Relaxing in Waikerie

I've had a very quiet and relaxing time in Waikerie these past few days;  not really doing a lot to post about but because of plans for the next few days I thought I'd do a post now rather than wait until next week (at some point I think I did promise at least one post per week).

There's no doubt it's summer time in South Australia now - I don't think I've had a day much below 30 degrees since getting here and right now, and for the next week or so, temperatures are expected to climb into the mid-40s every day (and maybe even higher)!

I've been out for a walk a few days this past week, and this might give you a bit of an insight into what the countryside is like here.

As I've mentioned before, my friends live about 10 kms outside of the town of Waikerie and they live on a property that is just over half an acre.  On Christmas Day I posted a couple of photos of one the many gardens and this is what their front lawn looks like, looking at the house from the road in front. If you look carefully at the right-hand side of the photo you can see a little bit of the house peeking out through the trees.  All of the trees are native to Australia and can survive in drought conditions and as you can see, there's no lawn --- not enough rain and not enough water to water it.

Despite the very dry conditions the Riverland area is still a major fruit producing region in Australia - but obviously this requires irrigation!  Across the street are orange orchards - some of which are still producing:

and some of which have obviously just been left without water during Australia's recent drought years.  The tree at the end of the row closest to the road is still producing a bit of fruit because it might get a bit of rain run-off from the road,  but the rest are all in orange tree heaven.

Australia is definitely a land for me though --- not much grows here without irrigation these days and yet these hardy little flowers can be found all along the roadside.  Just my colour!!!

Now for those of you who are wondering, I thought I'd take you back to the baby birds that hatched on Christmas Day.  Whereas I originally thought there were only two, there are actually three little babies - and I am pleased to report that they are all doing well.

Here they are on the day I returned from Edithburgh (Dec. 29):

on New Year's Eve Day (Dec. 31):

on New Year's Day (Jan. 1):

and now today (Jan. 2).  One week after hatching and they are just about ready to fly.  (Unfortunately I'm going to be away for the next three days and will probably miss their actual flight day.)

Something that Waikerie is actually rather famous for is its Gliding Club - with some of the best gliding conditions in the world.  Currently the South Australian Gliding Association State Championships are being held here and it's quite cool to see the gliders up in the sky.  Today we took a drive out to the airport to watch some of the gliders coming in to land after today's flight challenge.

I hope everyone is doing well and for those of you still on holidays - enjoy!