Flower Flaunt On Friday ... On A Hazy Friday.

The air is still filled with that smoky perfume and there's still little plumes of smoke swirling through the trees on the hillside opposite our house, but luckily the bushfire didn't reach our place.  It was rather a tense night on Wednesday night ( Wildfire On Wednesday ) watching the blaze from our verandah, but thankfully the conditions remained still and the pace of the flames slowed down considerably during the night.  This was the view Thursday morning ...

... with the singed hillside to the left of the shot.

So, all is well, and apart from some charred areas around our suburb and the faint smoky smell to almost everything in my house, you wouldn't know there had been a slightly risky event unfolding before our eyes just a couple of nights ago.  All part and parcel of living in the bush.

Now onto some of the blooms around my place, even if it's a tad late.

I finally got some planting done in my new rock garden patch.  It's been such a thrill digging in soil once again.  As all the garden beds here are now well-established and completely compacted, digging is a rare event for me.  Most of my gardening efforts are taken up with looking after potted plants.  But Cyclone Yasi opened up an opportunity for me to create a new garden bed and I've now added some waterwise and sun hardy plants to that patch.  There's even a couple of blooms showing their lovely faces.

My new Gazania, Gazania Sahara, has already thrown up a couple of flowers just to show off.  This Gazania has been bred specifically to withstand long periods of dry weather, so it should do well in the new rock garden.

I've added quite a few of the old-fashioned Gazania rigens 'Daybreak' and there's a flower on one of them as well.

The Gazanias should do very well in this hot, dry, full sun position and I just love their display.

The 'Burgundy Surprise' Verbena was already in bloom and looks terrific.

Elsewhere ... there's more blooms on my red Calliandra.  The pink is in full recovery mode now and bursting with new growth.  The flowers probably won't appear again until next winter, but for now, it's lovely to see the red in bloom.

There are some blooms appearing on a couple of the decimated Durantas at long last.

The cheery faces of the Pansies and Violas continue to greet me every morning.

There's a show of bright cheery Nasturtium 'Alaska Mix' and ....

... the striking colours of my Petunia 'Bumblebee' are now appearing.  I found it hard to capture the true colours in a photo.  The 'Bumblebee' is a spectacular black and gold combination and should make a great pairing with my little Vanilla Marigolds.








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