Category: in my garden

Australia · birds · in my garden · Mount Warning · movies · native Australian birds · sunset · Tweed Valley · winter

A Day in the Garden

Joanne6 Comments

The valley looked a tad hazy today. I’m not sure why, but it just wasn’t as clear as usual.

Husband and I spent the day in the garden, weeding and mulching garden beds mostly. When we stopped for lunch, we ate on the front veranda and a Noisy Miner also stopped for lunch in the grevillea tree.

After lunch I checked on the bottle brush tree and a few young blooms are appearing. There are also stems that haven’t opened yet, but it’s looking pretty good considering it is still winter.

We have had this orchid in the garden for a few years now. I think my husband rescued it from a throw-out pile somewhere, and even though we don’t give it any special attention it always seems to be in flower.

This is also a flowering orchid – so husband tells me! We brought home heaps of potted orchids from around my inlaw’s garden when we tidied up the house for sale and for want of somewhere to put them, I shoved them on the ground under our large pine cone tree in our front garden. Now this orchid has flowered, yet I hardly even water them! I’m sure orchids must thrive on neglect.

It was just after 6pm when we came back into the house and the sky, just after sunset, looked pretty enough to take a photo.

While husband made dinner, I caught up on a bit more uni work, then we watched the James Bond movie Dr No. I have just finished reading the book for one of my uni units and seeing as I quite enjoyed the book, I thought I’d like to see the movie too. It was so different to the book though! It was well worth watching to see a rather gorgeous Sean Connery as Bond though. 🙂

Australia · birds · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · Tweed Valley · winter

Visitors to the garden

Joanne8 Comments

Today the weather was fine and sunny as far as I could tell. I spent most of the day indoors, at my desk, working on a uni assignment again. There were a few different birds in the garden when I went outside for a break, so I will let the photos do the talking today as I need to rest my tired eyes and mind. xx

Australasian Figbird (Female)

 

Topknot Pigeon

 

Noisy Miner

 

A Friendly Kookaburra
Australia · birds · garden flowers · in my garden · Mount Warning · photography · sugar cane · Tweed Valley · winter

Around the garden

Joanne4 Comments

The hazy valley today, rather than being caused by nearby bush fires or dust-storms, was the result of a few good ole sugar cane fires. They seemed to be burning in all directions and filled the valley with smoke.

The thick tuft of smoke toward the top-right in the photo above is near the sugar mill. Which reminds me, I must take a drive down there and take a few close-ups one day.

Usually when I take photos of kookaburras sitting on this branch, the green cane fields form a backdrop for the photo. Today, it was just smoke. The kookaburra didn’t seem to mind though.

Earlier today I had a visit from Larry and Shilo, my two regular kookaburras who have been visiting for years. This is Shilo, hinting that it’s time for breakfast, I imagine, because she didn’t leave until after I had fed her and Larry.

We had other visitors for breakfast this morning too. Six sulphur-crested cockatoos landed in the palm trees near to the house and watched as I fed Larry and Shilo. They must have decided that minced meat wasn’t to their liking though, and soon flew down to the pecan tree. I didn’t realise there were any nuts left on the branches, but those observant cockatoos knew they were there.

I’m pretty excited about this rose bush. I transplanted it during the colder part of winter – although it is still pretty cool even now – and it has several buds on the bush. This is the second bud to open and I love the velvet texture of the petals. I felt I could be taking a chance transplanting three rose bushes that had lived in the same position for about ten years, but now I’m so glad I did. All three look much healthier than they ever have before, and being closer to the house now I can admire them more often.

One of the most photogenic flowers in my garden each year is the grevillea. The whole tree is covered in buds and blooms, and the native honey eating birds are loving it!

I’m working on a uni assignment again, so I don’t know how much time I’ll have for blogging and taking photos this week. At the very least, I’ll take one each day of Mount Warning. 🙂

Australia · clouds · flowers · in my garden · Mount Warning · photography · seasons · subtropical weather · Tweed Valley · winter

Flowering During Winter

Joanne3 Comments

Somewhere beneath that mass of greyish-white clouds sits the sleeping giant, Mount Warning. I haven’t seen her today at all, but every wondrous landmark needs a break from the limelight once in a while, right? So with the lack of a stunning mountain photo, I’d like to share a few photos I took in my garden yesterday, when the sun shone brightly in the sky and the clouds didn’t get a look in.

This red rose is significant – it’s the first rose to bloom in my garden since last summer. What makes it even more special is that I transplanted three roses about a month ago from where they sat dormant in the garden. I had planted them several years ago under a large deciduous tree, thinking roses would grow well there, but they didn’t. I think they may have had too much competition with the roots of the tree. Also, they were quite a long way from the house, so not as easily accessible for me to tend each day, therefore they were neglected. But look at this beauty now! A blooming rose already, plus there are two more buds preparing to break out. I’m very happy with the success I seem to be having with my roses, and it’s still winter here in Australia.

My mother-in-law poked a couple of cuttings of her white geranium in my garden about five years ago, and they have thrived. Here they are already in bloom too …

… and this dainty gerbera, another plant my mother-in-law gave me years ago is flowering beautifully as well. In my area, gerberas are a flower that seem to be in bloom for most of the year.

I planted a border of alyssum along the full length of one of my garden beds several years ago and most of the plants disappear during the heat of the summer months. Some of the plants resurrected a couple of months ago though after a deluge of rain, and here are the results of my self-sown alyssum.

If only I could tell you the name of this next plant! I remember that it’s an Australian native, and I know it’s been in my garden for a number of years and when the flowers appear they stay in bloom for some time, but that’s the extent of my knowledge. I have an app on my phone to identify plants, so hopefully the rain will have passed by tomorrow and I can give the app a go. I’ll add the name here later if I have any success.

This is another gerbera, and as you can see it’s quite different to the dainty pink gerbera in the photo above. Both of my in-laws have gone into aged care within the past year, and with my husband being an only child we have had the massive task of sorting through their material lives, disposing of things that are no longer needed through either sale, donation or tip runs. My mother-in-law was quite the hoarder and her hoarding habits were not limited to the house either. We have given away massive amounts of pot plants, and what we thought we could use ourselves we brought home. I planted this gerbera not knowing what colour it would be, and although orange is not a colour I usually choose for my garden, it’s an unusual flower and I will always think of it as Irene’s gerbera.

This grevillea is on a small native Australian tree. The flowers disappear during winter, but now I have some young buds reappearing it won’t be long before I have an array of honeyeaters flitting around the branches outside my window.

Last summer I found a small solar powered fountain to put in my bird bath. A few petals blew off my tibbouchina tree the other day when it was windy and landed in the bird bath, so cleaning it out will be a job for tomorrow, weather permitting.

My last photo is the full moon, setting in the western sky the other morning. I have seen photos taken by some lucky photographers who have captured the full moon setting right behind Mount Warning. I’ll have to keep an eye open for the next time that occurs as it would be a beautiful sight to see, and to photograph. 🙂

Australia · family · in my garden · Mount Warning · Tweed Valley · winter

Day and Night

Joanne4 Comments

There was nothing to wax lyrical over when I looked out at the valley yesterday morning. Yes, this photo was taken yesterday, I missed adding my daily post.

My sister called last night, just as I was about to go to my computer and add my Thursday mountain photos. So we talked. And talked, and talked, and talked some more. My sister lives about six hour’s drive south from here, so we don’t see each other as often as we would like, hence the long conversation. I went to bed at 1am, but time spent with my sister is always a priority. I adore her. ❤

Anyway, as the view across the valley looked pretty average (by valley standards!) I took a photo showing the broad view of the area in my garden where I can see the valley and Mount Warning the best. The palm trees are in our garden, the rest of the greenery is next door. The house next door is up to its fifth ownership since the house was built twenty-six years ago, and just like all the previous  owners before the latest – and the ones before, and the ones before – these people are planting large trees that block the view, when low-growing, or well maintained trees, can be just as beautiful. I have often wondered why anyone would do such a thing, but there you have it.

Standing in the same position around nightfall, I took another photo of the same scene. Isn’t the sky pretty? 🙂

Today we have rain, so I’ll have to keep looking out for a glimpse of the mountain. Currently it’s hidden behind clouds and mist. I have some lovely garden photos I took yesterday though, so later today I will add today’s mountain view, however bleak it may look, plus photos from my sunny front garden, taken before the rain arrived.