Day 155/366

In another effort to shake off the  overbearing mundane feeling I'm experiencing at the moment Mr Honey Pie and I went for a long bush walk today.

The weather was threatening rain but we did not allow this to deter us.

Because of the chance of rain  we left the camera at home and had to rely on Mr Honey Pie's mobile phone camera.

The results were a big fail but I was able to salvage this photo by editing it a little on Picasa.

We are lucky to live within a few metres of a fire trail which is a popular walking track for locals.

The trail meanders through a mixture of dry and wet sclerophyll forests.

After the recent wet summer the creeks were in full flow and spilled noisily over the rocky ledges as they accompanied us down into the flourishing valley.

Climbing back out to the real world we came upon the above plant; a native pittosporum in fruit.

This is the first time I've seen the burst seed pods of a native pittosporum.  In summer the creamy coloured blooms give off a strong fragrance and this has lead the plant to it being commonly called native Daphne.

These plants tend to become a bit weedy as the sticky seeds are easily spread by birds.

It's not uncommon to find pittosporum growing in amongst potted plants in native and exotic gardens alike.

Native pittosporum features strongly in Eleanor Dark's novel Prelude to Christopher.

He was beginning to feel exhausted again, and, to his annoyance, found his tongue expressing his thought in a way that was obviously ridiculous:

"Roses - don't smell - of pittosporum..."