Veronika Wild

  The Golden Way - apologies for the poor picture quality in these. Only had my phone with me and it doesn't seem to capture the true vibrance and colour I may have missed the main blossom season, but on Sunday I went to Knocklofty – a nearby bushland reserve which lies a little higher up the mountain and where there were still quite a few wattles in bloom. Though the larger, showier Silver Wattles were already in decline, it was a chance for some of the more subtle ones to shine.  It was a glorious sunny morning and everyone seemed to have the same idea. Families with children were out and about, also the joggers and dogs walking their owners. Birds sang. I heard parrots in the trees - Kookaburras, mournful crows and a bird that sounded like it was saying “Get a job.” I really wanted to try to catch the sound of the “Pobblebonk” frogs but their ponds were already dry. Lovely as they sound, I hope the Kookaburras -an introduced species, weren't responsible for their absence....

  -Image courtesy of rawpixel Finally managed to make a small donation to help Maui, but it took a while to find an organisation that uses PayPal. The Sierra Club has a list which includes some which do. For more places and ways to help, click here. By the way, if you had planned on going there for a holiday, this will only make recovery efforts more difficult. Hawaiian Airlines and Alaskan Airlines are happy to rebook at a later date or if you must go now, Hawaiians would love you to visit one of the other islands instead, which I am sure are just as lovely. New ways to donate While doing that, I came across another easy way to help organisations you care about without having to spend a cent. Since I do a lot of searches and have also been experimenting with Bing Chat, I have just joined Microsoft Rewards which automatically donates to reputable charities of your choice via Give with Bing. Since it started in 2021, Give with Bing has donated $27,136,820 to various causes...

Hardly a blossom left and it isn't even spring yet   I’m feeling a bit glum this week because I went out to photograph the spring blossom, but it had already been and gone, blown away by the savage winds we’ve had. Given the events in the northern summer this year with its heatwaves, floods and fires, I am not looking forward to ours, with or without El Nino.  Canada has had more than 5000 fires this year and is still burning with no end in sight. South America even had a heatwave in the middle of winter and then there was Maui .  However, well beyond my personal experience and beyond the concern for those affected by bigger and more frequent disasters, there is a deeper grief - the recognition that our world is changing irrevocably and unpredictably and many things which we knew and took for granted are coming to an end. It’s true that I often suffer from seasonal affective disorder brought on by too many dark winter days and very possibly -like most Tasmanians...