I know I discussed this in some detail just recently, but I subsequently found these two photos.

On the left is the aerial view of the goose pond from around mid-2018. BY the greenness of the image, and the volume of water, its sometime after summer. Either late autumn or early spring. On the right, the snapshot was grabbed 2023. The lake has started to dry out, as has the pasture, so I am guessing it is late spring.

What can we see?

On the left border is the goose compound. In 2018 it was a dry, dusty yard. In 2023 the yard is almost 100% under the shade of trees, with the two little buildings partially obscured. Its 10 degrees cooler in the yard on a hot day than out in the sun.

Also to the left, outside the goose paddock are more trees. On the ground its busier than the photo looks. There are more than 5 saplings of large trees that will eventually be tall enough to throw shade into the goose paddock.

In the lower part of the photo is a chevron-shaped paddock...the Tree Paddock. In 2018 there are two visible trees in it. Not quite visible, but getting started, in the top right corner of the Tree Paddock are bluegums, . In 2023 they are very visible. They are now large trees, and plenty of them, providing a lot of shade and habitat. In the last 12 months we have filled the blank spaces with new plantings, and they have thrived in the wet 2022 year.

At the bottom end of the lake in 2018 were a couple of trees. They are mostly wattles, and they have reached the end of their short life. One has collapsed, the other is dying and being overtaken by parasites. But they are rapidly being replaced, and there are many descendent trees in the same area in 2023.

It was bare in the top right of the goose paddock in 2018. There is now a significant clump of tagasaste, grown as a hedge,

In 2018 there was a single large wattle perched precariously on a mound. Its now dead and collapsed, but around it has grown almost a forest of wattle.

On the high wall above the goose lake is now a row of large trees., although its hard to see them in this image. They will eventually throw shade over the pond during the afternoon. This was bare and a crumbling wall in 2018.

This gully was mostly empty in 2018. Now it has quite a lot of growth, including a range of trees. Still room for more....!

I started this ring of olive tree prunings after 2018. The prunings have slowly decomposed and are a flattened pile of sticks now. But initially they provided shade and trapped mulch and dirt. We have had many failures planting into this stony mound, but the mulch has helped get some trees established. Three tagasaste plants show up as largish bushes now, and there are also a range of deciduous trees struggling through. This area is made up entirely of dredging spoil, so its mostly river stones. Once the area warms up as we approach summer it dries out and bakes hard. The ground cover disappears and we have hot rocks baking in the sun. Not very pleasant. Long term we are working on building a layer of topsoil over this area, as well as shading it with trees.

Similarly, this worm of prunings is providing cover for some small saplings to get started. They don't show in the photos, but they are there and growing ok. The soil here is better than the mound/ring of stones, so once they get started the trees should grow faster. The curved zig-zag of the mulch is so the trees grow in a variety of covers to provide windbreaks no matter which way the wind is blowing. That's the idea...how is pans out is a work in progress!