Stars, Venus and That Cabbage Tree

It's nights like these that make me realise how spoilt we are living here on Banks Peninsula. We've had a great day sorting out our shed - with the help from my indomitable Mum and Dad - and then relaxed with a couple or three glasses of something fizzy down by the river.

Our evening drinks were made even more special by the chorus of birdsong that enveloped us; bellbirds, grey warblers, fantails, swallows, shining cuckoos, waxeyes and fantails all singing along whilst we quaffed, with the heavy wingbeats and clumsiness of kereru in the willows also providing entertainment.

With a dark sky just the other side of the back door, I've just sneaked outside to grab this shot of Venus and the Milky Way looming over one of the cabbage trees flowering in the garden. It's a beautiful thing to be able to stand outside and marvel at the night sky with the heavenly vanilla-lily smell of the ti kouka flowers hanging in the air.

Life, like the cabbage tree scent, is indeed sweet....