Thursday 7 January 2016

Penny camouflaged

Penny was almost invisible recently, after she frolicked in a mud puddle, enjoying the rare experience of rain, and then rolled in the dry dirt where there used to be grass.

And now she's at it again, blending in to the indigenous grasses of another park.

Isn't it lovely to see how the native grasses can cope with the current dry weather? Thank goodness for the people who work so hard to put in appropriate plants that can support wildlife. (Volunteers, for the most part.)

It's hard to keep non-native grassed areas alive now, with such a lack of moisture, and you can see in the next photo what a difference it makes if the area is watered. The more distant part has received water, in order that sporting events can go ahead.


I used to be critical of the use of water on sporting grounds, until I went to a talk recently about how decisions are made when allocating our precious water resources. The speaker told us that in the awful Millennium Drought, suicide rates soared in many towns when sports grounds were allowed to go to ruin, and when consequently sports events were discontinued. The psychological value of such community events is incalculable.

I sure hope we're not creeping into another drought...

6 comments:

curator said...

My goodness, I could barely spot her! I send my best wishes in general - and also to hope with you for a wetter year.

Molly the Airedale said...

You are very camouflaged, Penny! We sure hope you don't have another dry season!

parlance said...

Curator, the current strange weather around the world sure puts us humans in our place. We're just one cog in a huge natural system.

parlance said...

Mitch and Molly, I feel sure Penny would love to come over to your place and swim with your birds. Pity it's so far away, lol.

Charliedownunder said...

Crikey I had to look and look to see Penny. G'day ..... my names Charlie and I'm a whippet. I just popped over from Lassiter Chase and Benjamins post because I saw your comment and thought you must be in Australia. I live in Australia too and most of my blogging mates live in the USA so I always look out for anyone closer to home. I'm sure glad I found you. It's nice to meet you. I hope we can be friends.

parlance said...

It's great to have another Aussie to chat to, Charlie. I'll pop over to your blog and say hello.