativity. While there are shocking reminders of the damage at every turn, the town had a quiet energy about it - and no shortage of photographic subjects!

Back at home one of the joys of a moist autumn are the field mushrooms that pop up across the land. There are never enough at one picking for more than a slice of toast or two, but that makes them one of the season's prizes: to be cooked quickly with butter in a stainless steel pan, laid on good grainy toast with some fresh parsley and savoured for lunch.

Just as the mild, wet weather brings out the mushrooms, so it  makes the grass grow. I like to think that one more cut and it will be time to take the mowers in for their annual service.

But, with one month to go before I leave for an English summer I suspect this grass has a lot more growing to do before cold weather checks its growth.

Bellbird, Korimako, Makomako  Anthornis melanura