The Agile Wallaby and I are joining Wordless Wednesday today. Hop over and join in.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Today's Flowers ... Begonias.
Begonias are a common sight in my dry tropics garden. They are so well suited to the conditions here and simply thrive in the shady spots around the garden. When you grow a lot of Begonias, you start to take notice of the beauty of their tiny little flowers. Whether it's the every-blooming Dragon Wing sprays or the tiny dainty flowers of the Rexs, Begonia flowers have an undeniable beauty.
For Today's Flowers I'm sharing some of the beautiful blooms that are appearing on the various Begonias growing in my garden right now.
Unknown variety
Elatoir Begonia and Begonia semperflorens
More Begonia semperflorens, also known as Wax or Bedding Begonias
Cane Begonia or Tree Begonia
Dragon Wing Begonias - red and pink
Rex Begonias
To see lots of beautiful flowers, make sure you visit Today's Flowers
I'm also joining in Mosaic Monday and I would recommend a visit to that meme as well,
For Today's Flowers I'm sharing some of the beautiful blooms that are appearing on the various Begonias growing in my garden right now.
To see lots of beautiful flowers, make sure you visit Today's Flowers
Saturday, August 13, 2011
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.
For loads of Fertiliser Friday / Flaunt Your Flowers posts, please visit Tootsie at Tootsie Time
... 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.
For loads of Fertiliser Friday / Flaunt Your Flowers posts, please visit Tootsie at Tootsie Time
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
WildFIRE On Wednesday.
I often do a Wildlife On Wednesday post, but not today. Today it's a Wildfire On Wednesday post. I had posted recently about the practice of controlled burns that happen around our city and surrounds every year.
Wintertime is potentially the time when the risk of bushfire is the greatest here in my corner of the world. Winter is the middle of our dry season and after a particularly bad wet season, there's a lot of fuel in the bushland here ... lots and lots of half-dead brown dry grass. On top of that, we also had a bad cyclone season and there's lots of debris lying around on the ground ... broken branches and fallen trunks. So, controlled burn-offs are one way of reducing the risk on hazardous bushfires, and we've had many of them over the last couple of weeks.
Unfortunately, now we've had a bushfire break out very close to my home. This was not a controlled burn. It started at one end of the hillside at the end of our street sometime yesterday and we heard the crackle and pop of burning embers all night long.
There was a bit of haze hanging around this morning as I got up to prepare for the day, but it didn't look like the fire was getting too close. As a matter of fact we'd thought it had taken off in the other direction away from our street, and everyone went to work as usual.
Well ... I knew there was something up when I started heading down the highway south towards home after work this afternoon. I was stuck in a traffic jam for over half an hour, with a constant stream of traffic from the other direction passing by in a long, long line. Then a couple of Bush Fire Brigade units whizzed on by, driving on the wrong side of the highway.
There were quite a few bushfires along the drive south and at one point the fire was raging right next to the highway. At that point we had to drive on the wrong side of the road ourselves as only one lane was being allowed through. You can see the police car to the far left and the two fire trucks and firefighters a little further along.
I passed sections of burnt out land.
As I got closer to home, the cloud of smoke and ash was incredibly large so I knew there were several bushfires raging in the vicinity.
Turning off the highway and driving into our rural suburb it became apparent one of the fires was very close to my home. My house sits behind that hill that's alight!
These people are in trouble. The fire was very close to their houses and there was a Rural Fire Brigade truck at the back of one of the properties.
When I reached home, this was the view from our verandah. The fire was coming down the side of the hill opposite our house. It's a slow burning fire and thankfully it's a very still afternoon. Fingers crossed the wind doesn't whip up overnight.
Dear hubbie had already reached home and had hosed down the gutters, hosed down the shadehouse and taken in the washing!!! Lol! It's no good having washing that smells of smoke! Anyway, I know what he'll be doing most of the night. Watching the show and keeping an eye on the progress of the fire.
Now for a short video clip. We'll be up all night watching its progress, hoping it doesn't jump to our side of the hill.
There's A Fire In Them There Hills
Bushfire Coming Slowly Down The Hill
Wintertime is potentially the time when the risk of bushfire is the greatest here in my corner of the world. Winter is the middle of our dry season and after a particularly bad wet season, there's a lot of fuel in the bushland here ... lots and lots of half-dead brown dry grass. On top of that, we also had a bad cyclone season and there's lots of debris lying around on the ground ... broken branches and fallen trunks. So, controlled burn-offs are one way of reducing the risk on hazardous bushfires, and we've had many of them over the last couple of weeks.
Unfortunately, now we've had a bushfire break out very close to my home. This was not a controlled burn. It started at one end of the hillside at the end of our street sometime yesterday and we heard the crackle and pop of burning embers all night long.
There was a bit of haze hanging around this morning as I got up to prepare for the day, but it didn't look like the fire was getting too close. As a matter of fact we'd thought it had taken off in the other direction away from our street, and everyone went to work as usual.
Well ... I knew there was something up when I started heading down the highway south towards home after work this afternoon. I was stuck in a traffic jam for over half an hour, with a constant stream of traffic from the other direction passing by in a long, long line. Then a couple of Bush Fire Brigade units whizzed on by, driving on the wrong side of the highway.
There were quite a few bushfires along the drive south and at one point the fire was raging right next to the highway. At that point we had to drive on the wrong side of the road ourselves as only one lane was being allowed through. You can see the police car to the far left and the two fire trucks and firefighters a little further along.
I passed sections of burnt out land.
As I got closer to home, the cloud of smoke and ash was incredibly large so I knew there were several bushfires raging in the vicinity.
Turning off the highway and driving into our rural suburb it became apparent one of the fires was very close to my home. My house sits behind that hill that's alight!
These people are in trouble. The fire was very close to their houses and there was a Rural Fire Brigade truck at the back of one of the properties.
When I reached home, this was the view from our verandah. The fire was coming down the side of the hill opposite our house. It's a slow burning fire and thankfully it's a very still afternoon. Fingers crossed the wind doesn't whip up overnight.
Dear hubbie had already reached home and had hosed down the gutters, hosed down the shadehouse and taken in the washing!!! Lol! It's no good having washing that smells of smoke! Anyway, I know what he'll be doing most of the night. Watching the show and keeping an eye on the progress of the fire.
Now for a short video clip. We'll be up all night watching its progress, hoping it doesn't jump to our side of the hill.
There's A Fire In Them There Hills
Bushfire Coming Slowly Down The Hill
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