One Friday we went out bush to gather some wood for the fire. There are designated areas we can collect wood off the ground from. The good wood near the road tends to disappear quite quickly in the season. So we were well pleased to find a few good logs only 50 metres or so from the road. We duly spent several hours sawing and carting the wood and managed to get a good ute load. But there was still at least another ute load to be had. So we decided to come back early the following morning, because we knew it would be weeks before we'd get another opportunity. We had plans already for the Saturday so we got up very, very early. Well, very early for us at least. The sun was only just coming up, it was 3 degrees (almost) when we set off and 8 when we got home. Just as well we like the cold.
The lovely thing about those cold, crisp mornings in our part of the world is that we get the most delightful mists. Here are some pics of mists across the valley's we drove through on our way to the designated wood collection area. Such a beautiful sight. We just had to stop and enjoy it for a while.
We love going out bush to gather wood, or just for a picnic for that matter. We work really hard not to disturb the bush around the fallen trees that we're gathering. It is tricky dodging stuff you don't want to tread on when your arms are loaded up with wood and you're concentrating on staying upright. So we generally find a path first. One that doesn't have any small or new plants and no rocks or other trip hazards. This visit was trickier than most because there were orchids emerging all over the place, plus a bunch of fungi and other small plants growing close to the ground.
I don't know what this little red plant is but it is everywhere.
There were dozens and dozens of orchids coming up. They can be hard to see in amongst all the leaf litter, particularly when it's misty. But we managed to weave a path around them. We're going to head back out to this patch of bush in a month or so to see what kind they are,
There was plenty of fungi to avoid. I think the round black balls are fungi at least. Maybe the wee red plant in the earlier picture is too?
There were also lots of ant mounds to avoid. Apart from not wanting to have a hoard of angry ants running up our legs, we really didn't want to damage all of their hard work in buidling such an interesting home for themselves.
The cobwebs were definitely harder to see. There is one in this photograph I promise. Once the mist lifted and the sun hit the dew drops on them they were easy to spot and magical to look at.
This one is a little easier to see.
The bush is so beautiful. We always make time to just sit and enjoy it when we're out getting wood.
This little beauty was growing on the edge of the track and very easy to spot. What a stunner.
We did have a wee laugh when we stopped to photograph this bush. We'd been to see Bob Downe at the Regal earlier and the year. He'd done a skit about "you know you're getting old when.....you start admiring the bushes in people's garden". Ha!! Guess we're getting old then.
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