Everyday I lift my head from my pillow and gaze out across the vast valley in front of me to see what the days weather might hold. From out my window I can see 10 to 15 k's across the valley, down the valley 25 kms away I can see Mingenew. You can tell when people are training on the town oval at night as the two huge spotlights point right as us, glaring brighter than all the rest of the town lights. You can also see the lights of any cars on the Coalseam road almost all the way from Mingenew to the front gate.
My drive to work in Mingenew takes me down through the valley, the Nangetty valley, and past 22 kms of crop. The crops are turning, and every day brings a different shade. First the dark green of the rapidly growing crop gets more and more silvery as the wheat throws up ears with their spiky silvery green glumes that sparkle in the sun. As the grains fill, and the days get warmer and longer, the tips of the glumes wither and bleach, tipping the crop like a light dusting of snow on green fields. Slowly the flag leaves, the leaf that provides the majority of energy for the growing grains, begin to die back. Then as grain fill is completed the ears themselves turn a golden brown. If you leave for 4 or 5 days you will hardly recognise the place when you get back! Everyday I see a new colour on my way to work, and a new one on the way home!
There is another annual change from green to gold up here. I didn't watch the transition because I was here too late. I only basked in the golden yellow glow of carpets of millions of yellow pom poms that adorn all the break-aways and roadsides around the farm, and the nearby Coalseam conservation park. Once the pop poms flower come the pink and white everlastings, then an array for three or four other species of wildflowers, depending on where you look. If you have to tolerate a southern winter there is no better place to spend it than in the heart of wild flower country!
My drive to work in Mingenew takes me down through the valley, the Nangetty valley, and past 22 kms of crop. The crops are turning, and every day brings a different shade. First the dark green of the rapidly growing crop gets more and more silvery as the wheat throws up ears with their spiky silvery green glumes that sparkle in the sun. As the grains fill, and the days get warmer and longer, the tips of the glumes wither and bleach, tipping the crop like a light dusting of snow on green fields. Slowly the flag leaves, the leaf that provides the majority of energy for the growing grains, begin to die back. Then as grain fill is completed the ears themselves turn a golden brown. If you leave for 4 or 5 days you will hardly recognise the place when you get back! Everyday I see a new colour on my way to work, and a new one on the way home!
There is another annual change from green to gold up here. I didn't watch the transition because I was here too late. I only basked in the golden yellow glow of carpets of millions of yellow pom poms that adorn all the break-aways and roadsides around the farm, and the nearby Coalseam conservation park. Once the pop poms flower come the pink and white everlastings, then an array for three or four other species of wildflowers, depending on where you look. If you have to tolerate a southern winter there is no better place to spend it than in the heart of wild flower country!
Yellow pom poms growing in a fenced area. The grader is filling in the gully in an attempt to arrest the severe erosion, and revegetate the gully head. The soil is clayey. sodic, and quickly becomes very crumbly once exposed. The paddock at the top of the picture is suprisngly goos grazing country. The dark patches are bluebush (Maireana brevifolia) plants, that the sheep really take a liking to, especially when there is also some grass or straw to eat as well.
And to top it all off a flock of Budgerigars returned last week. They seem to head out to station country during the winter, and are back now to start feeding on all the seeds that have just finished filling.
Sunset in the Nangetty valley.
