Changes

After all the rain and dark skies it was wonderful to awaken to a clear blue sky - so good in fact that after taking the dogs for a walk I had half an hour in the swimming pool with my husband. Wonderful! The water was warm too!
At last I could have some time with my camera. A house filled with visitors and so many things to do have kept me away from my favourite hobby. But once lunch was over and everyone had left the house I became very self centred! The Nikon was taken out and the garden explored! There were some new things to aim at such as some little pink berries on the Lilly pilly bush but it was the flowering gum that finally held my attention. I had willed this little tree to flower for Christmas - and it obliged! Although not very big yet it is giving me hope for a wonderful garden centre-piece for the future, and even the lorikeets have given it their lick of approval!

f/5.6  1/160  ISO200  55mm

This photo was taken about two weeks ago and I was not fast enough to be able to capture the bird actually in the tree! But as least I did get him in the picture!
Those flowers have now gone. They did not last very long, unfortunately. But in their place I now have some rather fun seed pods.

f/5.6  1/400  ISO250  50mm

The centre stamen will eventually fall out of all these seed pods but at the moment they look like ice-cream cones with a spoon stuck in them! The pods will become darker and woodier as they mature and then fall from their stalks to litter the ground below.
I did manage to find one flower that had lasted longer than all the others.

f/5.6  1/1000 ISO250  55mm

Finding the right place to take a photo of it required climbing over all sorts of prickly plants! Working out what to use in the background also involved squeezing between plants and taking care that I did not trample on them!
As I backed away and looked for other subjects I became aware of a rumbling sound. I thought at first it was an aeroplane but it was thunder! So the clouds rolling up became the next focus of my attention. The temperature had climbed to over 34 degrees and this must have generated a thunderstorm.

f/10  1/1600   ISO 250  50mm

The blue cloudless sky was being attacked from the south! At the same time the temperature was dropping quite noticeably.

f/10  1/200  ISO250  18mm

By the time I walked over to the path near the house and looked back at the garden the sky was completely covered in cloud. Not ominously black and threatening, but definitely less attractive than the blue we had earlier!
Now I am inside it is almost dark enough to turn the lights on and the temperature has dropped to 28 degrees. That is in only 30 minutes.
I will show you the other "finds" in my garden some other time!
AJ