Last week I took a photo of some magpies in the garden. 
We have an apricot tree down in the orchard but unfortunately this season we were not able to keep up with the preventative spray to discourage fruit fly. The result is that most of our apricots near the end of this season, have larvae in them. Luckily there were a few good fruit at the start and I was able to make one small batch of jam (2 small jars) and we ate a few with that delicious flavour we remembered from years past.
A few years ago we discovered that the magpies actually like apricots, especially the ones with bugs in them and 
after they have been sitting in the sun for a while. The maggies are quite funny how they come in and quickly grab an apricot and run a little way then stab it to break it up and eat the contents only leaving the seed. This is a great way to clean up the bad apricots.
Next year we will have to use a better spray as a nearby neighbour has a tree full of fruit still on the tree – unnetted too as they have dogs to scare off the parrots.
would need to keep an eye on it and determine what species it was when it flowered next. Well last October we were able to check during the day at the spot where it grew and we were able to see it flower and I could take a photo. The photo helped confirm that the orchid was what we suspected, indeed it was a sun orchid Thelymitra vulgaris (‘vulgar’ meaning common) or the Common Sun Orchid only opens each flower for one day when the conditions are right and of course only if it is a warm sunny day.
