Grandiflora

Happy celebrations.  Much joy and best wishes to all. 

I love walking. It is a fact. I will walk, in preference to any other mode of transport. I have been walking since I was nine months old, much to the surprise of my parents and in spite of the declarations of my uncle who stated with confidence, “That little bumbar (croatian equivalent of oompah loompah/chubster etc) won’t be up on her feet and walking before she’s 18 months old.” He was wrong! My mother says that I started walking and talking ( I love doing that too) at the same time and well…. here we are.

So I give you some photos from one of our rambles into the National Park; a section that is not more than a few kilometres from the house but is a much drier, heath like terrain. (We are in a section of cool climate rainforest/swamp/stream community.) In amongst the incessant doing and making and living, we don’t walk out in the bush as much as would be good for us. Sometimes it’s good to get out there to walk, listen and be quiet!

Purple Flax Lily (Dianella) seed head - I think

* Correction Haemodorum planifolium (Strap-leaf Bloodroot) or Haemodorum.corymbosum (Rush-leaf Bloodroot).  Thank you to ClareSnow for the classification!

Young Eucalyptus leaves with new red shoots and soft grey-green leaves.

We sat here to eat our local cherries and not so local mango.

Drumsticks (Isopogon anemonifolis)

Close up of the ironstone cliff face.

Fog at 10 am (it stayed like this most of the day)

When we first moved here, I was shocked by the summer fog.  I had equated fog with winter not summer but then again the Blue Mountains gets most of it’s rain during the warmer months (usually).  At night, I could not make out the roads to get home….the highway and village shops were fine but as you drove further out there were less and less street lights.  Also, our town has a large number of part-time residents so very few house lights were on  to guide you.

So how did I get home, one particular night?

The hideous flashing Xmas light displays on houses.  Enough houses along one particular route had Xmas lights and my neighbours at the time had a modest display.  I was so grateful but still not sympathetic to the light displays.  Over time I (and my eyes)  have adjusted to it and when the fog is so thick, you can’t see your back garden, it’s simple - don’t drive!

Black wattle (Callicoma serratifolia ) in fog.

These lillium bulbs were a freebie with a plant order placed earlier in the year.  Called Fangio, I thought they would be a rather unattractive shade of red, was galled by the popular name and thought “Hmm, definitely something they couldn’t move”  but I planted them anyway (as you do - they were free) I can’t tell you how wrong I was.  My derision and skepticism were misplaced. The colour is strong and dramatic - a perfect foil for the thunderstorms, heavy rain, mist and grey skies we have had of late.

Other reds doing well are rhubarb and I’m trying hard not to focus on that other summer red, the tomato.  They don’t like wet summers. Sigh!  I finally planted most of them out  into the garden so fingers crossed.