Let’s delve a bit deeper into BB’s garden, shall we? Apart from a variety of grevilleas, there are the usual suspects: bottle brush, a rather cute green kangaroo paw with a golden stimen. Not sure what the purple flowering bush is but the flowers are pretty with its white border.
But the crowning glory of the garden at the moment is rose and blue bromeliad. Spectacular, isn’t it?
I’m continuing the Summer Blooms theme with a look around BB’s garden at Umina Beach, on the NSW Central Coast. BB has only lived at Umina for two years, but in that time he’s transformed the garden with a combination of natives, tropical blooms, and even a vegetable and herb garden.
He’s a big fan of the grevillea, since they are easy to grow and are hardy. They also come in many shapes and colours, as can be seen from these specimens in the garden.
With all the rain, my garden is quickly growing into a jungle. But it’s a colourful one at that. I love the vibrancy of the hibiscus with its multi-coloured stimen.
We found a lot of flowers blooming around the track mid-January:
Grevilleas, mini waratahs, the last blooms of the Christmas bush…
A few unnameable blooms, but most spectacularly, different types of banksias.
Above the treeline (where the average yearly temperature is too low for any trees to grow), things seem rather stark, but there is plenty of life.
During the summer there is a wealth of wildflowers on the heath. Ironically, most of them seem to be white in colour. Since we walked in mid-December it was only the shoulder season for flowers, hence we didn’t see a wealth of them, but enough to get a taste of what happens in mid-January during peak season. With the flowers unfortunately comes the flies – they are the chief pollinaters in the alpine since bees don’t seem to exist up so high.
We walked into camp not long after 3pm, and what a superb place to camp, on top of Australia.
Wedding bouquets are usually a standard issue, but I thought this one was rather old fashioned, but nevertheless stunning.
Spent a lovely day walking in Heathcote National Park. It’s somewhere I’ve never been before, even though it is literally across the road from its bigger and more well-known sister, Royal National Park. So it’s not surprising that the landscape is similar – dry eucalypt forests, sandstone gorges and creeks – but it feels much more off the beaten path.
It was lovely to see the profusion of spring wildflowers, which are surprisingly colourful.
And we found a beautiful spot in Kingfisher Pool. You can even camp nearby.
What is it about Spring and weddings?
These fuchsia bells can be found everywhere in the Sydney and Blue Mountains, usually in cooler, sheltered areas. Rather pretty they are, too.
These flannel flowers are in abundance in bushland areas throughout Spring and early summer. This one was in Oatley Park, by the Georges River.
Static and Silence 