An Aussie backyard in bloom

Spring is almost over in the Southern Hemisphere, soon summer will be here and the scent of sunblock, coconut oil, mosquito coils and aeroguard will fill the air. I’m in no hurry to welcome summer, I love the colourful flowers and comfortable temperature of spring, at the moment the gardenias are in full bloom and their heavenly scent follows me everywhere.

Early yesterday I took a walk around our backyard taking photos of the different flowers and plants, the bird calls of Lorikeets, Coucals, Magpies and Noisy Miners provided the background music.

Colourful Spring flowers

Spring is here, we have had a long and cold winter (for Queensland) and the drab colours are disappearing behind the blossoms of magnolias, jasmine, grevilleas, hippeastrums and mandevillas. Storm clouds have been coming and going for a couple of weeks, bringing with them much needed rain and the occasional and undesired hail stone. The grass is lush and green again, it is soft to sit on and the dogs just love rolling on it and having a nibble.

Bundy out for a walk

This afternoon I took Bundy (black dog no.2) for a walk around a large duck pond, there were kids using a nearby skate ramp and cricket training was underway at the adjacent oval. The birdlife is a mix of brown ducks, pukekos, herons, peewees, willy wagtails and sulphur-crested cockatoos, I often take my camera  with me but can rarely get close enough to get a good shot – perhaps going for a walk sans-dog would help. Today I had my iphone with me, the retro camera app has some nice effects so I took the opportunity to photograph the different flowers blooming and continued taking more shots at home.

Grevillea flowers

Bottlebrush

Unknown plant growing in the shallow water

Lilypads

Very hard to spot Blue Heron taking off across the pond

Blue Heron flying across the pond

Hippeastrums growing on the edge of the pond

…and here is a selection of some of the flowers growing in our backyard. Not the most exciting story or selection of photos but I do have a penchant for pretty things and Spring is the perfect time for me to indulge.

Star Jasmine

Geraniums

Pale pink Begonias

…it’s raining again

It really isn’t supposed to rain this much during summer, spectacular lightning and thunder storms yes, but torrential, consistent rain no. During breaks in the bad weather I step outside, dogs in tow and survey the surroundings to see whether there is more rain coming and to savor the fresh air and watch local wildlife (spiders, birds, dragonflies and occasionally frogs) go about their business.

Today I stepped with my iphone and a new retro camera app that I was wanting to test on some poor unsuspecting subject, usually the subject is my husband or one of our dogs but a magnolia had blossomed in our garden and a flower,  now in the last stages of blooming seemed like the obvious choice. The retro camera app has 5 different ‘cameras’ to choose from: The Barbl, Little Orange Box, xolaroid 2000, pinhole camera and FudgeCan and with each camera there is an option to shoot in colour or black and white. By selecting a subject that would not move or complain, it was easy for me to try all the different camera formats in both colour and black and white and compare the after effects. The Barbl and FudgeCan shots were interesting and among my favourites however the photos I liked most of all were those taken by the Little Orange Box, the contrast and colour appealed to me and the texture didn’t seem to be too heavily applied.

Magnolia flower