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

Walking in the rain

Our good weather just had to change – we have had perfect weather for our holiday so far but today the clouds rolled over and this time they dropped their load. First thing the rain was too heavy to venture out but hoping that this was just a short shower we busied ourselves with home duties until it dried up.
Grabbing the cameras (most important) and packing a picnic we headed out to explore somewhere that was not too far from base. So off we went South to Sawtell and without even trying, found ourselves at an unmarked nature reserve. The sign simply indicated “lookout” in almost obscure lettering.
Two other cars were parked in the small carpark. We locked the car and walked along the newly trimmed footpath and took our time – for this appeared to be a seldom walked track. The birds were almost tame; they flew very close to me but far too quickly for me to even attempt to capture them on camera. The leaves and plants were glistening with the rain that had only just stopped and on the fine needles of the she-oak the raindrops looked like pearls.
The light was really poor and for every shot I kept today I actually took two or more beforehand to get the settings right on the camera! If I shot a detail of one of the many trees I would find that the first shot would be really underexposed and when I took a view shot of the ocean and the curve of the bay I would find that I under-estimated how bright it was! So photographically today was a real challenge! The view from the headland was “ok” but for me the perfect condition of the selection of plants that bordered the walk provided me with plenty of camera fodder.
I could hear a whip bird very close at one point and although I stood still and waited I could not see it at all nor even work out where in the undergrowth it was. I have never managed to take a photo of a whip bird.
Even when the weather is grim there is still beauty to be found. You just have to look for it.
AJ

Pink in the garden

It isn't deliberate and it is not my favourite colour but somehow my garden has more pink flowers than any other colour! I think that there should be a garden competition for December - that is when my sub tropical garden is at its best. The amazingly intensely coloured flowers of the Poinciana are setting the tree tops ablaze at the moment. There seem to be two varieties, orange and red. My one is orange and I haven't seen it quite as showy as it is this year. Maybe the long dry leading up to the flowering time has made a difference. Very often trees produce more flowers when they are under stress.
A flowering gum I bought a few years ago and planted in the main, centre garden in front of the house has grown to about two metres tall and it is in full flower at the moment - pink!
Almost adjacent to it is a young crepe myrtle planted as a cutting - it too is flowering - pink again! Surrounding these two trees are many varieties of the bromiliad family and one very tall and lethal variety is in flower at the moment too. The flower head reaches up over a metre above the thorn edged leaves and guess what . . . they are pink too!
Oh yes, one more flowering plant shared the same garden. Several pink flowering geraniums are dotted around the garden! I think I need to shop for some white flowering plants!
AJ