New Babies

The storms did evenuate yesterday, one at lunch time & a second late afternoon. Overall a nice little drop of rain for my wall pots that I had left out. Also what these new babies required. I acquired these from a wedding that our family attended just recently. Instead of the traditional almond bomboniere, the bridal couple provided tubed Australian Native Plants, wrapped in florist paper of a colour that matched the bridal party. Very nice! So I now have two kangaroo paws, one NSW waratah, and one Angophora hispida. I have been doing some reading about these plants, where to plant, how to plant, how often to water, etc etc, so for the moment I have just transferred them into lager pots containg a mix specially for Australian Natives. At least that will give me some time to think about where I will eventually plant them .

Caterpillar Party

Yesterday the weather forcast was for late showers & thunderstorms, so being the storm watcher that I am, I was checking the radar site to see if any were on their way. By 4pm there was a whole band of storms along the ranges, so hoping we would get our share of rain, I put all my wall pots out to get a drink. Doing so, I noticed one particular geranium looking a little sad, and on further inspection I found out why. There were at least five of these little creatures having a party on my plant. Needless to say the party was soon over. I might also add that the storms missed us totally.

This morning I noticed a very red sunrise, "red in the moning, shepherd's warning" and all that stuff. So I am hoping for some rain today, the forcast is for storms again, so we will just have to wait & see. There are more caterpillars having another party again this morning so I think it is time to bring out the heavy artillary................. bug spray!

Sunset

This is one of my most favourite places to be, beside water, watching the sun either rise or set. This is a sunset over Wallis Lake at Forster, complete with pelicans. There are so many options of watching the sunsets here. Fishing in a boat on the lake, fishing off the wharf, sitting on the wharf eating icecream, walking along the wharf, eating dinner at one of the many restraunts along the wharf................... I'm sure you get the picture.

Acacia ?

While we were away I snapped this pic on one of my walks. Something different, & something I had not seen befere. Obviously another Australian Native of some kind, so I just had to find out what it was. I have been doing some research since I came home & think it may be an "Acacia Genistifolia". Maybe someone can help me out here.

On the drive up the coast, we heard on the radio that there are hundreds of different wattles, and on any given day, one of them will be in flower somewhere in this great country of ours. After doing my research I would believe it, somewhere I read that there are nearly 1,000 of them in Australia. I have also found out that they can vary in colour from cream, to pale yellow, gold, even purple & red. Now that was news to me! I have grown up knowing wattles to be only yellow! Also news to me was that wattles are also found in Africa, South America, Mexico & parts of South East Asia. The say that we learn something new every day, and I sure have this week!

Visitors

Two days ago, just on dusk, there was such a racket going on outside that I could hardly hear myself think. On further inspection I found this sulphur crested cocatoo sitting on the telegraph pole.

He watched me intently, I guess hoping for food. No chance! I have fallen into that trap before & then had them hanging off the house as well as pulling my garden to shreads. After a few minutes he was joined by more of his friends.

They were all a lttle fluffed due to the cool breeze that has been comming up every afternoon.

Bennett's Head Magpies

Continuing our walk along the coast, right up to Bennett's Head to try & catch a better view of the whales, we came across these magpies.

In this second photo, he bacame a little wary of my being too close with the camera, and decided to fly. Also in this pic you can notice just how high we were & why we wanted to be here for better views of the whales. I am not sure of the angle of the view from the point but it would be at least 250 degrees, and on a clear day you can see for miles.

Home Garden Catch-Up

My own garden at home has become so overgown with weeds, this morning I took advantage of the cooler weather & tackled the bed underneath my frangipanni. Over an hour to clear all the weeds and half an otto bin later, I'm sure you can imagine how overgown it was. This is a pic of my first frangipanni for the summer, just opening this morning. No perfume yet, but in a few days there will be more flowers & I look forward to the perfume floating through my dining room window.

One of the first things I noticed when I came home was that my shasta dasies were all out. This is just one of the little pockets that I have left after the drought, and when they finish flowering, I hope to get some more cuttings to spread them around the garden again. I look forward to seeing the butterflies that they will attract.

Bottlebrush

Continuing our walk along the coast, watching the whales & the dolphins play in the water, I managed this pic of one of our native bottlebrush . As an Aussie, I am ashamed to say I don't know much about our Australian native plants, but I think that may be about to change. I did know that there were differnt types of bottlebrush plants, but in my reading this morning, I have found out that there are many different types of bottlebrush. This one was only a small plant, whether small by nature, or small because of age I am not sure. It's leaves are different to the leaves that are on the bottlebrush on our nature strip. These leaves were much shorter, & consequently looked a little fatter, while the leaves of the one on our nature strip are much narrower & longer. How the flowers emerge are also different. The fine fillaments on this one emerge from a stem, while the fillaments of the one on my nature strip emerge from the base. Mmmmm...................... an interesting difference.

Whales

I am not sure if I have gathered any regular readers on this blog yet, but if you are, you may have noticed my absence over the last few weeks. I have been away spending some time on the beautiful Mid-North Coast of NSW. So the next few posts will be about the life beyond my garden, and that of the life on this section of the coast.

One of my playgrounds during this time was the beautiful Pacific Ocean, and host at the moment to the whale migration along the East Coast. Looking for dolphins, & noticing some splashing in the water just off the coast, we came to the conclusion that these splases where way to big for dolphins, and could only be made by whales. This pic shows Mum & Baby having a great time.

Australian Bi-Centenial Rose

One of my beautiful red roses this morning, once again taken in the drizzley rain. I bought this one quite some years ago & on the tag it was called "Australian Bi-Cenenial Rose". Personally, it is the smell that I wanted, not the name, as one of these flowers in a vase will perfume the whole house. The perfume is just divine.

Colourful Beetle

I found this beetle crawling all over my white roses yesterday. As usual, I am not sure if he is friend or foe. Though with those jagged edges to his antanea thingys I am sure he could do some damage.

I found him very pretty though with that blue/green colour on his back and that bumpy texture. My mind is working overtime how to interpret him into textiles somehow.

White Roses

Something beautiful this morning. Just one of the many white roses at present in my garden. The rain from the last few weeks has brought on a flush of flowers on all my white roses. So in a few weeks my garden has changed from pink to white. This pic was taken in the drizzly rain of last week & if you look close, some of the other blooms on the same bush can also be seen.

Curl Grubs

I found these curl grubs yesterday sitting on the top of one of my pots. There were three of them just sitting on the top of all the leaf litter. There isn't anything in this particular pot, but what worries me is that I have a dwarf lemon tree in a large pot not too far away, and these grubs feed on roots.

I have been doing some research this morning & found out that these grubs are the larvae of beetles, which I find very interesting. As these ones were about 4cm long, I would like to see the beetle that they tun into. About an hour later they were no where to be seen. Possibly buried back into the soil in the pot, or maybe lunch for my favourite magpies.

Raindrops Are Falling On My .............................

The weather lately has been typical spring, with the temperatures climbing to the mid 30's, then the southerly changes comming through & cooling us down. Sometimes we would wake up to misty rain, only to find the clouds clearing later in the day & the temperature starts to climb again. The pic today is another of my "Jennifer" rose, this time taken in the misty rain.