Winmalee

Tracey's Garden

Yesterday we enjoyed a visit to a garden in Winmalee belonging to Tracey.  She and Mary, another  passionate gardener and collector of plants, were banding together in a sale of a wide range of hand planted #succulents and cacti potted up and ready to take home,  or as a gift for someone special.  They had advertised their sale on our local Community Facebook page, with the invitation to direct message Tracey to get the address to her house, 48 hours before the sale began.

Tracey and Mary are neighbours and live in my neighbourhood in the Blue Mountains of NSW and I have followed them both on instagram for the last two or three years.  I was delighted to discover that Tracey's house was not far from our house in Winmalee,  in fact we could have walked there!  However, as we were expecting to buy plants, we chose to drive so we could transport our purchases back home easily.  I was looking forward to actually meeting them both in person.  

We parked our car in the street outside Tracey's house.  As we live in the Mountains, properties are generally either on the upside of the street or on the downside leading into a valley and Tracey's house was below the level of the street and accessed by a steep driveway.  It was with some difficulty I negotiated the steep walk down the driveway, but with Ken's help I made it safely!

Some of the plants for sale

Tracey was pouring herself a cup of coffee and recognised me straight away.   I felt as though I already knew her. I knew she had a passion for succulents, cute garden pots, coffee and cake and loved the natural wildlife in our area, so, of course, we shared a lot in common.   

Her love of cute pots is evident with many of her succulents displayed in some unusual pots.  I believe she also runs workshops in how to care and look after succulents, so she must have a lot of expertise and knowledge in how to grow beautiful succulents.  

I love the little mermaid pot (left) with her Tillandsia hair trailing out the top!

I have plenty of Tillandsia (also known as air plants) in my garden.  I need to look around for some interesting pots to display it in, preferably a head so it looks like hair!

We did not get to meet Mary as Tracey said she was not feeling well and was resting at home.  I think she had been able to help Tracey yesterday with setting up the plant display and bringing some of her own plants for the sale.

Another cute head planter (right) with a jelly bean succulent growing in it. 

I loved this little section of her garden, to the side of the driveway.  In front of the raised stonewall garden, there was a wheelbarrow full of Aloe vera plants coming into flower and ready for potting.

Tracey also had trays of cuttings of various succulents priced at just $1.00 each and I picked up one of these for potting up when I got home.

Here on the right are the plants I bought at the sale.  I love the blue pot in front with the flowers painted on it, but not sure of the succulent growing in it.  It is an Echeveria, but do not know the variety.  There is a little flower forming on it.

At the back is a Peperomia dolabriformis (Prayer Pepper) with leaves appearing like little fat pea pods.

On the left is String of Pearls, a succulent I have always wanted (Senicio rowleyanus). It likes to sprawl over the edge of containers or hanging baskets. I also bought a couple of other small pots with unknown succulents in them to add to my collection.

We enjoyed our time spent looking at the plants on display, but I would have liked to have seen a little bit more of Tracey's interesting garden which is spread out on over half an acre.  I know, from her instagram posts, that her husband has built some lovely pathways and steps and retaining stonewall gardens.  However, it was not an open garden display and I am sure that now we have met, there will be other opportunities when we can visit each others' gardens!

Winmalee

 Cuckoos

They've arrived in Winmalee!  I have heard the first Cuckoo of the season, coinciding with the clocks going forward for daylight saving.

These migratory birds capture my imagination as they seem to herald Summer and the long hot days that lie ahead.  As I went to bed on Sunday night I heard the strident wailing love-call of a Cuckoo piercing the stillness of the night sky as he claimed his territory and sought to summon a mate.

They migrate all the way from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and, after mating, the female lays her eggs in the nest of a surrogate bird, generally a Currawong or Magpie.  The large chicks monopolise the poor foster parents, demanding all the available food and edging the other chicks out of the nest.

Channel-billed Cuckoo - Scythrops novaehollandiae.

I have not seen very many Cuckoos   I only ever seem to hear them!  They are as much the sound of the Australian bush as the Magpies and Whip birds.

This picture (right) is taken from The Australian Museum website.  See link  here

 

They like to eat native fruits and figs and sometimes insects.

This photo (left) is of a Channel-billed Cuckoo in a fig tree in Toowong, Queensland taken by Mick McKean.

Photo (right) of a Channel-billed Cuckoo taken by Keith Hutton.

They are noisy birds, but quite shy, often heard but not seen.  They like to sit in the top of tall trees.

We have many tall trees in our backyard, so I shall be trying to catch one this Summer with the zoom on my camera!

This is a photo I took of a Cuckoo in a tree in our backyard in Winmalee in October, 2018.  I do not think it is a Channel-billed Cuckoo.   I posted the picture on instagram and one of my instagram friends identified it as a Koel, which is another name for a Cuckoo.  This could be a female Pacific Koel also known as the Eastern Koel.

They do not like the cold weather, which is why they migrate back North for the Winter.  The migration route is across the Torres Strait and from New Guinea they migrate across the nearby islands, as far as Timor and the Moluccas.  They travel individually, or in small groups.

They delegate the raising of their chicks to other birds, to do the work for them!  However, the female does hover around, ready to help feed her growing baby bird.

There are also Cuckoos in the Northern Hemisphere and they migrate to Africa during the European Summer.  There is a beautiful poem by William Wordsworth called To the Cuckoo which can be found  here 

Acknowledgments:

1.  The Australian Museum

2.  Backyard Buddies

3.  Wikipedia

4.  Read & Co. Books