I went for a walk in the Bindabellas with my family again the other day, along the Square Rock track. We went really early to avoid most of the heat as well as the afternoon storms and everything was nice and fresh after the rain of the day before. There was lots of wildlife about, mostly little lizards and lots of birds. We even saw a bowerbird. He was very beautiful; all his feathers were a deep silky black that shone blue in the sun.
There were lots of flowers about too including a couple of Simpliglottis (Bird orchids) and a Stegostyla (Cap orchid).
When we reached Square Rock it was already rather warm and unbelievably windy. I was honestly sure of being blown off the cliffs if I went too close to the edge. The view was pretty awesome though and well worth the effort.

We also went walking yesterday, this time at the property of a family friend. They have the most gorgeous bush block some way out of town, and invited us as well as a few others to see all the orchids they have in flower there. We saw four species of Diuris (Donkey orchids), a Microtis (Onion orchid), a Calochilus (Beard orchid), an Arachnorchis (Spider orchid), a Caleana (Duck orchid) and a Hymenochilus (Midget Greenhood orchid). I have never seen many of these before, except in pictures, so I was pretty happy.
After all the running about looking for orchids, we had a picnic lunch beside the dam then drove up to their hut for a cup of tea. The weather was gorgeous and it was so nice sitting on the veranda of the little hut looking across the hills and sipping tea. It was also good listening to all the birds and insects making noise as they went about their business, with no human noises interfering other than the happy chatter of the people around me. Their dog thought it was pretty good too, as he was allowed to sprawl on the couch with the people and doze with a rather contented look on his face.