The rain has continued to fall ... the sun occasionally pops out to remind us that it's still around ... and the humidity continues to suck the sweat and the energy out of our bodies!
Most teachers have returned to school for student-free week, including me, and we've all been hard at work pumping our minds with fabulous ideas and getting ready for the excited arrival of students next week! A lot of my school is still pretty much a construction site which has presented a whole different set of difficulties for the beginning of a new school year ... hence the delay in posting! Sometimes life just gets in the way of blogging!
Anyway ... back to flowers. As a result of the drastic trimming back of all those rather haggard and exhausted looking potted plants out in the shadehouse and courtyard, there aren't really that many blooms around right now, but here's a few of the flowers I did manage to spot this week.
Dianthera nodosa or Pretty In Pink ... a relative of the Shrimp Plant.
Allamanda cathartica 'Sunee' ... the dwarf variety of the Golden Trumpet.
Elsewhere in the garden, I keep finding Allamanda cathartica flowers scattered around the courtyard floor ...
The Malvaviscus arboreus or Sleepy Hibiscus continues to throw out a few blooms.
You have to look closely to spot the flowers of the Kaempferia elegans or Peacock Ginger. They hide in amongst the beautifully patterned leaves.
The tiny flowers of our native Violet, Viola hederacea, often go unnoticed but I think they deserve to be on show.
My Celosia have re-seeded all over the place and have powered on through the Summer despite the lack of sunshine, constant rain with regular torrential downfalls. They have now gone to the top of my list of 'annuals suitable for my garden'. I shall be encouraging them far more now they've proven their worth.
When the sun does make an appearance around here, the butterflies suddenly appear from everywhere although some do look like they've been in the wars! (Apologies for the scenic background of my hubbie's 'outdoor work' shirt!)
I've also been seeing quite a few snakes crawling out to find a spot in the sun! This shot was taken from inside my kitchen looking out to the shadehouse where I just been!
The weather, work and wildlife are all conspiring to keep me from gardening these days! So unfair!
For more great Fertiliser/Flaunt Your Flowers Friday posts, make sure you visit Tootsie's blog Tootsie Time
Beautiful photos, Bernie. It is surely nice to see some flowers - all we see here is snow!
ReplyDeleteBeth
Hi Bernie. Glad to see that you aren't being affected too much by the floods. We have been watching the disaster unfold each night on tv and cannot imagine the extent of the flood water - it covers such a vast area.
ReplyDeleteLovely photos and the sight of all those flowers makes me wish it was spring here now.
The other day we had a mild moment - the temperature suddenly rose to 14 centigrade and a large grass snake appeared in the garden. It had been hibernating in one of our dry stone walls. British snakes are harmless enough - how do you cope gardening with all those deadly snakes and spiders? I've often wondered!
Take care. Johnson
Beth, I can imagine you're counting down the days to Spring!
ReplyDeleteJohnson ... the flooding here has been phenomenal! Queensland has suffered most, but the flooding has affected New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania as well. 2010 was a very wet year, one of the wettest for most of eastern Oz and that set up large tracts of the country for inundation once the summer rains arrived.
I had to laugh ... 14 C would be a record winter's night temp for us ... we'd think it's freezing! Strange of think of snakes over there ... just doesn't seem right!
Most of the time the snakes I see are what we refer to as 'tree snakes' ... relatively harmless but I just try my best to keep clear. I stomp around a lot in the garden ... I probably look like some mad woman, but it gives the snakes some warning I'm approaching and hopefully they slither away.
We've only occasionally had snakes inside the house, but we do get lots out on the verandah and in the shadehouse and courtyard gardens close to the house. I just have to be alert and noisy! Spiders are everywhere, but they don't frighten me as much as snakes.
Bernie things are looking so fresh and colorful in your garden. Hopefully, the heavy rains have let up and things can begin getting back to normal.
ReplyDeleteEileen
I like the time when the students have not yet returned:)You managed to get some stunning shots! Your dianthera is new to me. My peacock ginger is still sleeping.
ReplyDeleteYes, this looked to me too like a tree snake. I saw one for the first time on our veranda in Darwin. Later on one had fallen in the swimmingpool and one was under our bed one night! For more snake stories for who's interested:
ReplyDeletehttp://margueritesnature.blogspot.com/2009/04/snakes.html
Hope you don't mind Bernie?
Did anyone see Prince Charles on tv last week when he was answering in an interview about the QLD floods? He said he would be terrified to be there amongst the thousands of deadly snakes, lol. They are not all deadly and I don't think there are thousands either....
Bernie this blog is great again. Love all the colour in your garden at the moment. That Sterculia tree looks interesting. Do you have a picture from close by, so I can see its leaves please? I don't think I know it. Not the name anyway.
Hi Bernie. Your Yellow Trumpet looks so pretty. The snake must be looking for a bit of lunch. Ugh! Since getting bit by a snake when I was a small kid I have hated them. I hope it was just passing through. :-)
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed this walk through your summer garden, Bernie! Your flowers are all so beautiful. Oh, how I miss those hot, humid days and the gazillion flowers and creatures that accompany them.
ReplyDeleteHi Bernie,
ReplyDeleteVisiting you always reminds me that 'the way it is' IS NOT really 'the way it is'...meaning,at any given time, somewhere in the world, the seasons are just the opposite;-)
It's great to have the wildlife in your yard...but not in your house (as I read in your comment)...that would really get me goin'!! What a gorgeous little butterfly that was...poor little thing really does look at the end of his rope. Such lovely color in those wings!
I'm sure you are happy to have some time to prepare for the upcoming school year with no distractions from the kiddos, just yet. That will all come, soon enough;-)
I'm sorry the humidity is zapping your energy, I vaguely remember that feeling from summer. We are buried in snow and the temps are supposed to be below zero degrees the next couple of days. Keep posting your beautiful flower pictures for those of us starved for color!
ReplyDeleteEileen, we're not expecting the 'wet' to be over for a little while longer yet. We've had lows hanging around off the coast and monsoonal troughs pushing across from the inland, so there will be rain for quite some time yet, unfortunately!
ReplyDeleteHi Lotusleaf. The Dianthera is becoming more common in the nurseries here now, so I do hope it makes it's way over there soon. It's a terrific little shrub.
Marguerite... yes the 'thousands' of snakes certainly made world-wide news, lol! As you say, there probably wasn't thousands, just the usual numbers trying to keep dry! I did a post on the Sterculia tree, the Peanut tree, on my other blog if you want to take a look. When you get to it, just scroll down to the bottom of the page where all the labels are and you'll find Sterculia quadrifida'.
Bernie....Who could tell from these photos that you all have endured all the horrors Mother Nature can lay upon us from time to time. All looks back to normal at your house...even the butterfly and snake appear to be out and having a lovely time. Beautiful to see things so nice.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to imagine soggy muggy weather in my part of the world, but it looks beautiful in your pictures. A friend gave me some celosia seed I'm looking forward to planting this year - great to know it might reseed!
ReplyDeleteOH WOW! those are beautiful!!! Every photo is filled with such pretty color and so crisp!
ReplyDeleteIt is hard for me to imagine it hot and muggy anywhere right now...since it is chilly and frozen here...so I am happy to see your posts...with all the beauty of summer. Thanks for linking in this week...I ALWAYS enjoy my visits to your garden!