Dunedin Blues

Summer delights. Good blues.. happy blues 🙂 From our visit to Dunedin Botanic Garden on 15 January. New Zealand.

Pink Paws

By the time I reached the Australia garden at Dunedin Botanic Garden yesterday the light was already high-key but nevertheless these kangaroo paws still look bright and colourful in the photo, as indeed they were. One of my favourite flowering plants! Dunedin, New Zealand.

Shadow Pattern

As I wandered past some native plants at Black Gully Reserve, the shadows caught my eye. The large bright green leaves catching the shadows belong to a Griselinia species. Tapanui, West Otago, New Zealand.

Red Livens Things Up

I want to share with you how lovely the red form of our native mistletoe looks when it's up in a tree, with this type of mistletoe that's where you look.. upward. It's their spent flowers on the ground that usually alert me to their presence higher in the trees, always reminding me to look...

Spitting Image

When I was at Black Gully Reserve on 28 December, I found a spittle bug on a slender stem of a tree. I hadn't seen one of these so convenient to photograph before and it was fairly well-lit. It turns out they're pretty interesting creatures! Below the photo I'll give you a 'gift-link' to a...

Stormy

As I write it is the evening of January 06 here in New Zealand. This afternoon we've experienced an extraordinary thunderstorm that came upon us very suddenly with much drama - big lightning, crashing thunder, strong wind and driving rain from the east which is rare here. Water even seeped into the passage under the...

Vege Garden Flowers

Flowers from the vege garden: 1. Leek bloom and a spray of celery flowers 2. Purple sage in flower, celery flowers 3. Silver beet flower heads, they go high! 4. Nigel 6'3" takes a stand by lovage flowers Tapanui, West Otago. New Zealand Leek flower head - a sphere of small mauve and white flowers...

Leave The Leeks!

We left a few in the garden last winter. Now they're having a ball! ~Tapanui, West Otago, New Zealand.

Christmas Mistletoe

I've still got a few photos of the native mistletoe that are perched on trees at our local public reserve at Black Gully. Happily they flower in December and a few of them reside at the edge of the big open grass area so no big hike is needed to access them. I took these...

Rural Intersection

The rural triangle intersection we found yesterday. Photos by Nigel, except the last one by me (my picture of the old kettle). Clutha District, New Zealand.

Silene

Silene vulgaris or Bladder Campion. Eye-catching weed flowers I found at Commissioners Track, Roxburgh, Central Otago. First 3 photos taken 04 December, last photo taken 27 December. New Zealand. Etymology : "Silene, the genus name, is a reference to the Greek woodland god Silenus the foster father of Bacchus, who was often depicted covered in...

Blue Gloss

Yesterday we returned to Commissioners Track and spent some time on part of it, mostly checking out the weeds and the native plants. We're right into summer now and lots of plants are flowering including grasses. We found some very pretty weed flowers, and some rather nice native flowers too. But today's post is about...