Orchid

For the first time, we've had some success with an orchid! This happy little Dendrobium Orchid lives under our front pergola out of direct sun (it hit 42'C today). The shot below is a macro.

Backyard Fungi

I was out the back working early in the morning on Australia Day (Jan 26 - a public holiday) when I noticed these little buggers had sprung up overnight in the backyard. You can see the moist soil that they've pushed up as they emerged still clinging to them (hadn't yet been dried out by the sun). Quite amazing how exhuberant even fungal life can be!

Bushfire Plume

We are having 40'C weather again at present. There's a fire bug roaming loose in the adelaide hills. It's bad enough without that. This fire took off over a couple of hours to produce this plume at sunset this evening. It's over 20 miles away. The view is from the balcony.

Balcony Bushfire View

This was the view of the fire plume from the balcony a bit earlier in the piece.

Date Palm - front yard

Warning - this picture is a big one (2.7 MB in full version if you click on the image, about 270 KB even in this 'blog format'). If you're on dialup internet, I'm sorry!

... The palm tree which graces our front yard features in several pictures taken from our balcony over the past few months. Here's a picture of it in its glory taken from beneath, in our front courtyard. I am well pleased with this photo, and hope it conveys something of what it is that is the pleasure of living in a house with many palms around it.

Dates

Apart from the palm itself, the most spectacular individual feature of our largest date palm was its dates. Although there's a smaller bunch coming into season only now, this picture is of the main bunch at its fecund ripest in December. Since this photo, they've all fallen off one by one to the ground below.

Last Sunset of 2006 ...

Gingerbread House

The gingerbread house which occupied pride of place on our christmas table was mainly built by my betterhalf on christmas eve, with final repairs on christmas morn. quite a labour of love actually, and much deserving of the admiring looks of the younger (or, younger-at-heart) amongst us.

Happy Christmas!

Our Tree on Christmas Eve, with an (almost) full complement of gifts beneath it. Looks like a lot of presents, and it is. I was a bit worried we'd slipped deeply into the consumer fetishism that our culture tries to drag us into at this time of year, until I counted out how many people they were for. Thirty! Which is the greatest number of people I've ever given stuff to at christmas. Which is what it's all about.

Hope your christmas was as peaceful and full of gentle affection as ours was...

The Guardian

Watching over our front gate.

Backyard Hibiscus Flowers

I don't know if this pink flower is actually a hibiscus. I suspect not. It grows on a largish bush (smallish tree) just out our backdoor.

This red hibiscus has featured on this blog before. This photo's a bit more evenly exposed. This grows on a creeper over the fence by the pool.

Christmas Tree

This picture is of our christmas tree on the night of the full moon. It's now got a few pressies under it, will show you that shortly.

Dracaena

This view is across the top of the Dracaena tree in our front yard, taken from the balcony. It's a tree which looks weirder the more you look at it. I hope to get a few more views of it up here so you can get an idea of what I mean.

Front Pergola Plants

This photo was taken of the growing collection of pot plants gathered under the shadecloth covering the pergola outside our front door. It was taken in early November. The photos in the following two posts were taken at the end of November. You might be able to see that some of the plants have noticeably grown, and that there are more of them. As summer comes along and they continue to fill out, we should end up with a lush entry way. I hope to track the growth of this in this blog.

The only downside to it all is that I have to water them each day. Thus, although there's little gardening to be done at our house, what there is needs doing every day. Which makes it at least as much a task as the more infrequent cycles required at our previous abode.

Not that I mind doing it. It's just the 'have to' bit ...

Critters

Our Chinese warrior stands guard over the front yard, alongside a struggling but growing bracken plant.

Hidden amongst the cluster of pot plants under the shade cloth is this wooden bird.

If you look carefully, you can see one of our gnomes peeking out from beneath the fern trees.

His friend is hiding nearby.

I know there's a third gnome out there somewhere. When he's sighted next, I'll try and grab a snap.

Front Yard Pot Plants

This Cyclamen (above) was purchased at the local garden store for about $10.

This pigweed is quite happy, spreading sideways along the white wall.

We were given these 'Pony Tails' for our housewarming in Mid November.

The above Stag Fern was bought at the local garden store.

This healthy Swedish Ivy is quite happy growing alongside an odd koala jug.

All these plants are in our front pergola area. With the advent of warm weather and sunshine, they have really taken off. Within a couple of months I expect it will be a bit of a jungle.

This photo is of the refelections in our pool. The unenhanced version is all pastel aqua. Enhanced, it takes on a submarine magic (to my mind's eye, anyway).

Golden Sunset

This photo was taken from our balcony yesterday evening. I increased the shutterspeed to about the highest I've consciously used. The chimney is our next door neighbor's.

Golden Sunset Details

The above photo is on a higher zoom. The one beneath is both on high zoom and had noise reduction applied.

November balcony dusk

My first application of noise reduction software (see post below the one below).