It's Time For Another Friday Flower Flaunt.

Today is the first day of our last Spring month, and it's also the first day of our Tropical Cyclone Season.  Gosh, that seems to come around quickly!  We now spend six months waiting to see if anything develops and waiting to see where a tropical cyclone might possibly strike near us!  But that's part of our tropical lifestyle here in the north.  Fingers crossed it flies by without too much destruction.

Anyhoo ... I finally did get a shot of our recent visitors face.  As some might know, I had an interesting visitor drop by this week to spend time sitting in my water plant container. 

Yes, that's the face of that lovable Scrub Python that made itself at home for four days out in my courtyard.  It's gone now, probably had to go off searching for something tasty to eat.  Thank goodness, because I wasn't too keen on getting close in order to grab the hand held hose that I needed to water all my potted courtyard plants.  The poor things looked a little parched by the end of the week, but I've managed to give them a good long drink this morning.

There's actually not much blooming around here at the moment.  I've had a huge battle with mealy bugs in most of my potted plants in the courtyard over the last month or so, and I've now resorted to cutting everything back to bare bones. Elsewhere, the long dry season has taken its toll, and most plants are looking less than their best.

Thank goodness for the Hibiscus blooms that are always present around my place.  I appreciate them more when there's not much else to see.

Out in courtyard, the Petrea volubilis that drapes over the pergola is throwing out the last of its wonderful purple blooms.

Down the driveway, the Delonix regia has started blooming,

and in the tiered garden beds my Adenium obesum is showing off its gorgeous flowers as well.

There are also a few Planchonie careya or Cocky Apple blooms to be spotted either on the couple of small trees on my property, or on the trees growing in the surrounding bushland and neighbourhood.


I'm joining Tootsie for Fertilizer Friday / Flaunt Your Flowers

What the .... Who Knew Pythons Love A Bath! ... The Year In Photographs ... October 29,2013

So, yesterday afternoon I wandered out into the courtyard to start my watering job.  You know what it's like, you're on automatic pilot after a long day at work and you're not really paying all that much attention to your surroundings.  You've just reached across to grab the watering can from behind the water plant container and then suddenly ....


... you notice something most unexpected!  "What's that?" you're think quietly while you screech loudly and perform some awesome aerobatic actions to help propel you as far away as possible from where you've just been standing!!!

Yes folks.  That's a dirty great big Python wrapped up nicely and snoozing away in my water plant container.

My heart was set all a-flutter, but no because of the beauty of this creature, but because I'm not all the keen on snakes.

I'm not an expert on Pythons, and I'm not sure what sort it is, but I do know it seems to have rather a wide girth, so I'm guessing it's probably quite long as well.

I am however, not the slightest bit interested in trying to move it along despite the fact it's crushing my one and only Water Lily plant that's growing in that container.

I cam home from work today, and Mr Python is still looking as if it's feeling quite at home and very comfy in that spot.  I had no idea Pythons loved the water so much. 

A Flower Flaunt ... as our mid-Spring month draws to a close

Yes, the end of our Springtime is approaching.  Just one more month left, officially, but the conditions are remarkably summery.  The humidity levels are rising once more, and it's starting to feel a little warmer and stickier.

Whilst we have had a couple of very light showers of rain in the past week, it's been of negligible benefit to the garden.  The raindrops barely penetrated the ground here, but it was delightful listening to the drumming of raindrops on the corrugated iron roof at night-time.

The landscape around our property is still looking dry and parched, as would be expected towards the end of a long dry season,

and the Agile Wallabies are searching for signs of new green growth wherever they can find some.  In this case, they've found some new growth where the grey-water pipe has sprung a leak and has been watering a patch in the side yard.

There are a few lovely blooms around the place, so let's see what can be found.

If you look to the sky outside my husband's workshop, you will see there are still quite a few flowers hanging on the branches of a couple of very tall Tabebuia heterophyllas.

The flowers adorn most of the bare almost leafless branches of the tree,

but they're so high up in many places that it's hard to get a close look in order to appreciate their delicate beauty. 

The very first blooms are appearing on my Delonix regias.  It's interesting to note the differences between the three trees though.   On the two that grow at the front gate area, most of the seed pods have fallen to the ground, and the bare branches are covered in flower buds, but there is little leaf growth.

It's the flowers that are taking centre stage on those two trees at the moment.

In the case of my other Delonix regia which grows near our car shed area however, the branches are covered in new lacy leaf growth as well as flower buds.  Mother Nature always amazes me!

Elsewhere,

Turnera subulata and Russelia juncea make a great pair.

There are some little perfumed flowers appearing on my dwarf  Murraya.

Salvia madrensis, 

and Salvia leucantha 'White Velour' are both beginning another blooming cycle.

My favourites at the moment though are definitely the double blooms that have appeared for the first time on one of my Nerium Oleanders,

and the rich cerise blooms on two of my Adenium obesums or Desert Roses.  The two young Adeniums that are planted out in the tiered garden beds have been grown from seed sent to me by a fellow north Queenslander blogger (thanks Pitta!) and the flowers are just gorgeous.  I'm so looking forward to seeing all the other little Adenium seedlings planted up and flourishing in one section of my new garden beds.  They will make a spectacular display when they're all blooming at once.


I'm joining Tootsie for Fertilizer Friday / Flaunt Your Flowers

Nix for Floral Friday Fotos

and Today's Flowers

It's Another Flower Flaunt Friday ... On Another Mid-Spring Friday.

It has been a quite toasty warm Springtime for us so far, so it looks like a very hot, very long summer is on the way.  Of course that means the rains should be just around the corner now, and not far off ... maybe another month or so to go.  The garden will be oh so grateful when decent rain soaks the ground.

At the moment, it's Lily time with some of my Asiatic and Oriental Lilies in bloom.

I can't list the names of these beauties as they came in a mixed pack.

One of my new Hemerocallis really caught my eye this week.  It was a bonus bulb thrown in with my order because the nursery couldn't supply one particular variety that I wanted.  I've never been interested in ordering a spider Daylily before, but I can see that this one might change my mind.

This bulb arrived without a label, but I think it's Hemerocallis 'World Class Oddity'.  Such a fabulous name!

The Brunfelsia, or Yesterday, Today, Tommorrow shrub, is putting on a great show at the moment, and the perfume is simply divine.

My Indian Rope Hoya blooms have finally opened.  You can see why one of the common names for these plants is Porcelain Flower.  They look like they're made of fine porcelain or fondant icing.

I'm joining Tootsie for her Fertilizer Friday / Flaunt Your Flowers meme,

Today's Flowers

and Nix for Floral Friday Fotos