This Month In The Garden - March

It's been a while since I've posted about my garden, simply because a) it can be a bit repetitive and b) there's been a few disasters which are repetitive (read possums, birds, antichinus, and who knows what else eating the fruits of my labour).

But here's a little surprise...somethings I've grown for the first time and have had some success with.

 The above is the flower of the galangal plant, which is I think related to the gingers and has the most exotic scent. I literally watched this bloom open before my very eyes.  The flowers I must say, are short lived but their fragrance can be experienced from metres away. 

My other success has been the curry leaf tree.

It too flowered and I'm waiting to harvest the seeds so I can propagate them. 

These plants can become weedy so the flowers or seeds need to be removed and disposed of before the birds spread the pods far and wide.

~

We've had a pretty wet and at times cold summer, and it wasn't until last week that I spotted dragonflies in our garden.

This male, I'm pretty sure he's a Male Common Glider Dragonfly - Tramea loewii, stayed still long enough for me to take a 'point-and-shoot' shoot.

It looks like he may have tangled with a spider's web.

~

Here in the southern hemisphere we're gearing up for the Autumn Equinox! And an early Easter.

Counting Pollinators

My health has taken a bit of a tumble lately and as a result I haven't been up to much.

But it's not difficult to become involved in the Wild Pollinator Count. I'm endeavouring to do this as often as I can in the time frame.

If you're in Australia you may want to take part too.  You've got until the 22nd of November.

Taking photographs of your finds is optional but I managed one or two not-too-bad captures today so here they are. (Bearing in mind I used my point and shoot camera.)

I chose a large stem of elder flower from which to make my observation.

I spotted a fly (there was a second much smaller fly too)

and a European honey bee as well as some unidentifiable insects that reminded me of midges; and what looked like a pintail beetle which was too swift for me to even begin to take a photo.

It's nice to see the sun shine after weeks of wet stormy weather but the prediction is for heat wave conditions with temperatures in the low forties.

Linking to Outdoor Wednesday

Our World Tuesday

Autumn Already

Summer is almost over, here in the southern hemisphere, and I'm beginning to already feel autumn in the air.

My favourite season is most definitely autumn.  This February has indeed been the season of mists because of the many days of rain so far.

None the less, we've had the odd sun shower and much humidity and the gardens are seeming to thrive on this unlikely mixture of weather.

Yesterday afternoon, Little Miss Seven danced in an afternoon rain shower while visiting her uncle at his new house and picked an exotic assortment of flowers. 

She left them at our house last night and this morning I couldn't bear to throw them out so arranged an outdoor bowl of flowers. 

 

But now I'm facing a dilemma; I love to have decorative bowls around the garden, filled with water.

This one catches drips from the garden tap on our front verandah. I know water attracts snakes to the garden but I haven't worried too much about this as in our fifteen years living here we have seen maybe one or two. I've figured that the benefits of having water for other wildlife outweigh the risks.  That is, until today...when I spotted the largest, sleekest, blackest, red belly black snake in my entire life(and believe me, I've seen a few) in my front garden. Now I have to rethink this practise - at least until the weather cools. 

I Love This

I love this peony. 

Until today, I had never seen a real peony!

And what I love even more,is that my son received a little bouquet at work, for his birthday today, from a female friend.  Of course the peony was the centre piece of the bouquet.

The fragrance is heavenly!

One Four Challenge – NOV WK 3

This week, I used the week 1 image and opened it in Fotosketcher and in drawing parameters I chose expressive brushstrokes.

Because I'm not feeling confident in Fotosketcher, and knowing what I could achieve in Picasa, I saved the image and re-opened it in Picasa where I converted it to black and white and then sharpened the image slightly, increased the shadows and added a bit of warmth to achieve the effect of an ink drawing.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

To visit more One Four Challenge images, hop over to Robyn at Captivate Me.

There you will find how the challenge works, how you can join,if you so wish, and other participants' work.

I Do This Every Day...

There are a lot of things I do every day; brush my teeth, cook, clean, make the bed, shower. All pretty regular sort of stuff.
But there's one thing I just love to do and even if the weather is poorly I still try to do it...and that is take a little wander through my garden.

This spring, the weather has been exceptional and everything is blooming beautiful!

So I've created a collage to showcase a few of the flowering plants that have risen to the occasion.

I hope you enjoy them and thank you for visiting.

One Four Challenge – Nov WK 2

So many people have taken up Robyn Gosby's One Four Challenge and this week, Week 2  which was posted yesterday by Robyn, has already had a wonderful response.  It's making me feel very much like a small player way out of my field!  But it is a challenge after all and it has once more, forced me to look at the craft of photography and is now making me think more seriously at how I use the camera.

But since I have already chosen November's image, it's my photo editing skills that I have to concentrate on, and as I've only got Picasa to work with that is what I'm using.  I looked at Pic Monkey on the Internet today but decided that it's not too different from Picasa so will stick with that for now. But it has me now wanting to investigate other photo editing programs.

So, here is my week two photograph.

Using last week's image, I used the sepia process, increased the reds and then sharpened the image a little.

Here are the two images, side by side.

                                           

                                                         Week 1

Week 2

Now I'm off to look at everyone else's photographs and hopefully learn a little more about photo editing!

One Four Challenge-Nov Wk 2

One Four Challenge - Nov Wk 1

Over at Robyn Gosby's blog, Captivate Me, a challenge is taking place.

The One Four Challenge begins this week.

"This new challenge is about processing 1 image in 4 different ways over 4 weeks.  We will all  process / post edit (our own chosen image) and share a different version each week.

Process it however you like…and tell us a bit about it. You don’t even have to show the original image unless you’d like to.  Try new things, experiment.  Be as creative or subtle as you wish to be."

For more information about the challenge, go here.  Feel free to join in if you think you would like to.  Robyn has been an inspiration to me over the last few years and I have watched her as she hones her photography skills.

I have chosen this minute flower from the Ledebouria socialis plant I have fallen in love with over the years.

My Mum gave me a tiny pot of the bulbs many years ago and initially, it was very slow to take off.

Now, I find it in little pockets in other potted plants, even growing between the foliage.

When grown indoors, it tends to grow a little spindly which I believe, only adds to the lace like florets. This one has been indoors for about two weeks.

I, like Robyn, will save the original photo until last, but today, I have played a little with the original photo.

I don't have any whiz-bang photo-editing program and so I use Picasa.

I do use a DSLR camera, and for this photo I used a flash and then cropped the image to bring in the desired effect, since I don't have a macro lens.

In reality, this 'flower' is no more 2-3mm across.

To draw the eyes to the stamens and petals I added soft focus around the floret itself.

One Four Challenge - Nov Wk 1

Something Blue

Something Blue

Echium Blue Bedder

This Month In The Garden

January 2014

The above palm hasn't been doing too well in the incredibly dry hot weather we've been having this summer. I'm not sure whether this has anything to do with the many flowers it's produced this year.

The second time it's flowered and I think the flowers are more spectacular this time around.

The gerberas are struggling too and the blooms much smaller than in previous summers.

Leptospurmum always intrigues me with it's delicate foliage and flowers.

Banksia Serrata has also flowered well and is now sending out new shoots.

Isn't the bark of the banksia tree intriguing? 

Light and dark pink (above)trigger plants

grow all through our garden.

I'm not a hundred percent sure but I think this is a juvenile geebung.

The vegetable garden is a bit of an embarrassment and I really need to think about getting some raised beds. 

Some little or not so little creature is munching on plants that are not enclosed. (I've got a feeling it's a wallaby...feasting on the tender shoots of some taller plants so may not be so small...) 

Herbs continue to thrive as long as they are enclosed.

But really, the overbearing heat of this summer means I'm spending more time indoors tending my African Violets.

My Mother's Garden

I've been spending a bit of time with my Mum this week. 

The resumption of her home by the State is still looming and I know how frustrating it must be for her to go through the process which is now into its second year.

The garden has become run down but there are little surprises everywhere that are reminders of what once was.

It was a dewy morning on Tuesday, as reflected by this lone dandelion.

This spiky cactus is decades old.

And sits on a decaying window sill along with its companions.

My Mum has lived in this home continually since 1960. 

It will soon be time to say our good-byes.

Day 160/366

It's off to work I go and meeting my daily photo challenge becomes more and more difficult.

So here is a photo from earlier in the week which showcases some beautiful teaspoons Mr Honey Pie's Mum passed down.

They are from Holland and each teaspoon's stem is a also a flower stem with bud head.

There is a viole(viooltje), lily of the valley (lelietjes vd) clover (klaver), poppy (papaver), rose (roos), and of course the tulip (tulp).

These are just a few of the beautiful teaspoons she left us.

When I was becoming acquainted with Mr Honey Pie, way back in the late 1960s, I was intrigued with the quaint silverware his family used daily.

Their cups of tea were a ritual and the teaspoons were really only used to stir the tea.  Sugar was spooned in to the cups with what I knew to be a teaspoon but after that this tiny bowled spoon was placed into each saucer and used to stir what was the best cup of tea I'd ever tasted.

Just like the British, the Dutch know how to make a good cup of tea.

Day 135/366

Reaching Out

Anniversary.

Honey Pie bought me a stunning bunch of flowers.  I just adore the colours of the gerbera and iris in combination.

Honey Pie and I celebrated our thirty eighth wedding anniversary with a quiet dinner at the Ori Cafe Restaurant.  His Sirloin and my Barramundi were cooked to perfection while my 'meringue' desert was a bit disappointing. I thought it was something you would prepare in an emergency for unexpected guests.  I was imagining marshmallowy meringue but got 'biscuit' shaped meringue so hard I couldn't break with my cutlery.

Ah...yes broke my Lenten sugar abstinence!  But I felt it was a good reason for it. 

Find it hard to believe that hubby and I have been married for so long. We contemplated the possibility of being together for another thirty eight years.  We'll still be under a hundred years young so I guess it's possible!  

Nature at Work.

This summer I have zucchini growing in the garden.  Initially the two (yes two) plants I've grown from seed did really well.  Then, after a very wet period, one of the plants developed a fungal disease and a treatment with an organic spray didn't prevent it's loss.

The one healthy plant continued to grow and I have harvested around eleven fruit off the plant.
Next six days of temperatures over 35oC and all the developing fruit shrivelled up.

Today, (after a short spell of cooler days) the flowers are back, and I have at least two fruit well on their way.

I have been assisting fertilization of the female flowers by collecting pollen from the male flowers, using a small paint brush, and dusting it onto the pistels of the female flowers.
The fruit is so fast growing that I swear that if I sat by the zucchini plant all day, I'd actually see the fruit grow!
I plan to make a little more room for zucchini in my vegetable patch next summer.

There are between twenty and thirty sage plants growing in two pots in my herb section of the garden.  Herbs seem to grow best, perhaps because they are growing in pots rather than in the poor soil typical of my local area.
Sage leaves, quickly browned in butter until crisp, make a tasty garnish for many dishes.
Most of my herbs are protected from our family of brush tail possums with either chicken wire or bird netting.