Category: spring

Australia · challenges · colours · flowers · gardening · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · photography · spring · subtropical weather · sunset · The Week That Was · Tweed Valley

A Week of Flower ~ Day 7

Joanne6 Comments

Oh no, it’s the last day of Cathy at Word and Herbs challenge, A Week of Flowers! I have enjoyed sharing my flower photos so much this week, although regular visitors know that I share garden photos often. Flowers seem to speak a Universal Language of Friendship and Caring, so I will continue to post photos of my garden often. I love Cathy’s suggestion that A Week of Flowers might become an annual event, so I will definitely participate in future years as well. 🙂

Today I am sharing two of my favourite Grevillea photos. Our Grevillea is a small native tree that we planted about 26 years ago, and every year, without fail, we have a mass of beautiful nectar-filled, pale yellow flowers emerging like delicate spiders legs. Our native birds love the Grevillea tree, especially Noisy Miners, with their yellow beaks and eyes. Don’t they colour-coordinate beautifully with the flowers?

Going from the extreme of a small tree to a ground cover, tiny Alyssum flowers are another success story in my subtropical garden. Technically an annual, Alyssums self-sow each year, so I never know where in the garden a new plant may pop up!

Husband and I went out shopping this afternoon as husband needed to go to our local hardware store, which just happens to have a plant nursery attached. 🙂 I came home with several pots of annual seedlings which I will be planting in the cool hours of tomorrow morning, mostly in large pots situated on our back patio. I bought a large tray of ten Alyssums, far too many for the pots, so I will plant the extras along the border of a garden bed in my front garden.

Tonight we had another strikingly gorgeous sunset-orange western sky over Mount Warning. It was another warm day today – parts of Australia are experiencing a heatwave – and as a result, the valley spent the day veiled by a misty heat-haze. Tonight, however, the sun’s rays burnt away the haze and shone brilliantly across the darkening sky.

Thank you so much, Cathy, for the opportunity to be challenged to share flower photos every day for a week. Searching through flower photos to share, and meeting more like-minded flower fanatics who also shared their glorious flower photos certainly brightened my days, and I hope my photos brought some joy to people as well. ❤

Australia · clouds · colours · flowers · gardening · in my garden · Mount Warning · spring · subtropical weather · sunset · Tweed Valley

A Week of Flowers ~ Day 6

Joanne13 Comments

Cathy’s Week of Flowers at Words and Herbs is going way too fast. Here we are at Day 6 already! What is it they say … time goes fast when you’re having fun? This week certainly is fun. 🙂

Last year, I started choosing more drought tolerent plants for my garden. One of the first plants I chose was Gaura, which have adapted well to my subtropical garden which is rich in volcanic clay loam soil. I love the dainty flowers – and so do the bees! – so I planted more Gauras early this spring. This morning when I took these photos, my flower garden was abuzz with activity!

Some Daisies (but not all) are happy in my garden as well, and cope very well with the summer heat. Several years ago I planted this pretty lilac variety, and every once in a while I give them a harsh cutting back, usually when they try to take over the garden bed! In August, when this photo was taken, I had a patch of daisies about three metres long by two metres deep, and they looked just beautiful in full bloom! After the flowers had seen better days, I pulled out a few wayward runners and dead-headed the remaining plants. Within a week or two I expect to see the plants blooming profusely again.

My bottlebrush (Callistemon) is one of the first shrubs I planted in my garden after we built our house over 26 years ago, and it is still going strong. Callistemon is endemic to Australia, and a favourite with our small native honey-eating birds. This photo was taken in August as well, when the garden was springing to life after a brief winter rest.

Today the weather has been pleasantly warm and sunny, and in the early part of the day Mount Warning – the Cloud Catcher – lived up to its Indigenous name by “catching” a passing cloud.

Tonight, the darkening view across the valley, complete with orange sunset sky, looked equally as stunning.

Australia · colours · garden flowers · in my garden · Mount Warning · spring · subtropical weather · sunset · Tweed Valley

A Week of Flowers ~ Day 5

Joanne21 Comments

This week, Cathy at Words and Herbs has asked bloggers to share flower photos to brighten up the grey days as winter approaches in the Northern Hemisphere. Here in Australia we are just a few days off summer, but every day is a good day to share flowers, as far as I’m concerned.

One of the greatest attractions of Cathy’s suggestion, for me, is seeing so many gorgeous gardens, and flowers that I don’t recognise. Some flowers are familiar, but others I can only dream of growing. Our harsh, subtropical climate prevents me from growing some of the more delicate varieties.

My favourite flower colours to have in the garden are shades of purple, pink and blue. Most people would recognise the first photo of a Hydrangea which is one of my favourite flowers, but I wonder, are Tibbouchinas, shown in the second photo, grown in the Northern Hemisphere?

We have enjoyed a fine weather here today. As the last photo shows, there are no clouds tonight and Mount Warning is clearly outlined against the orange sun-setting sky.

I’ve had an extremely tiring day, washing curtains, cleaning windows, vacuuming and mopping floors, in the hope that I would have our living area back in order now the new floor has been laid. No such luck! I think I set my target too high, so I will have to continue getting the room back together tomorrow.

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments this week. For now, I’m off to bed, but I will catch up with everyone tomorrow. I don’t think I will be able to keep my eyes open much longer tonight, so goodnight. ❤

Australia · Changes · flowers · Mount Warning · renovations · seasons · son · spring · subtropical weather · Tweed Valley

A Week of Flowers – Day 3

Joanne20 Comments

We had another dull, but warm weather day today as spring winds down for another year. We usually have several storms during our subtropical summer, and just as I began to type this post, I heard the first clap of thunder rolling around the night skies.

For Day 3 of Cathy’s Week of Flowers, I looked back on photos I had taken earlier this year and found several I had taken in May. My youngest son gave me a huge bunch of flowers for my birthday, and he had chosen some stunning flowers to include. He called the photo above a “Cabbage Rose”. Whether or not that is what this unusual flower is called I really don’t know, but the description certainly suits the flower.

The three photos above were all the same bunch of flowers – such variety!  🙂

If you look carefully at the last photo you will see the faintest outline of Mount Warning. I took this photo quite early in the day, and the view of the mountain became even fainter, if that’s possible, this afternoon. Perhaps tonight’s rain will wash away the haze and I will have a clearer image of the mountain to share tomorrow.

As for the new floor, it’s getting there. There’s just a few details that need finishing tomorrow, but hopefully by Thursday I will be able to clean up the dusty layer covering every surface of the house and turn the room back into my own.

I just love the new floor! It’s so lovely to walk on and it will be easier to clean than carpet.

I think the poor man laying the floor for us hadn’t planned on returning for a third day, but he’d worked a long day and thinks he’ll have the job finished within a couple of hours. Husband and I both agree he’s done a wonderful job for us and has taken great care to give the floor a smooth finish, which we appreciate very much.

It will be interesting to see how the rooms comes together now. I’m on a decluttering spree – which has lasted, so far, about a year, but that’s another story for another day – so I don’t intend taking anything back into the area unless I am sure I will use it.