Our garden in summer with the gum trees and tree ferns

Slowly the weather warms. In January, we have long hot days but then the heat finally abates and the sky fills with dense grey clouds and within a few hours the temperature dropps and ill winds, thunderstorms and rain sweep through lightening the sky with forks and flashes and the earthy sound of rumbles of thunder.

After the thunder storms and rain, the returning sun brings a living smell rising from the steaming earth and a freshness to life, as if everything has been washed anew. After so much rain, the earth is soft and rich with dampness and the surrounding countryside is filled with freshness and vigour. Grass and leaves drip heavily with moisture. Such beauty in the sparkling glints. Brushing the tips of leaves, water drips dewed like tiny diamonds – if only they were real! Sun spangled, they shimmer the wealth of nature as they fade upon the cool green leafy veins. Pattern, gossamer spider webs magically appear, stretching across the gaps between bushes, charting their spun passages of eternity. A thin vapour rises from the pool, slowly becoming transparent as the sun appears with its warm embrace.