Ever since I read about the six Nyoongar seasons on the Petit Paradise blog, I’ve been mindful of the not-so-subtle changes of the seasons in our area too. Sure, we’ve been overly busy with construction projects at both Homeland and Dreamland, but sometimes you just have to take a breather and appreciate the joys of the changing of the seasons. So this photo-essay shows the bursts of growth we are experiencing in Ballambar - the Early Summer season in our area, especially after the solid bout of rain we’ve had lately. What a joy!

Summer rain

In the last 2 weeks we’ve had 23mm + 7mm + 7mm in three separate bouts of rain. Rain on the roof is music for the mind – rain running into the tanks is bliss for the brain.

Rain in the backyard, with some hues of Christmas lights

Rain on the driveway

Berries

The strawberries, black- and tayberries as well as the raspberries are all fruiting.

Tayberries

Strawberries in the terrace

Fruits

This little pear, shown with its companions, was only planted this year, and it’s already fruiting – that’s a first for us.

Many of the trees we planted last year are now bearing first fruits. This is so exciting! If all goes according to plan, we may have something like 3 plum, 8 pear and about 10 apple varieties to sample, together with maybe 3 or 4 different types of grapes. Not big harvests yet, but enough to sample and share a handful with our neighbours.

Sensation(al) pear along the driveway

Plumcot looking yummy

Narabeen plum first fruit

Little pear next to the vegetable patch

Another pear along the driveway

Most of our citrus trees, except (sadly) for one Tahitian Lime are all showing good signs recovering from the frost damage.

Meyer Lemon showing good recovery despite the onslaught of the pestering couch grass

Next steps

Now the challenge is to keep the birds away from the fruits and out of the berries, but that is a totally different story!