Nature Notes – Still Waters

Even though daily life activities here in Victoria are being expanded day by day, restrictions eased, doors opened that have been shut for months, we are still not able to travel long distances so I’m still reliving trips away to places far far from home. I’m thinking armchair travel is going to be a way of life for a little while yet.

I once saw the climate in Melbourne described as Temperate but quite variable…known for its changeable weather patterns …lol four seasons in one day isn’t far from the mark. It can be hot and dry, it can definitely be cold and wet but what it isn’t is tropical…..except on some really hot humid days we might get in the summertime 😎

So one of the things I look forward to seeing when we are out and about in Queensland ….because I’ve never seen them growing in Melbourne and they just seem to shout out Tropical ….are the beautiful Bougainvillea which seem to grow like weeds, they are everywhere. Bright bursts of colour climbing over and around anything and everything reminding me of the big climbing Banksia roses that do well down south.

This week I’ve been reminding myself of some seen on a trip in 2009
I hope you enjoy them as well

We saw this lovely pink and white bush in a car park of all the places at Winton.
all on its own and looking a little out of place amongst the natives.
Maybe self sown

The actual flowers are the little white ‘bits’ in the coloured bracts

But what I did like was the way some businesses used it decoratively.
This was a lovely white strain growing up an archwayin front of a cafe in Longreach
It had a really nice cool look to it and there didn’t seem to be any thorns on this one.
which is possibly why it was placed so very strategically in front of the cafe

You can see the little flowers more clearly here

Now this to me was the most appealing of all
Mountains of colour at several spots along the main street of Bowen
One side of Herbert Street is higher than the other
and there were several of these fabulous covered crossings along the street.
(sadly removed during a ‘street renovation’)

A beautifully shaded area under those enormous Bougainvillea shrubs
Those bench seats looked so inviting

Thank you Kay (at Musings) for the inspiration……for this post.
To enlarge click or use the two finger slide

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainvillea.
https://floridata.com/plant/553
https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/plant-finder/bougainvillea/9441670

Sunday Selections is hosted by Elephants Child. Find Nature Notes at Rambling Woods.
Denyse Whelan Blogs is the home of Life this Week
Linking also to – Travel Tuesday – My Corner of the World – Our World Tuesday.

The warm Spring weather has been playing hard to get so the garden has been coming to life really really slowly. It was so cold and miserable over Winter I’m only just (very slowly) warming up myself so at the moment it’s‘ chaos reigns’ out there I’m managing to do a bit of weeding and general tidying around and about but …strangely I’m noticing things that are emerging from places I didn’t think they were planted. I certainly don’t remember planting those Iris in that spot.

That little piece of white flowered snow in summer (Cerastium) next to the bluey mauve Brachyschome wasn’t there last year but I’m pleased to see it. It reminds me of my Dad, he used it a lot in odd spots. Set and forget he’d say!

The lavender under the washing line has been good this year – shame it’s nearly time to cut it back….The Golfer cut the grass the other day so it looks green and tidy from this angle …it certainly won’t look so green come later in the summer when it gets hot and dry. It’s hard to plan a time to cut when we’ve had rainy days because he likes it to dry out a bit but like in all things nature doesn’t play fair!

And of course there is the early flush of Spring roses to admire. The little ‘blue bed near the line’ as I jokingly call it has been mulched so it’s right to go but there’s still a lot of work to be done on the bed at the bottom of the garden. A Bad Back limits me at times and it didn’t play fair last year so even though it doesn’t look too bad from a distance it’s when I realised what I thought were some long leaves of Iris was actually invasive couch grass that has grown tall I knew I’d be trying for half hour time spots. Rain has stopped play at the moment 😢

And a few from the bottom bed – names unknown.
(everything opens with a tap or a click)

Today I’m joining in the fun of Sunday Selections hosted by Elephants Child.
Nature Notes can be found at Rambling Woods.
Denyse Whelan Blogs is the home of Life this Week

Tag: Nature Notes

Seen Outside…..

Like this:

It’s happening slowly…..

Like this: