Musings on an abundance of riches I wish we could share ...

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Pip’s picture of Rodney got me thinking …

My Mum described this year as ‘the year of butterflies’ and I agree – the la Nino rain in Australia has brought about the most amazing numbers in our insect population and everything that relies on them – I know this can’t be done in an organised garden but on our mostly native garden we can let what ever needs a feed to have one – the plants get a good pruning which can look a little alarming but they seem to enjoy – and the reward is a stunningly varied array of six legged wildlife – including mass butterflies – the number of native bee species beggars belief! – beetles species too – moths from the most minute to the giants and butterflies … oh wow!! – preying mantis, stick insects and the list goes on – lots of different spiders this year including some like the leaf curling spider have moved in – geckos, blue-tongues and water dragons – and of course the birds and insectivorous bats get a feast too

All over the continent there have been spectacular wild life ‘events’ – most places that were in prolonged drought are green – places that are normally in a natural state of desert are growing things from seeds that stay dormant waiting for these rare weather events – one of my sisters lives in Alice Springs in the ‘red centre’ – its a green centre at the moment – humid where it is usually the very driest kind of heat

we may be having rather a lot of rain (gross understatement) at the moment and it has indeed wrought havoc and some truly dreadful tragedies – but I find it very difficult to complain … at the moment we have a massive abundance of this vital resource that much of the planet is concerned about running out of – I just wish we could share it around ..

below are some pictures of Lake Eyre – the remnants of a vast inland sea in central Australia – normally just salt for as far as the eye can see with a few life forms that have adapted to the conditions – occasionally it floods – within the last couple of years it has flooded three times with no space in between for it to dry out – the resulting bird life is a mystery – thousands of kilometers inland – there are massive breeding colonies of sea birds – mot just a few stray birds – literally millions of them – I mean how do they know it’s there?? how do fish eggs survive in the salt and sand then breed up fast enough to feed them all … it’s all a mystery …

Lake Eyre in it’s ‘normal’ state

and now full of la Nino rain

• 25 Apr, 2011
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