Tag: Gaura

Australia · clouds · garden flowers · in my garden · kitchen renovation · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · rain · reading · summer · Tweed Valley

There’s been brighter days …

Joanne7 Comments

The rain continued today, in fact, I awoke to the sound of heavy rain which hardly let up all day. Husband tells me that according to his trusty rain guage we had two inches of rain overnight.

Given we have had another dismal day, therefore I don’t have a beautiful Mount Warning photo, I have looked through more unpublished photos taken in my garden.

Noisy miner

The birds continue to visit every day, come rain hail or shine. I haven’t been keeping to my usual routine time-wise when feeding them breakfast recently though, as many mornings are completely filled with being on standby for tradesmen who are renovating my kitchen. The birds are extremely patient creatures though, and wait on the veranda for me.

Gaura

I had the electrician here all day today, and he switched the power to the house off (obviously) to install my new range cooker, a single wall oven, the microwave, and various power points and lights. I couldn’t go outside into the garden because of the rain, and everything I thought of doing required power … typical.

Catmint

After I had read through my three new appliance manuals, I decided to read some more of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I’m a late arrival to the Harry Potter series, and I have decided that if I had attempted to read the books when they were released, I would not have fully appreciated them. Reading the books now, however, I find them difficult to put down.

Lilly pilly

For a break from reading, I went onto Facebook occasionally to chat with my daughters on messenger. A quick scroll through Facebook, however, revealed quite an unusual situation, which has  been thoroughly discussed on Facebook throughout the day. Tonight on television, the discussion continues, regarding Facebook’s decision to remove the content of several Australian pages from the website. Many Australians are considering, and have implimented today, alternative options to Facebook.

Again, I am considering the question – do I really want to remain on Facebook?

Australia · birds · clouds · garden flowers · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · subtropical weather · summer · Tweed Valley

Plenty of Ibis – but no mountain

Joanne11 Comments

One day during the week, when I spotted an Ibis in the front garden, I soon discovered it was not alone. There were ten! I kid you not, I counted ten of these massive birds pecking through the overgrown grass, which, when it is dry enough to mow, we like to call our lawn.

Today I saw just four Ibis peck, peck, pecking away. Most people call these birds ‘Bin-Chickens’ – they are scavengers who will eat just about anything edible.

So as I wouldn’t frighten them away, I took my camera, ever so quietly, out the back door, snuck around to the side of the house, and zoomed in on them. It didn’t take long for their keen hearing to pick up on the fact that they were being watched, so they headed up the driveway to the road, undoubtedly searching for longer, greener pastures.

While taking photos of the Ibis, it occurred to me that I rarely take photos of a whole section of my garden. I usually – hmm, perhaps always – zoom in on the beauty of each individual flowering plant. For a change, today I took a photo of the garden beside my driveway. In this photo, I see New South Wales Christmas Bush, Gerberas, white Gaura, (lots of Gaura!) Duranta, Hydrangea, white and purple Buddleia, Port Wine Magnolia, lilac Daisies, and Roses. I do have the (unfair) advantage of knowing my garden though! And it goes against the grain not to show a close up of individual plants, so I won’t show full garden photos often – I promise. 😉

We had hot, dry weather today, and cloud so low that Mount Warning didn’t have a hope of making an appearance. The crazy-cloud patterns continued, hiding the setting sun as well. The weather has been so changable lately.

I wonder what tomorrow’s weather will bring …

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.