Wildlife on Wednesday - Common Eggfly Butterfly (Hypolimnas bolina)

The Common Eggfly Butterfly (Hypolimnas bolina) is a common sight in my garden ... hence the name, I suppose!  Whilst being such a common sight, I always marvel at it's beauty.  Such a lovely tropical butterfly ... black with white, orange and blue spots.

The underside is brown with a whitish band crossing the hind wings.  In this photo you can also see clearly the chain of white spots on the margins of the forewings and hind wings.

Now ... I have to ask the question - How long do these butterflies live?  I'm rather interested in the answer to this because I swear I have seen one of these butterflies around my garden for around six months now ... yes I mean the exact same individual!!  How can I tell?  Well have a look at the photos ... notice the poor tattered wing on the right side!

This photo was taken last November:

This series of photos was taken at the end of March this year:

I think it's the exact same butterfly, what do you think?

Mosaic Monday - A Stroll Through The Parklands.

It's been a while since I participated in Mosaic Monday meme ... but I've been thinking about something for the last couple of weeks now and I thought I'd share it with you.  Of course, it's got something to do with flowers and gardens!

In three weeks time, it's our mid-year break from school ... listen carefully, you can hear teachers all over Queensland sighing with relief!  Two terms of teaching over, Semester 1 reports finished, Parent-Teacher interviews completed ... and a two-week break!!!!  Of course, most teachers are back to school in that last week of holidays busily preparing for the next two terms.

For me, it's time to fly down and visit the grandchildren ... oh, and of course, my children!!!  (They always accuse me of thinking of them last!)  Whenever I visit my precious ones, I always try to visit the 16-hectare oasis in the middle of our state's capital city ... the Roma Street Parklands.  It's a breath of fresh air and I can literally spend hours strolling around the wonderful gardens.

So ... here's a quick glimpse of the Parklands from this time last year ... and I'll probably be sharing more photos taken when I get back there very, very soon.

 The Water Feature Garden:

 The Canal Gardens:

 The Spectacle Garden:

 The Walkways:

For other great Mosaic Monday posts, visit Mary at Little Red House.

Flower Flaunt on Friday.

Our fabulous Winter has begun!  The nights are getting cool and the mornings are quite crisp!  We've even had a couple of overnight temps. that got down to 12 deg C (53 deg F).  It's a great time for gardening as I can get out into the garden at almost any hour of the day, if I possibly can!  No longer have to wait for the sun to dip behind the hills in the late afternoon ... or get up early to garden before the sun climbs too high in the sky!

So let's have a look at what's flowering this week in my garden.  The beautiful Mussaenda philippica is almost covered in blooms....

 My Spathodea campanulata - African Tulip Tree - is now showing quite a few more flowers.

 My two favourite Ixoras are in full bloom.

 My new Poinsettia is just now showing its lovely red bracts .... and my new red Salvia is also blooming.

I just love the splash of hot colour these Zinnias are adding to the Courtyard Garden.

I also really love this combination of Jacobinia and Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' ... it provides a dash of brilliant white out in the Courtyard Garden.

 My lovely purple Anthurium is showing its bloom.

Meanwhile the Calliandra Haematocephala(Red Powder Puff) is covered in its raspberry-like buds which open up to reveal the dramatic red powder puff flowers.

My oldest and dearest Hibiscus rosa-sinensis is showing its magnificent flowers again ...

and one of the features I love the most is the back view of the flowers ... with it's white patches!

I've almost finished the pots for the Courtyard Garden ... I'm so looking forward to the annuals' display this year!

Now to finish ... while they're not flowering in my garden, there are still Acacias in full bloom dotted throughout the bushland surrounding my property.  Here's one that caught the late afternoon sun's rays and lit up like a lamp!!!

 For many more great Flower Flaunt posts, make sure you visit Tootsie at Fertiliser Friday / Flaunt Your Flowers

My Wilful Younger Child!

I look upon my garden areas rather like a parent looks upon their children.

First, there's the older kids ... the adult children who've left home and you have almost no control over their lives any more.  While you drop in to visit every now and then, you really can't do much other than watch over them as they mature ... that's my outdoor garden beds which include the Front Garden Beds,

the Driveway Garden Beds,

 the Pergola Garden Area,

the Back of the Courtyard Garden Area,

and the Hill Garden Area.

These are well-established beds that don't need me any more ... well, maybe only for an occasional watering or general tidy-up.

Then there are the young teenagers ... the ones that are trying to find their own identity but still rely on you for the essentials like food, shelter, money for clothes and you still have a say in who they can play with!  That's my Shadehouse/Greenhouse garden ...

and my Courtyard Garden.

I work almost daily keeping them watered, fed, free from pests and just generally behaving!  They each have their own character ... which I have a hand in forming.  So I can do things like change the colour scheme of the plants out there and choose new plants to add to the collections.  These are the places where I spend most of my time gardening.

Finally, there's that rather obnoxious, wilful and prone-to-temper-tantrums toddler.  You really love them, but they just won't do what they're supposed to ... and it's exhausting!!!  Well, that's my new outdoor garden bed.

The relationship started off really well when it was a baby ... hubbie built these new garden beds in a spot that was ugly and unsightly.

I was so excited and planned out just what these beds would look like ... I chose a different colour for each section.  I was looking forward to seeing my 'rainbow' garden develop ... and for a while, things were just great!

I spent money and filled it with lots of lovely plants ... Scaevola, Pelargonium, Gazanias, Bracteantha, Daisies ... the list goes on and on!   Mmmm ... well ...  'rainbow garden' has turned out to be more like a wilful toddler who's screaming for attention and all you want to do is ... give it to someone else until it's grown!!!

The long 'wet' season wreaked havoc with lots of my carefully chosen plants and there's no resurrecting them ... just like a toddler that won't wear something because it's yellow!!!!   It's just not going to happen!

All I can do now is look lovingly over the photos and reminisce about how this darling used to be!!

So, I've been very busy lately ... hence the relatively few blog posts.  After spending a couple of weeks getting my favourites into shape ... the Shadehouse/Greenhouse Garden and Courtyard Garden ... I just couldn't keep on avoiding the new garden bed anymore.

I've now removed all the dead plants with tears in my eyes ... the lovely Calibrachoas, Buddleia, Celosia spicata, Gomphrena leontopodioides and Kalanchoe pumila.  Why, oh why???

I've checked over the critically ill ...and trimmed them (hoping they come back) .... the Osteospurmums, Plectranthus and Saliva farinacea.  I'm keeping fingers crossed and hoping I'll see the return of the Sprekelia formosissima and the Gladiolus callianthus too.

I've removed all the invaders ... that Giant Sword Fern has a lot to answer for!!! I've added fertiliser and compost to the soil.  I've tried digging over all sections  ... but parts are now totally root-bound from something and I haven't quite figured out what it is yet!

Finally, today, I did a stocktake.  The Daylilies survived ... the Poinsettias survived ... the Angelonias survived ... the Gerberas still there ... the Turnea Ulmifolia is still thriving ... and the Mesembryanthemum 'Pig face' is still hanging in there!

So, while there's some good out of all this, I'm now left with the next job ... trying to decide on what I should try now!!!  This bed is proving to be the proverbial pain in the ####!!!!  Now that the day is drawing to an end, this is how the toddler looks ... rather grotty, with a grumpy look on its face and looking decidedly unloved!  Mum needs a sleep!