A Splendid Start To Summer Poem by Francis Duggan

On Terry's Hill the birds sing in the sunshine and everywhere looks so fresh after rain
A bright and breezy first day of December and Summer is back in the Hills again
And Puffing Billy Belgrave's renowned steam train up through Selby towards Gembrook puffs his way
At every crossing his driver blows the whistle and history repeated every day.

Two family groups of rosellas on the high gums 'twould seem are squabbling over territory
A dozen of them peck and claw each other on higher branch of ageing gray gum tree,
They look so pretty in their crimson colours though they don't always live in harmony
In Nature's garden birds of the one species in their breeding Season often disagree

It really is a splendid start to Summer a high today of twenty five degrees
The grey shrike thrush on wattle branch is singing and leaves are rustling in the freshening breeze
The pleasant sights and sounds in Nature's garden and the morning air full of Nature's perfume,
The whipbird's voice re-echo in the thicket and the wildflowers in the woodland in full bloom.

This morning is one I will long remember and I wish that every day were like today
And moments such as this last a whole lifetime and from the memory never fade away
And on Terry's Hill the birds sing in the sunshine and Summer is back in the Hills again
And the giant gums are at their very greenest and everywhere
looks so fresh after rain.