Sharing a chuckle at day's end

Birds are sociable creatures. Every afternoon around 5pm a group of kookaburras congregates in or around my garden. I think they are probably the adult offspring of the same parent birds. They fly in singly from different directions and sit close together on a TV antennae or tree branch and cackle away for a few minutes. There's up to seven of them together at the one time.

After a busy and demanding work schedule, it's relaxing to step into the garden and listen to the birds. They remind us to laugh with them.

I like to think of my house and garden as a place of solace and care for both people and animals, domestic and wild (animals, not people!). I've tried to create an environment that encourages native animals. We have native trees and shrubs and water features and lots of low growing plants, rocks and logs for habitat. We also have a veggie garden and fruit trees for human food ( if the possums don't get there first!). I seldom use pesticides.

I love to photograph the wonders of God's creation. With the exception of the photo of the cross and the ballet slippers, both of which were from a free-shareware site; and a church photo taken by my son Tom, all the photographs on this blog are my own. I love the beauty and grace of birds, their power and wonderful colours. God created such amazing creatures. One needs great patience to photograph birds. What's the old saying - don't work with children or animals? You can't tell a bird to sit still and pose! For every adequate photo, there's usually a bevy of blurry bird shots or ones with their tails up and heads disappeared.

Around the time the kookaburras call in the afternoon, there's usually a line up for dive practice at the local swimming pool....