Flowers and bees in MtLawleyShire

Yesterday, it reached 32 degrees.  Spring had truly sprung.  It was the earliest date for such a high temperature.  the sun was bright, but sadly, it was also incredibly windy which meant it was not ideal for taking photos of flowers.  But I got a few – & some with bees 🙂

Small Grevillea with a busy little bee:

 

 

and this is a hoverfly, resting on rather than hovering above, a bright yellow daisy:

 

More Grevillea – the everyday ones, orange ones, the magical pale ones and the rare ones:

 

 

 

 

 

the brilliance of blue leschenaultia on roadsides and in Hyde Park:

 

Geraldton wax, marigold and a rose unblurred by wind:

 

Hibiscus and a lovely fluffy looking flower:

 

blossom on a tree in the park

wildflowers:

 

and I just love these tiny, flamboyant bottlebrush 🙂

A little walk in MtLawleyShire’s urban Spring

A short walk down to Beaufort Street (& no tripping over pavement today, thank you!), and sun everywhere, spilling down on car windscreens and bouncing the light around.  and on flowers too:

roadside weeds and ferals – this is the tiny flower, onion flower, that, since childhood, I have recognised as the portent of Spring:

buttercups (don’t know if they really are, I’ve just always called them that):

 

dandelion heads: constellations against the darkness of distant foliage:

 

my favourite feral – freesia:

A daisy in the wind and a golden hibiscus (with bonus ladybird on the lowest petal):

 

Sage flowers in sunlight & shadow:

& these: Grazia?  I can never remember and people have told me sooooo many times!  Never mind, they are lovely in their infinite variety:

 

 

the centre of one of them:

blossom form a mini orchard behind a tall, dark, wooden fence:

 

not many roses as most are either recently pruned or recovering with new shoots, but there were these two:

 

Grevillea are certainly amongst my favourites of the native flowers, and seem to be around most of the year.  Some, however, do come out in Spring, such as the little white ball of beauty pictured here:

 

& this – a flower from a succulent and the wonderfully pollen-full complexity of its centre:

 

There will probably be another post with more flowers within a few days.  Spring is good for that 🙂

 

A (slightly eventful) walk in MtLawleyShire

I went a-walking to the post-office in the bright warm, early spring sun.  And came across a pink bottlebrush – so soft-looking, more so than the regular scarlet variety:

and in a  daze of looking-around-ness, I failed to see where my feet were and went down, BAM! – on hands and knees, watching in horror as my camera struck the pavement.

OUCH!

I sat, rubbing my knees, looking at my poor camera.  Oh – a chip in the glass!  Noooooo!  Phew.  The filter.  I checked.  All worked, but oh my knees were stinging.  At least I hadn’t ripped my jeans.  My hands were a bit ripped up.  Well, nothing else to do but get up and continue walking and be grateful no-one had seen me.

But I was wrong – I hand been seen:

What was I doing down there, they seemed to be saying (though a friend said no way – they are too stupid.  I’m not so sure).

Relieved my camera was working, I continued walking, defiantly not limping.  Camellia and Grevillea flowers I managed to capture despite the wind that had sprung up:

 

Outside the post office, a wonderful sheoak, in flower, tossing in the wind:

Sculpture on Walcott and the flats it is attached to, shadow bringing out the graffiti inexpertly hidden by layers of new paint:

 

On Beaufort Street, signs of Spring despite the heavy traffic: flowers on grass plants and pretty little blossoms on young street trees:

on the walk home, late afternoon sun through the leaves of a hibiscus:

A cape lilac yet to send forth new shoots, and a raven in the branches, causing the local honey eaters much angst.

 

a plane tree on Vincent in the late afternoon sun, pale and wintered still:

the flower of a vegetable plant and a tiny, early rose in the shadows of a garden:

 

the sun is gone: clouds and storm.  later in the evening, it pelted down!

This morning was sunny and the bees were out in the lavender:

 

tiny jasmine sprinkled through the foliage of other trees:

 

and the prettiest flower of all, up on the pergola roof:

my aches and pains have subsided and I didn’t rip my jeans but skinned my knee like any 12 year old in the playground.  When will I learn 😀

Wildflowers in MtLawleyShire

The wilderness of some verge gardens is simply wonderful.  Some have planted wildflowers and as Spring comes, they bloom.  These flowers are mostly from a young garden, nothing is very big, but everything is flowering.  In a couple of years, it will be a glorious little wilderness, planned with paths and a little pool which will be delightful for bids and bees visiting to sip the nectar:

And all of these are from that one verge garden – Kangaroo paw:

 

golden flowers:

 

blue leschenaultia:

 

bacaon-and-egg flowers:

 

Geraldton wax and something unknown (to me):

 

& these delightful wee Grevillea:

 

Elsewhere along the streets and in people’s gardens, flowers are bursting out.

Bottlebrush:

 

& more on the way:

a different type of bottlebrush glowing in the late sun:

 

Finally – more Grevillea from some of my favourite bushes:

 

and these – gold with the late sun:

 

 

Spring in MtLawleyShire

It was a very Spring-like day today.  Rain tomorrow and early next week, then Spring will hit with temperatures moving to the high twenties.  Today, though, was pretty and pleasant, warm and quiet and filled with colour.  No hint of the terrible summer to come.

And a touch of magic: a fairy door found close to where I live, at the base of a Moreton Bay fig tree shading a street corner.

the area was filled with bird song and the magic of colour:

jonquils and pelargoniums:

 

tiny daisies and the pink variety of buttercup:

 

the lupins have bloomed all over the empty block:

 

not sure what this is with its perfume filling the area, but here are buds and flowers both:

 

flowers of a broad bladed grass plant:

 

an ornamental freesia and an early rose:

 

poppies:

 

the rich hues of an exotic hibiscus squeezing out through a fence:

grass heads catching the last of the light:

 

     

and a cat caught in almost sunset, watching me:

 

A Feast of Flowers in MtLawleyShire

It’s the first day of Spring – as far as the calendar goes, at least.  And the last few days have been too cold and cloudy if not outright rainy for flowers in other people’s gardens.  There are no roses as they are all only putting forth their first shoots, but there have been flowers, and if I was not so thick and weary with ‘flu, I would be out hunting more.

Here is a selection of flowers from the last two weeks, and as it’s officially Spring, I’ll start with blossom – almond blossom, complete with a singing honeyeater.  This tree is always the first to burst into blossom around here:

 

 

 

Native blossoms from around the area:

 

 

 

Geraldton wax & native wisteria:

 

Beautiful iris:

 

camellia and lemon flower:

 

Daisies:

 

poppy & ranunculus:

 

Jonquil & dandelion seed head:

freesias and snowdrops:

 

Dietes and something purple 🙂 :

 

and weeds – lupins and others:

 

lily:

 

and a variety of hibiscus:

 

 

I hope you enjoyed all the colour 🙂

 

MtLawleyShire’s early spring wildflowers

It is Spring.  there is no denying it.  It has been Spring for a few weeks really, a short, not-wet enough winter, with little run-off for the dams.  But the flowers are coming out.  So I went walking around the neighbourhood and down to Hyde Park.

There aren’t flowers everywhere yet, but they are coming.

Grevillea are around most of the year, but they are even more lovely with all the new green everywhere, whether in people’s gardens, growing over the walls and fences, or in the middle of roundabouts:

 

 

 

and you find them in roadside native gardens – I love these pale creamy ones:

 

and these Grevillea in a playground:

 

 

The street bottlebrush trees are coming out and other trees have blossom as well:

 

and this rare loveliness – a native hibiscus in someone’s garden:

In Hyde Park, there is a native plants section and here, the flowers are coming out.  They are not massed clumps of colour yet, but for individual photos, there were enough:

Leschenaultia with its startling blue:

Various myrtles – I love the myrtles:

 

 

& I love these: pink fluffballs

Banksia. these I think are called Candle Banksia:

 

the remains of a different variety are almost as spectacular as the flowers:

 

Gold ones:

 

 

multi-coloured ones:

 

 

small Grevillea:

 

different bottlebrush:

 

kangaroo paw just starting:

Purples and mauves/pinks:

 

and this: a stunning creeper – it  apparently grows very well in gardens.  I am tempted:

Far from MtLawleyShire #2: raindrops

This is the 2nd post of photos from my excursion to Araluen Botanic Gardens, and as I mentioned in my first post, it was raining.  Frequently, heavily every now and then, but there were clear spaces.  Time enough for photos of raindrops on things.

In tulips:

 

On tulips and stems:

 

on their petals:

 

on buds (one is a close-up of the other):

 

on tulip leaves:

 

on other flowers:

 

on magnolia twigs:

 

on a conifer type:

 

on a variety of twigs:

 

 

and finally, the slender blades of a grass tree:

Far from MtLawleyShire #1 Flowers.

Far far from MtLawleyShire’s most extreme borders is Araluen Botanic Gardens.  It is set within the slow rising of land towards the Darling Escarpment, south-east of Perth.  It’s a good hour on good highways from the city, so a fair distance.  It is not exactly a native flora park, though set within some lovely bushland.  Araluen Gardens are famous for their tulips, so, despite the weather (rain & storms) and friend and I went.

and it was lovely.  Rainy, gloomy, but lovely.  And filled with flowers, trees and raindrops on things.

This first post is Araluen’s flowers.

There were azalea and camellia

 

wattles and trees in blossom & the occasional native beauty:

english violets (well, that’s what I call them):

poppies weighed down with rain:

 

a magnolia tree:

 

 

but the main attraction was the tulips.  The massed beds of single and mixed colour (the reds were especially vibrant):

 

 

 

 

 

and the individual flowers themselves:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dragonflies in MtLaweyshire

The delights of getting to grips with a new lens.  OK – it’s not a brilliant lens, and its macro isn’t noteable, but still – I caught some dragonflies – especially ‘in the act’ which meant they stayed still for more than a nano-second!  These are all taken at Hyde Park

 

and hovering!

This one was hovering next to me

and a little red one on the small sandy shore of the western pond at Hyde Park.

 

It’s Spring in MtLawleyshire

🙂