Wild Bird Wednesday - New Holland Honeyeater

All winter this Grevillea has been flowering and feeding the 

resident New Holland Honeyeater as well as a few others.

Now, also this large Banksia is full of delicious nectar and well 

worth protecting.

A quick feed and 

back to sentry duty warding off the much larger Wattle Birds.

There's one . . . come on boys, attack!

Linking with

Wild Bird Wednesday

with thanks to Stewart for hosting the meme.

TODAY'S FLOWERS - Birthday Wonders

On this special day for me, when I reach my first

three quarter century, I went around the garden

and park to show you the wonders mother nature

has blessed me with on this one day. This is but a

selection of all that is flowering at the moment.

My shade-house full of scented and other orchids

is not even touched upon here.

The wisteria along the house is in full bloom.

On first waking very early, this Adelaide Rosella was nipping

off the new shoots of my rose bushes.

I went to the farmers' market and on my way back, saw this

amazing tree peony. The elderly gentleman kindly invited me

into his garden to photograph it and insisted on presenting me

with a bloom for my birthday!

With these few hardy tulips, I would like to thank all those of

you who so kindly prayed for us, sent kind thought and light.

Your intervention on our behalf has already paid dividends as

the prognosis for my wonderful sister has changed from an

impossibly frightening one, to a more hopefully operable

contained brain tumour close to the scull.

The operation is scheduled for Monday so please if you can,

continue with your support a little longer.

Below is my birthday tree that never fails to have at least a

few blossoms on the day. This year it is in full flight and a joy

to behold

I thought with all the turmoil in the family my birthday would

pass unnoticed but to my great surprise, suddenly last night

my son, daughter-in-love and youngest granddaughter

materialised on our doorstep!

Above, a close up of my birthday tree and below a mountain

of gold . . . am I rich or what??

Everyone should have a daisy a day . . .

Heading into the park, I was greeted by Sam who excitedly ran

towards me faster than I could get his tail into my sights.

The Judas tree is full of pretty pink buds,

This ash that I cannot remember off hand has bright pink flower

like leaves.

the Choke CHerry, Prunus padus, takes me back to my Latvian

childhood with it's wonderfully heady scent.

The Banksia is covered in golden birthday candles just for me

and even the young oak that I grew from an acorn is flowering

for the first time

and lucky last, these deep pink blossoms on my red-leafed

crabapple.

And that is not the half of all that is in bloom at the moment.

I wish each and every one of you a happy day!

Just click on the Logo and fall into a wealth of flower and show

your own as well.

OuR WORLD - Spring in the Grampians II

Our world is big beautiful and diverse and all our little corners

of it are different. Here are a few snaps of one of my special place,

The Grampians in Victoria, great granite outcrops and a wonderful

garden of Eden after rain. This year there has been plenty of rain,

in fact, enough to wash out most of the roads and bridges in the area.

A little sun orchid smiling at my camera.

A great big patch of hooded green orchids, you really had to

mind where you planted your feet to avoid damaging them.

The white stems of trees burnt a couple of years ago

behind ghostly white bushes.

Mind your feet, a tiny bright green bush, no more than 4-5"

high with a citrus coloured bud.

A great big Banksia, tucked between Eucalypts and Acacias.

The ants are building high again, looks like there is going to

be more big rain. I hope it does not wash out any more roads.

A recent fire seems to have wiped out all vegetation but the

Xanthorrhoea has survived and is sending up a great flower

spike.

An odd plant that I had never seen before with leaves like a

Holly only softer.

Some of the erosion caused by the great rains earlier in the year

and the footprint of a wallaby in the soft moist sand.

I know this is a very long post, have I put you to sleep yet?

If so, just leave me a thank you note and hit the hay. If you are

still awake, bear with me, there are only 3 pikkies to go.

If you don't enlarge any of the others, at least embiggen this

one to see God's own garden.

Normally this country is dry but after rain, ah, after rain it

all comes alive

and, aha, there it comes.

Click on the Logo to join in the fun and show us what your world

looks like!

MY WORLD ~ A Walk in the Park

Last week was rainy to overcast but no matter, I felt the call
of the wild so on with my Wellingtons . . . for those of you
unacquainted with these handy devices, a brief explanation:
The Iron Duke (Wellington) seemed always to fight his major
battles in wet, very wet, weather which. needless to say with
so many soldiers, cavalry, cannon drays and the like, created a deal
of mud. When the trusty rubber boots were invented they
naturally were named in honour of his Lordship, the hero of
Waterloo.


*
My feet now safe in my Wellies, My camera tucked under my
jacket, I ventitured forth across the paddock to the park. For
many reasons I had not been there all winter and now was
already mid-spring.
*
Above the bearded flowers of maples, below, the sunny gold
of my favourite Wattle, Acacia saligna, bright even on a grey
day.
*

*
Resilient nature way paying tribute to the first really soaking
rains since 1997, everything looked bright eyed and bushy tailed.
I have seldom seen such a prolific flowering on the Banksia,
really quite a sight with its candles all alight.
*

*
You may not think it but this cascade of gold hides a path . . .
Either wade in the dam or play Tarzan and break through
the jungle. Fearing to drown my camera in the former mode
of progress, I opted for the latter
*

*
and safely made it through to the other side. Looking back,
my passage was once more blocked as though I had never been.
*

*
As you see below, the dam/swimming hole is fuller than full.
The overflow is running nicely thank you and it will again be
possible to dive in and cool off in the summertime, snakes
and all!
*

*
The Logo is a peep-hole into other people's lives and surroundings.
*
Thanks to our ever industrious MY WORLD Team we can once
again link hand across the oceans.

TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ Winter Wonders

Captured this afternoon on my walk with cat and camera.
Banksia flowering in the park.


*
Banksia seed pods, the brown one from last year, the grey from
previous years.
*

*
The ground littered with Eucalyptus flowers picked by naughty
parrots just for something to do.
*

*
The underside of a Eucalyptus flower
*

*
and held in my frozen, gloved hand so you could see it face on.
*

*
Flowers bloom in all seasons and all around the world, click

on the Logo and be surrounded by fields and bouquets of them.

TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ 11 Australian Dryland Flora

Here are some of our Native Wildflowers ,
survivors in coastal sand dunes and desert country.

The Desert Wattle, no more than 18" high in the
Little Desert Nat.Park blooming it's little heart out



These I found in coastal sand dunes on the
Eyre Peninsula. I have tried to find their name,
but even in the Nat. Botanical Gardens there is
no listing for them. I have seen them grow into a
4' bush covered with these pea shaped flowers.



Sturt's Desert Rose, quite a large bloom 3-4" across.



A beautiful Banksia flowering on a coastal cliff,
grows to a medium sized tree.



The lovely little Sun Orchid in the Little Desert.

Another low growing, profusely flowering desert

dweller.

The Pincushion Hakea, Hakea laurina, needing a

litttle more water but quite stunning when covering
a 15' bush.

and last but not least, the stunning red Correa

Just a small selection of some off our dryland flora.

My native flora books are not to hand at present so
botanical names are in short supply. Enjoy the colours.

Please visit flowers around the world via Logo on right.

My thanks to Luiz Santilli Jr., Denise B. Castro and

Laerte Pupo for their splendid organization of this meme.