HI everyone, I hope you and yours are well. I can't believe that May has nearly gone - only a week and a bit to go. I really don't know where May has gone. Here are a few randoms from May.
Quinces are my favourite autumn fruit and I am so lucky to have a quince tree in my backyard. So delicious! But you must cook them first as they are rock hard. i've blogged about them a few times before. Remember the Owl and the Pussycat ate slices of quince with a runcible spoon?
This is Mesomelaena tetragona - Semaphore Sedge - we see lots of them when we are walking in the Crooked Brook Reserve. Can you see why they are called Semaphore? You kno...the flag symbols they used to use for signalling... britannica.com/technology/semaphore
You might remember earlier in the month I took you to the Balingup Golden Valley Tree Park - you can see more by clicking on the link. So beautiful with the golden autumn colours this time of year.
It is a nice time of year to go bushwalking - with slightly cooler days - though not many wildflowers this time of year. However we found two of the winter flowering orchids at Manea Reserve last week.
At the top - The Hare Orchid - Leporella fimbriata - these are tiny flowers only 10-30mm and very hard to find. But they do grow in colonies, so once you have found one you will perhaps find some more. You need a good orchid spotting companion. They have long ears like a hare.
At the bottom - I am not a botanist but I believe this to be the Common Bunny Orchid - Eriochilus dilatatus subsp multiflorus. There are several varieties of Bunny orchid.
This is the amazing ghost fungus - Omphalotus nidiformis - which grows in large clusters at the base of both living and dead trees. In Western Australia, it’s common on bull banksia (Banksia grandis), peppermint (Agonis flexuosa), sheoak (Allocasuarina spp.) and marri (Corymbia calophylla) as well as understory shrubs and plants in jarrah forest and coastal woodlands.
White during the day, during the night the ghost fungus is luminescent and glows an eerie green colour. The intensity of the luminescence varies and diminishes with age. The reason for its luminescent is not known, but perhaps it is to attract night flying insects which feed or forage on it and then spread its spores. You can learn more here - WA department of Environment & Conservation
So cool! but poisonous - i photographed these beneath peppermint trees on my son's small property. My son photographed them with his mobile phone on a slow shutter speed but I used my DSLR camera on bulb setting, on a tripod, with a remote shutter button, on about a 2 minute exposure - in order to capture the green.
The first photo shows the ghost fungi in dayllight, the one next to it is the same fungi at night.
Book i am reading - I highly recommend both these books.
The Book Binder of Jericho by Pip Williams - The follow-up and companion to one of the most successful Australian novels, The Dictionary of Lost Words.
What is lost when knowledge is withheld?
In 1914, when the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, it is the women who must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who work in the bindery at Oxford University Press in Jericho. Peggy is intelligent, ambitious and dreams of studying at Oxford University, but for most of her life she has been told her job is to bind the books, not read them. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has. She is extraordinary but vulnerable. Peggy needs to watch over her. Into the mix come refugees from Belgium, and wounded soldiers.
There is a short video below from Pip.
I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!
Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity.
and Little bird - Pienilintu
Thankful Thursday
Welcome to Nature Thursday
