Originally posted on Blogger 12 January 2012 There are two hibiscus where I now live. The yellow one below is in the front garden and there is a pink one in the back yard. You may have noticed I love taking photos but these days I don’t have pets or young children (like my nephews) to take photos of (although they aren’t young children anymore) so flowers seem to be my thing. It helps that I’m an aromatherapist so love doing the macro photos and seeing the weenie hairs on stems, leaves, stamen etc. For these flowers, the attraction was trying to get all of that and the ants that…

Originally posted on Blogger 6 January 2012 I had never really noticed Crepe myrtle until I moved to my current home. Once someone pointed it out to me I discovered them scattered all over the suburb where I live and quite probably it has been elsewhere too but I’ve just not seen it. How could I not with its striking colours? Because there are many species of Crepe myrtle the best I can do is give the genus of Lagerstroemia. The trees are native to the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, northern Australia and parts of Oceania, so again I have a plant that is not from around these parts! The…

Originally posted on Blogger 2 January 2012. When I first moved in 6 years ago I took a cutting, a small stem of jade plant that was in my back yard and planted it into a pot that I plonked by the front door. I can be brutal when it comes to caring for it. A quick search of jade plant (thanks Wikipedia) and I find it’s name is Crassula ovata. It is a succulent that has small pink or white flowers and is native to South Africa. Watering it every 10-20 days over summer is fine – Oh, so I’ve not been too cruel! Phew! The thing that surprised…

Originally posted on Blogger 27 August 2011.   Photos from my Nikon Coolpix 8700 bought in 2004.

Originally posted on Blogger 16 August 2011.   Being an aromatherapist has its advantages – actually it has lots of advantages. One is realising that the best type of geranium to have in the garden is Pelagonium graveolens (Rose Geranium). They smell beautiful and have a delicate purple flower Mine will probably flower in a few months. What is flowering now and I love, love, love is Jasmine (Jasminum officinalis). It seems to be easier getting a macro photo of the geranium rather than jasmine. I love getting colours, textures and the like in photos. I’m a bit nutty like that!

Originally posted on Blogger 14 August 2011 It’s winter in Adelaide and today we have a lovely 20 degrees C. I managed to get out and do some gardening, until I ran out of energy (it seems I can only manage about 30 minutes before something says, ‘screw this, lets have lunch!’) One of the reasons I did some gardening (aside from the knee high weeds) is that the camellias are flowering and I pulled the curtain back from the window behind my computer to have that colour come into the lounge. I realised that if I stand to one side I can see the tall, tall weeds as well.…