Last Sunday I enjoyed two thoroughly different experiences with flowers.
In the morning we went out to Manea Park on the edge of our town. This is a 206 hectare conservation reserve which shelters over 200 species of wildflowers including 35 species of orchids and a variety of birds and fauna including the Western brush tailed wallabies. A two kilometre loop trail enables you to enjoy the bushland and help prevent the spread of die-back disease which is threatening our bushland. We are nearing the end of winter and there was a burst of spring weather on the weekend, perfect for bush walking. The bees were enjoying it too. This is Banksia ilicifolia - holly leaved banksia - which flowers all year round. It is the only banksia that doesn't produce flower spikes.
One of my favorites, the beautiful Pepper & Salt - Philotheca spicata.
I don't know about you, but winter seems to me to be a time for baking, and making hearty soups and casseroles. I love the smell of biscuits baking. Home-made biscuits are so much better I think than their store bought cousins - although there are also yummy store biscuits too. (For my American friends, when I say biscuits I mean cookies :)
When I was a newly-wed almost 40 years ago, and not yet quite 20, I baked biscuits for my husband for the first time a few weeks after we were married. You can see a pic of me below here making that first batch of biscuits, a pic of the two of us, and our little flat. We were on the top floor and thought we had it all. Oh to be that young and carefree again! My husband must have thought my making biscuits was note-worthy to have taken a photo.
While I had young children at home baking cakes and biscuits continued with recipes from my Mum, Aunts, Sister and those favourite cookbooks for Australian cooks - The Golden Wattle Cookbook, and the Country Women's Association Cookbook. No household would have been complete without these cookbooks.
It has been a dry start to winter, but last week we finally had some good rain and it has got into the wheatbelt where it is desperately needed. Here is a pic I took under an umbrella down at our harbour area.
I have just spent a fabulous weekend with the Photography Group of Bunbury at a workshop with renowned Australian photographer Nick Melidonis. One thing I learnt is there is still a lot to learn. Actually as technologies change there will always be something new to learn in photography. But as Nick says - "don't be overwhelmed".
