Tree Dahlias

I can never work out why Tree Dahlias wait until almost winter to begin producing their dinner-plate sized flowers, when they run the risk of having the first heavy frost blacken them overnight.

Despite several light frosts already, they are continuing to flower this year, so we'll keeping hoping they hold on to their pretty mauve flowers for a few more weeks.

Reflected Sunset

These reflected sunset shots to the south and the east were taken from Shelly's back deck last evening.

I have lightened the first photo so that you can see the kangaroos in the foreground.

(Click to enlarge.)

Can you see the aeroplane in the top of the photo?

The Flowers May Be Spent....

.... but there's still plenty of foliage variety to maintain interest in the garden, even being less than a week from the onset of Winter. This is what was in my garden this morning.

Pink Correa

Silver-leaved Pyrethrum

White Correa

Callistemons and Acacias

Eramophila

Grevillea and Pittospermum

Japanese Maple

Crowea

Nandina

Geranium

Geraldton Wax

Purple-leaved tea tree

Banksia

Hop Bush

Dwarf Conifer

Scabiosa

(If any photos drop out, right click on red cross and Show Picture. May need to be repeated a few times.)

Another view

Kerri has photos on her blog of a bird they call a Killdeer, which is a member of the Plover family. We are familiar with plovers in this country, and after our encounter with some at the coast last year, I would quite happily call them Killdeer, or 'Kill Anything'.

We were walking through the Eurobodalla Botanic Gardens in Spring time. That's right, Spring time, the time when parent birds are zealously guarding their offspring. As plovers nest in the grass, it is very easy to walk close to a nest without realising it. That is, until a seemingly docile bird .........

........ suddenly gathers its mates and they become shrieking, swooping, diving, feathered fiends, bent on frightening ten years growth out of innocent passers-by, regardless of the disparity in size.

Fortunately, we had umbrellas with us and managed to shield ourselves from the onslaught. However, it's difficult to hold an open umbrella, whilst turning in circles to face the next attack, and take photos at the same time - hence this is the only shot I was able to take of one marauding plover.

Take care, Kerri and Ross, when those speckled eggs hatch!

(If any of the photos drop out, right click on red cross then on Show Picture. May need to be repeated a few times.)

100 Years

Today would have been my mother-in-law's 100th birthday, and my father's in nine days time.

Alas, they passed away in 1987 and 1991.

(L to R) my Mother-in-law, my Mother, Richard, my Father, Shelly (mainly hidden) on her 1st birthday, me.

(I can't disclose how many years ago this photo was taken or it will give away Shelly's age, amd I'm not sure she would approve...lol)

I've been thinking about all the changes they would have seen were they alive today - indeed, the many changes in lifestyle they did experience.

Things that we take for granted today were either not invented or not necessarily readily available to the majority of people for the whole of those 100 years.

Cars, electricity, air travel, telephones, television, computers, mobile phones, the internet, air-conditioning, many life-saving drugs and medical techniques, and even many of the foods we eat.

Of course, there are many less positive things they have been largely spared too, like the spread of AIDS, terrorism, drug dependency, world poverty, the effects of climate change, and the dwindling energy resources.

It's hard to imagine how the next 100 years could possibly bring as many changes, don't you think?

Nearly Missed It

I haven't taken any sunset photos for many months........

and I nearly missed this one, too.

I just happened to look out of the window to see pink-tinged grey clouds in the East,

which seemed to indicate there must have been a good sunset in the West.

I would have taken more photos from better positions, but there was a dog with

very strong-looking jaws roaming around - and I'm a first class coward

when stray dogs seem to have mislaid their owners.

Swamp Cypresses

These Swamp Cypresses (Taxodium distichum) beside Lake Burley Griffin provide a brilliant autumn display.

Several specimens in this stand of trees haven't even begun to change colour, whilst others have coloured magnificently.

It's possible that this group of eucalypts in front of the green cypresses has protected them from the colder weather, thus they have retained their green leaves.

Swamp cypresses with their seed cones.

Varying shades.

(If any of the photos drop out, right click on red cross and on Show Picture. May need to be repeated a few times.)

Now You See It .......

....... Now You Don't!

Scrolling back through the posts on this page I noticed that odd photos keep disappearing. It's not always the same photos each time I look. Really annoying and frustrating.

However, I have found that if I RIGHT click on the little red cross, and then RIGHT click on SHOW PICTURE, the photo will re-appear, although I may have to repeat the process three or four times. I hope it works for you.

Is anyone else having these sort of problems at the moment

Autumn in the Home Paddock ......

Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple' (Smoke Bush)

Unknown tree which we've tried to get rid of but it keeps coming back and has gloriously shiny green leaves in the summer and clear yellow ones in the autumn.

Sapium sebiferum (Chinese Tallow tree) and Fraxinus angustifolia 'Raywood' (Claret Ash)

Cotinus coggygria 'Grace' (Smoke Bush)

Acer palmatum (Japanese Maple) and Acer pseudoplatanus (Sycamore Maple)

Cornus alba (Red-barked Dogwood) and Cornus florida (pink flowering Dogwood)

Smoke Bush 'Grace'

Chinese Tallow tree

Liquidamber styraciflua (Sweet Gum) .....

...... and close up

Betula pendula (Silver Birch)

Japanese Maple and Sycamore Maple

Lower branches of the Chinese Tallow tree ....

.... whilst the upper branches are a different colour altogether.

Sorbus domestica (Mountain Ash)

Grapes

Nandina

Cherry tree

(If any of the photos drop out, right click on the red cross and on Show Picture. May need to be repeated a few times.)