Chinese Garden of Friendship

On our recent trip to Sydney we visited the Chinese Garden of Friendship, which is nestled at the south end of Darling Harbour and a short walk from Chinatown. This was a second visit, the first being in June 2005. We must make sure that our next visit is in the summer time when the trees are in leaf. However, these gardens are beautiful even in mid-winter, and delightfully relaxing even whilst surrounded by high-rise buildings close by.

Entering the gardens is like walking backwards in time into the quiet solitude of ancient Chinese architecture and its relationship with nature.

The garden combines the elements of water, plants, stone and architecture.

Running water, towering willow trees, cool lagoons with lotus plants and large colourful fish all make this an idyllic spot to read a book or recharge your batteries.

The gardens occupy several acres combining waterfalls, lakes, pavillions, sculpture and animals; the fish and the ibis.

The key features to look out for are the Courtyard of Welcoming Fragrance, Dragon Wall, Water Pavillion of Lotus Fragrance, Twin Pavillion, Gurr, Rock Forest, and the Penjing.

I hope you enjoyed your photographic stroll through these lovely gardens. A few leafier photos can seen on my blog post for June 2005.

(Most of the text for this post was taken from the Internet.)

Dutch Hyacinths and other portents of Spring

A good day for photography and an overwhelming sense of guilt for not having blogged for so long took me on a stroll around the garden yesterday, and this is what I found.

Highly perfumed Dutch Hyacinths ....

..... with a background of Jonquils

Primulas

Tritelia

Anemones

Daffodils

Euphorbia

Snowdrops or Snowflakes (I forget which is which.)

Who would be without mint?

Jonquils

White violets

More Daffodils

Banksia

Hellebores - I wish they weren't so shy and then they could lift their heads and we could see their pretty faces.

Crocus

Don't know its name but I've nicknamed it the 'jellybean plant' - delightful succulent that grows so easily.

Pink Correa

Leucadendron

Violet violets!

Perennial Wallflower

These lettuce seedlings were self-sown in the compost.

I must apologise for not acknowledging several comments. For some reason Blogger is putting them all in the 'Moderation' page and I didn't see them for ages. Thank you for all your comments - they are always very much appreciated.