Getting my house back in order after the kitchen removation continues, as well as catching up on uni work – I’m already behind and it’s only week two!
I will catch up with everyone as soon as time permits. ❤
Cloud Catcher
Tag: roses
Plenty of Ibis – but no mountain
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 …
A Week of Flowers
I spent most of the day in my office at the computer today, keeping out of the way of the lovely man who arrived first thing this morning to replace the floor coverings in my main living area. It’s been a massive job dismantling the room, emptying cupboards, removing old skirting boards, taking down the curtains, moving most of the furniture into another room, but we finally got there at around midnight last night.
I planned to spend the day reading through blog posts, which I mostly did, aside from the times when I was needed for something else. I had so much catching up to do! And now I have ideas whirling around in my mind about blog posts I must write. But where to begin?
Cathy, at Words and Herbs has invited us to join her in posting A Week of Flowers, which I thought would be a great place to start. I have spent way too much time indoors this past week, so any excuse to go outdoors is a good excuse. Plus, who doesn’t love flowers? I know I certainly do, and as Cathy said, flowers are sure to brighten the days of people in lockdown.
I missed Day 1 of Cathy’s week, so today is Day 2, for those who would like to join Cathy in sharing some floral happiness around the blogging world. 🙂
First thing this morning, the valley looked sparkly and clear, with just a touch of overnight mist lingering at around 6:15am. Sunrise is at around 5:45am these days as we approach summer, and so far I haven’t managed to get up early enough to see the first rays of morning sunlight touch the top of Mount Warning. Too many late nights, I think!
The sugar cane harvesting season is nearing the end, but the mill was still pumping out steam in the early daylight hours of this morning.
So now, as the day draws to an end, my family room has half a floor. We waved goodbye to our faithful twenty-six-year-old carpet this afternoon as the floor man drove up the hill with a neatly bundled stack of carpet in his trailer, which has served us well, but has definitely seen one too many teenagers’ party! Our floor man will return tomorrow morning to finish the job, which is very exciting. I’m looking forward to arranging all of our uptuned and askew furniture into its correct position again. 🙂
New Beginnings
Today is the first official day of spring in Australia. Everywhere I look on the internet I see “Spring Has Sprung!” talk, yet in my subtropical area of the country I have hardly seen the sun at all today.
The temperature today reached 21 degrees Celsius, so 5 degrees lower than yesterday. I know the heat will return though, so I’m happy to enjoy the cooler weather while it’s here – first day of spring or not!
During the past week I have noticed buds springing from winter-dormant plants all over the garden. I’ve taken several photos and thought today would be the ideal day to share them. That plan has worked out well, as even though I have made a commitment to share a photo of the changing view of Mount Warning each day, I haven’t seen the mountain today! The valley has remained hidden by a layer of misty haze, so hardly inspires an image of the perfect spring day. This is how the mountain, or lack thereof, looks today. It just doesn’t seem right to post a dismal photo today of all days!
During the last few weeks I have planted a few new plants in my garden. The pretty pink tibouchina flower, above, is the first flower on one of my new plants. It’s only about eighteen inches in height now, but it will eventually become a small tree. Can you imaging the beautiful sight of a tree covered in these flowers?
“White Puffs” is not the official name of this flower, it’s the name I have given to a plant I can’t recall the name of! The flowers are so delicate and pretty, and so photogenic that they need to be shared.
My roses are growing incredibly well this year, and the season has only just begun! I am really looking forward to seeing more of my rose bushes in bloom over the next few weeks and I will be sure to take plenty of photos to share. My husband sneezes easily when around fragrant flowers, but even he loves the roses. He draws the line at having jasmine in the garden though. In the early years of our marriage I planted a beautiful jasmine which grew and flowered prolifically over our front patio. I loved the scent and would go into the garden especially to take deep breaths of the gorgeous fragrance! My husband spent the whole jasmine flowering season sneezing. 
I absolutely adore fuchsias! My subtropical climate, however, is not kind to these beauties when planted out in the garden during summer. The solution? I have a fuchsia in a large pot on my front veranda, where it gets just the right amount of morning sun and is shaded and protected from the harsh midday and afternoon sun during the hottest days of summer. This lovely plant has now survived two subtropical summers, and this year has sprouted more new buds than ever before.
Port wine magnolia is another favourite and grows incredibly well in my climate. A few of the buds on the tree near my front door have popped open now, and the fragrance at dusk is amazing! Surprisingly, the fragrance doesn’t bother my husband, well, not too much anyway. 😉
Call me old fashioned – many have! – but to me, a garden just isn’t homely enough without a hydrangea plant or two. During summer I water the hydrangeas every day, remove leaves looking anything but pristine perfection immediately (to prevent any possibility of disease) and prune the old flowers to promote a longer flowering season. I also feed my hydrangeas, as well as several other flowering plants, with a regular dose of seaweed solution which I find improves the health of all plants, either decorative or edible. The start of my first hydrangea bloom only appeared a couple of days ago and I’m keeping a close eye on it to watch its development.
The Prince of Orange (Ixora) is another plant which thrives in the subtropics. The buds have just begun and I expect any day now to see the lovely tiny segments open up in full bloom.
Over the years it’s been a lot of trial an error in my subtropical garden. While there are less “errors” these days, it’s still a “trial” every time I introduce a new variety of plant. It is so rewarding to see so many of my old faithfuls, as well as my new plants, all in bloom even before spring begins this year. 🙂
Flowering During Winter
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. 🙂
In My World 