TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ Wilted!

Fresh flowers in my en suite, happy and vibrant, exuding their

sweet scent one day

and tired and wilted the next. My little bathroom is the coolest

room in the house but with temperatures in the 40'sC, nothing

lasts . . .

The same for the freshly picked lilies in my bedroom. Full of

life and most wonderfully perfumed,

twenty four hours later, drooping with desiccated leaves . . .

even the bud is drooping. I have never seen lilies so badly affected

by heat. Normally they give one pleasure for up to two weeks.

Everything, including me is wilting in this heat wave.

My roses are like crisps, maybe I could bag and market them as a new snack!

If you are not too languid from the swelter, you could lift a finger and enlarge.

TODAY'S FLOWERS is sponsored by Luiz Santilli Jr., do click on the Logo and join in.

Shadow Shot Sunday ~ A Little bit Askew

Life rolls on with a few shadows here and there when

suddenly it all shifts and hangs askew . . .

Tracy at HEY HARRIET has shadows galore, just click on the Logo and

open a Pandora's box and add some of your own.

SkyWatch ~ Ploughing the Sky

Driving towards home I watched these great furrows appear

and hoped I could still catch them as I only had my mobile

(low resolution camera) with me.

I dashed out of the car, did a diving tackle for my camera and

was out there shooting and only just got some snaps off before

the Great Ploughman called it quits and went for lunch.

I think He was thinking of lunch anyway as the furrows became

more crooked and thickened into a move uniform cloud cover.

One last look at the blue and white summer sky and the show

was over.

Dear friends, I must once again ask you to show forbearance

as the home front situation curtails my visiting and even more

so my commenting. Please do leave comments it you can for they

invariably brighten my, at the moment, rather stressful days.

Thanks to the perseverance of the SkyWatch Team this meme runs

like clockwork. Do click the Logo to join in or just visit.

MY WORLD ~ Time Out at the Seaside

On Sunday I played hooky for half an hour or so and drove down

to the beach after dropping off my sister at the airport.

It had been a hot day but there were not many people there.

An occasional boat sailed by, a lone head bobbed in the water

and I tucked my long dress up my knickers and my camera

under my shirt. and braved the warm waters up to my knees.

The water was as warm as a bath inside the sand bar and sheer

bliss swirling around my tootsies, my soul sang and troubles

miraculously faded away.

A group of people were flying ginormous kites like birds of prey,

while I just stood and admired the view to Glenelg and basked

in the wonder of the sea.

All photos enlarge of course . . .

Thanks to the MY WORLD Team we can all wonder the world at will

so click on the Logo and join in or just admire.

Shadow Shot Sunday & TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ Eucalyptus macrocarpa

Like a sea anemone, the petals of Australia's largest flowered

Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus macrocarpa, seem to wave and feel

around for something to capture.

Here is the whole flower, some 3-4" wide and a very spectacular

bloom. It is a native of Western Australia and, although we have

two small trees in our park, they do struggle in our very dry climate.

Thanks to HEY HARRIET for the Shadow Shot meme, and

Luiz Santilly Jr. For TODAY'S FLOWERS.

Both memes can be accessed through the relevant Logos at the side.

SkyWatch ~ The night before the fog

I suppose I should have shared these last week but somehow

the poem grew out of the fog so I gave you that instead.

Something drove me out of the house just at the right moment

and this is what greeted my eyes . . .

so, for the next three minutes I did some serious snapping.

This one I did pop in last week but thought you would forgive

the repeat since here it is in its right context. That crazy colour

was over everything . . .

it took a while to get my mouth shut again, just look at those

colours!

From rich to richer, this one does not look like much but enlarge

it and you will see the fluidity of the colours in the sky

and then the sun scaled the horizon and the world became a

different place again.

Where would we be without SkyWatch Friday???

Just click the Logo and join up or just see what the skies in the

rest of the world are up to.

World Birds, Watery Wednesday & Nature Notes - Little Grebe

The Little or Australasian Grebes, Tachybaptus novaehollandiae,

returned this year to nest in our farm dam again. They remembered

after two years when there was not enough water or the dam was

a cracked and barren dry dust bowl. This year they luckily nested

before the dam had filled to the top and overflowed thus having

still the cover of the dry reeds as a hide. Luckily the water level

rose after they were hatched and the parents carried their two

chicks on their back for quite some time to keep them dry and warm.

Although it was a very rainy winter and spring and the nest was

swamped, both chicks survived. Like Princess Mary's, they were

a mixed pair, a cheeky little boy above, and a shy little girl below.

Sorry, she stayed way out in the middle of the dam and I had

no tripod, while he came towards me quite inshore to check me

out.

Here is the family photo of both of them. Apparently young

Charley was too close to me and dad came rushing over to

shoo him to deeper water.

A month ago the stepping stones were a good foot under water

and although the weather has not been very hot or windy, the

evaporation rate has been high.

Here they are again yesterday, high and dry.

NB Although the water level is well above the height of the old

reedbed, the nest the grebes built, has become a raft to which the

young grebes retreat to preen and sleep safe from marauding

foxes and cats.

All photos conveniently enlarge for the interested.

Thanks to all those who organise the three memes I am posting

this on. Please click the relevant Logos on the side to join any or all

of them or just see what is happening elsewhere.

TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ Petunias

In the heat of summer, when you can't cope with taking care of

a large garden any more, one can still have some bright colour

with a few petunias in a pot.

Not only are the colours cheerful but the detail of veining is

quite spectacular.

Pretty colour and a few drops of dew even make for a pretty

picture.

Enlarge if you wish . . .

Thanks to TODAY'S FLOWERS we can all share what gives us pleasure,

click on the Logo to join the fun.

Shadow Shot Sunday ~ Just Shadows

The path along the front of the house is an infinite source of

morning shadows . . .

a constitutional walk in the morning along the tracks between

our paddocks opens another world of colour and animals

seeking shade from the hot summer sun.

Our paddocks are dried off unlike Queensland, New South

Wales and Victoria who are all in the grip of floods while

Western Australia has been fighting deliberately lit bushfires.

Massive floods have also beset Sri Lanka and Brazil. In Sri

Lanka the loss of life has been horrendous. Brazil

has had major landslides as well as floods.

In Queensland the population has rallied as a whole and are

helping complete strangers to clean the mud and debris from

their houses, tradesmen are offering their services free of

charge as are veterinarians. There have been traffic jams with

long queues of cars of people volunteering aid.

Hats off to the Queenslanders showing true community spirit!

Tracy, one of those brave Queenslanders, at HEY HARRIET, hosts

this meme. I for one hope her house stayed dry.

SkyWatch & Nature Notes ~ Fog

Fog, like a creeping thief

came silently at night

stealing away the hills

and houses that we knew

trees close at hand

loom up like ghosts,

the jewelled pond at sunset

is tucked within the bag upon his back

and is no more.

Only the nearest garden fence

has some existence,

all else has gone into

a whiteness dense as rock,

no sky, no landmark

and no sound or call

an eerie stillness

blankets over all

and still he creeps . . .

dim headlights loom

and tremble as they

inch upon their way

where all that yesterday

was bright and gay

on waking ,

has been spirited away.

* * * * * * * *

All photos grow on you if you bother to click them.

Thanks to SkyWatch, we can all share what goes on around us.

Click on the Logo to join in or just look around.

Thanks to Rambling Woods and Nature Notes we get an insight

into changes around us. Click on the Logo to join in the fun.

TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ The Rose Gate

I have posted photos of this gate before but from inside the

garden. This time I am showing it to you from the paddock.

Since there were no cows there, the roses bloomed in great

profusion. They have stretched themselves a long way along

the fence.

The black hole is all that is left of the gate and archway. Now

I have to almost go on all fours to exit the garden that way.

Looks like I will have to mount a serious attack with the

pruning shears next autumn.

Moving in a little closer, does anyone volunteer to count the

number of blooms on the whole rose?

Moving closer still, one little bract of blooms is a whole bouquet.

Enlarged they give you a better idea of what they look like and

the last picture will let you see the roses in almost actual size.

Click on the Logo to join the meme or just to enjoy the flowers.

My thanks to Luiz Santilly Jr. who hosts this meme as well as his helpers

in its smooth running.

And thank you Luiz for having me as guest friend.

Shadow Shot Sunday ~ Outback

What we call the Outback in Australia, far away in the hot inland

in the North Flinders Ranges, a place I dearly love, shadows frame

the shearer's quarters at Wirrealpa Station,

lend mystery to a rockface

and magnify the wrought iron struts of an extinct camel saddle.

My photos like to be enlarged.

Pop over to HEY HARRIET and join, just click on the Logo.

SkyWatch ~ . . . But a Moment in Time

Summer skies, shot within seconds of each other in less than

a minute, with no adjustments whatever.

Quite a lot happening all in the blinking of an eye . . .

This one was taken looking straight up to see the clouds darting

in all directions.

They all enlarge for closer inspection.

With many thanks to the Skywatch team for keeping this great meme afloat.

World Bird Wednesday & Nature Notes - White-Plumed Honeyeater

Nothing spectacular today, just a White-Plumed Honeyeater,

Lichenostomus penicillatus, that spends its summers on our

farm darting around at high speed.

photographed in our wild wood across the creek with shadows

everywhere.

For a better view it can be enlarged.

Thanks to World Birds Wednesday for providing this venue to show our birds,

and to Rambling Woods for Nature notes. Both can be accesses by clicking on

the respective Logos.