Happy Birthday Callan

my first born Callan is no longer a teenager, he turned 20 today, little did I know that a talented cutie was lurking in the bushes

it's hard work growing up

Happy Birthday my darling

view from my room

on one of the chat lists I'm on they have been talking about the view from their sewing rooms, I have a purpose built (still not big enough) green shed in the back yard and my view is to the back of the house across one of our many frog ponds.
In this part of the garden we have a coffee tree which has beautifully scented flowers on it just prior to fruiting that wafts into the studio.

the very noisy and very productive frog pond

We've had a pair of Doves nest in this tree for many years, often sitting on eggs, this past sitting was when we had the last big wind storms and I think the eggs were left unattended as we didn't see them for a few days, I always talked to them each time I went past as they were only a couple of feet up from eye level.
One night just recently Tim was out the back and said he heard rustlings in the tree and next morning on looking in the nest discovered it was full of half eaten coffee beans, a few nights later he spotted a rat like creature in the tree but as yet hasn't been able to work out exactly what it is.
The Doves have been hanging around confused about what has become of their nest.

This year there has been a bumper crop of cherries on the tree so over the christmas break Tim decided to harvest the coffee beans and have a go again at roasting them, so here's Tim and Callan extracting the beans from the coffee bean cherries

we will keep you posted on the coffee production and on more creature spottings