08 | September | 2013 | Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Spring has sprung

8 09 2013

I spent part of this gorgeous spring Sunday morning in the garden (spraying weeds — not much fun) and I noticed how lots of the plants are bursting into flower. The bees are hard at work too!

Oh, and we have some ancient plant species in our (mostly) native garden.

Green and black kangaroo paw

These orange kangaroo paws are ready to burst into full flower

Something (I suspect birds) is chopping off the new flower heads of some of the kangaroo paws

Yellow kangaroo paws ready to burst into full flower

I think this is a NZ Christmas tree. Magnificent red flowers, though the camera doesn’t do the red justice.

NZ Christmas tree?

One of several varieties of proteas we have in the garden. The flower heads are bright orange, but again, the camera didn’t capture the true colour very well.

Protea flower heads

Closer view of those proteas

Grass tree sending forth its spear. Soon this spear will be about 2 metres long and covered with tine white/yellow flowers

No idea what this one is, but suspect it’s part of the aloe/agave family

Yellow strelitzia

Orange strelitzia

I think this is a cycad of some sort. I’ve never seen that centre ‘crown’ before. The others I have of these don’t have such a dominant crown yet — perhaps they are less mature?

No idea 😉

Also no idea 😉

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Categories : Life stuff

Kangaroos basking in the spring weather

8 09 2013

On my drive into town, I pass by a few paddocks that are home to several mobs (perhaps just one mob?) of grey kangaroos. These are wild roos, but they eat and laze in the paddocks, sometimes close to horses and houses. They rarely come onto the road, though you may see one on the road at night. If it’s too hot or too cold and wet, they hide up in the bush behind the paddocks and you can’t see them, but most days you can see some along about a 2 km stretch.

These ones were lolling about an empty block of land that’s for sale. The driveway and pad for the house have been established, but the roos have definitely taken over 😉 I’m not sure I’d like to build on that block — the garden would likely be FULL of kangaroo ticks.

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Categories : Australia

Population explosion

8 09 2013

It’s several years since we visited Gnomesville (Ferguson Valley, Western Australia), but we were out and about in the valley on Saturday after voting in the federal election. After having lunch at a brewery, we continued driving along Ferguson Road to the end where the big roundabout is — and where Gnomesville is. And the first thing we noticed was the massive population explosion!

From several hundred gnomes (at a guess) the last time we visited, the population is now in the thousands and extends quite some way along the road verge, down into the creek, up trees, on top of logs, under logs, and there were even some ‘outer suburbs’ some distance from the main settlement. There was even a bird 😉

And while I was there taking photos, some classic cars turned up, including a GORGEOUS 1951? Buick!