7 Days of Nature photos : Day 7…

How quickly the 7 days have whizzed by. For this last day I am going to indulge myself with a walk around my garden to show you what is in flower and thriving as autumn sets in.

We had a reasonable amount of rain at the beginning of the year. Summer is usually the wet season, but, of course, you can never rely on weather patterns. Now the dry season, autumn and winter, is here and it is still hot, so I am watering most days.

I’ll start with a wander along the western side of the house, it gets all day sun and is very hot This is were our resident blue tongue lives. But he is hiding today.

Through the gate and into the front garden.

The Brazilian Red Cloak provides a lovely splash of colour and you can see I have just finished watering and not put the hose away.

The small raised herb bed is starting to fill up.

The trees in the next photo are young paw paw trees. Unfortunately it is not possible to tell which is male and which is female until they flower. I have been carefully nurturing 8 and was quite disappointed when 2 produced male flowers so I pulled them out and put them in the compost bin, so now I have 6 and I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Past the front of the house. Notice how the Grevillia is still flowering.

Round to the cooler eastern side of the house and you can have a sit down in the Bali Corner for a while.

Did you notice the small ornament on the table? Jack designed and made him. He is blowing his own trumpet.

Do you remember the blue ginger had just started flowering a month ago? Well look at it now.

The Spanish moss, or old man’s beard, loves the hot humid weather.

So does the crucifixion orchid.

I did say I would not grow vegies or put things into pots. But just look what I have been doing!!!

Yes those are tomatoes in pots. I couldn’t resist. Winter is the best time to grow tomatoes in this climate, not so many pests and diseases affect them. But wait that’s not all.

This first crop of cos lettuce are getting past their best, but look behind them and you will see the second crop coming on.

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Thank you for the nomination Gilly (Lucid Gypsy) I’ll now sink back into less regular blogging habits. For my last nomination I will throw the invite to anyone who is left that has not taken part in this challenge yet.

 

7 Days of Nature Photos : Day 6…

I’m woken at 5-30 by the maniacal, cackling call of a kookaburra. Have you ever heard them?

I found this clip on You Tube

They have not been around for quite some time so I was pleased to hear them, really I was, but would prefer they did not wake me so early.

I peered out of the bedroom window. But it was too dark to see them, or take a photo.

Just a slight tinge of pink on the horizon. So I went to the archives to find some other photos I’ve taken of these crazy looking Aussie birds.

Look at that fearsome beak, they do not hesitate to capture and eat snakes.

Here he is sitting on the deck rail hoping for a hand out.

I’ve forgotten to top up the bird bath and this fellow looks a bit fed up about it.

Finally this kookaburra was bathed in the beautiful golden glow of the rising sun.

After being woken up and deciding it was too early to get up, I went back to bed and listened to the dawn chorus. In the background I could hear the cacophony of cawing from the crows, the chattering of the lorikeets and countless chirping and cheeping of other unidentified birds. Then the clear sweet melody of the magpie rings out. A lovely way to greet the day.

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Gilly (Lucid Gypsy) nominated me for this 7 day challenge and I have enjoyed being part of it. Today I would like to invite Gwennie (Gwenniesworld) to join in. Gwennie is another very keen gardener and loves cactus and succulants, her posts are filled with beautiful photos of nature.

7 Day’s of Nature Photography : Day 5…

The next street over from where I live is called Banksia Broadway and amazingly, last year, the council in their wisdom (?) decided to plant Banksia trees as streetscape specimens. Now I love the Banksia and in a bushland setting they are superb but as they get older they tend to be rather scruffy and quite high maintenance. But now these neighbourhood trees are into their second year they have just started to flower. They stopped me in my tracks as I biked past. I just had to take a photo.

Gilly (Lucid Gypsy) nominated me for this challenge and now into my 5th day I would like to pass the baton onto Sue (Dreamwalker’s garden). Sue has a beautiful garden and her allotment is a sight to be seen with all the vegetables she produces. Coming into spring I’m sure you will have lots of nature photos to show us Sue. Hope you can find the time to fit this challenge in.

7 Days of Nature Photography : Day 4…

Continuing to another part of the Roma Street Parklands after the mysterious and misty fern gully, the Spectacle Garden is a blaze of colour, shape and form. The paths wind round through the beds of annuals and over in the corner I spot a scarecrow protecting a small herb and veggie patch.

I love the attention to detail. Notice how the wall is colour coördinated to compliment the bromeliad flower.

This water dragon stayed so still I thought he was a sculpture, until he turned his head to look at me.

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Thanks Gilly (Lucid Gypsy) for nominating me. I’m enjoying splitting my Parklands day-out into smaller posts. Normally I would do one big post with lots of photos. Maybe this way is better for my followers, especially when time is limited, so many blogs to visit out there in cyberspace…

Today I would like to invite Gerrie (Canberra’s green spaces) to join in this challenge. Gerrie lives in Canberra, Australia’s capital city, a beautiful city with lots of gardens and parks that she delights in showing us. So I think it will be a pleasure to see her daily nature photos. Hope you have the time to fit it in Gerrie.

7 Days of Nature Photography : Day 3…

Roma Street Parklands is a garden lovers paradise and it needs to be savoured in sections to appreciate its amazing abundance and diversity. So moving on from the vibrant, colourful lush tropical garden area where I found the stunning red ginger, I now find the mysterious and secretive fern gully. Jets of misty water swirl over and through the ferns. Intermittent streaks of sunlight highlight leaves and figures move like ghosts through this subtropical wonderland.

Can you see the jets of mist coming up from the ground?

I approach a bridge and while taking a photo two ghostlike figures appear out of the mist.

I can hear the trickle of running water as a small stream winds through the undergrowth and cascades over the mossy rocks.

This could be worlds apart from the tropical wonder I photographed in yesterdays post but it is just created in the same area by providing these plants with the different damp, moist conditions they need to flourish. (to be continued)

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Thank you Gilly (Lucid Gypsy) for nominating me for this challenge. I am going to invite Georgie (third time lucky) to take on this challenge. Georgina has the amazing lifestyle of living on a yacht and sailing around the Greek Islands. I hope you have the time to take this challenge on Georgie.

Garden Photography : Macro… And Day 2 of 7 Days of nature photos.

It’s April and time for a new theme at Jude’s garden photography challenge. This month she is challenging us to get closer to your subject.

As Gilly (Lucid Gypsy) has nominated me to take part in the “7 day nature photo” challenge I will combine them with these photos.

Today I nominate DJ (musings of a frequently flying scientist) to join in. DJ is a fanatical photographer and has an artists eye for composition and a scientists flair for presentation. Hope you can find the time in your busy life DJ.

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Today I visited  the Roma Street Parklands. An oasis in the centre of the hustle and bustle of Brisbane. It is one of the worlds largest subtropical gardens in a city centre. I spent 3 hours immersed in the beauty of these magnificent gardens and I will be showing more of the photos I took as the week goes by.

These vibrant red ginger were tucked away under the foliage and it was the bright red that caught my eye and I had to duck down to get a photo. It was then I noticed the tiny, true flower just peeping out from the whorls of the stem (not sure of the terminology here). So then I tried to take a close-up.

I do not have a DSLR or a macro lens so I got as close as my camera would focus, then did some cropping. Interesting theme from Jude this week as it makes me look closer and study things around me. Jude has a pin sharp bee to show us this week.