Harmony through flowers

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.

What's baking at your house?

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.

Photography Motion Blur

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".

Allowing time to sit in my winter garden

One of my favourite poems as a teenager in high school was this one by TS Eliot. The words easily conjure up the pictures in my mind. See if you can see the pictures too.

Prelude

The winter evening settles down
With smells of steaks in passageways.
Six o'clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;

The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots;
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.

I can't bring you images of gusty showers, chimney-pots, and lonely cab-horses, but I can bring you withered leaves and a few images from my winter garden. 

Murchison River camping at Wooleen Station, Western Australia

We have just returned in the last few days from our latest camping trip through Western Australia's midwest. 

We stayed for a few days at a river front bush campsite at Wooleen Station just south of the Murchison Settlement, 690kms north east of our capital city Perth.

We had heard about Wooleen when we travelled through Murchison last year, and were keen to experience their station stay. Covering over a quarter of a million acres of picturesque outback, Wooleen Station is a cattle station that is playing a leading role in preserving and sustaining the unique ecology of the region.

Located in mulga shrub land, Wooleen Station was founded in 1886 when James Sharpe bought the lease of about 90,000 acres.  The Pollock family bought the lease of the property in 1989 and is today managed by David Pollock and his partner Frances Jones. 

As well as cattle grazing, David and Frances run an eco-tourism business on their property. 

We loved the private river frontage bush camping on the Murchison River at Wooleen Station with absolute quiet and a million stars overhead at night.

There are 4 riverside campsites - Bagaa (white-faced heron), Birdiny (water chooky). Gurulhu (Black swan) and Warrbi (fish).  Below are two pics of our camp with views over the Murchison River. Gurulhu means "Black Swan" in the local indigenous dialect.   

The Wildflower Hunter

I have just finished reading "The Flower Hunter - the remarkable life of Ellis Rowan" by Christine & Michael Morton-Evans published by the National Library of Australia. 

It is indeed a fascinating read about the life and times of Ellis Rowan - an intrepid woman adventurer and wildflower painter 1848-1922.  During her lifetime she painted over 3000 works, not only wildflowers across Australia but also New Zealand, New Guinea and America, and included 45 of the 52 known species of New Guinea's birds of paradise. 

Today Ellis's work is largely forgotten. The Australian National Library in Canberra has the largest collection of her works - 970 paintings, mainly watercolours. 

The book, The Flower Hunter, was recommended to me by my friend who is a "florist" extraordinaire. Actually to say "florist" is not enough to describe the beautiful floral art she does, exhibits and teaches. Flowers are her life! 

Let the sun shine in - Macadamias

Let the sun shine into your life.

I took these images at my friend's Macadamia nut farm yesterday at Roelands near Bunbury, for her new Facebook page. 
Nuts are available to purchase at the Boyanup markets the fourth Sunday of every month. 

Is life running too fast?

Do you find sometimes that life seems to be running a little too fast? This is what seems to be happening to me at the moment. It has only been two months since I took redundancy (early retirement) from my day job (wow that went by quick!), and I wonder how I ever had time to work. I distinctly remember that first day of my "retirement", as I watched all the workday people in their cars going to work while I was taking a lovely morning walk along the river. I couldn't help smiling to myself - the feeling of freedom from work was so sweet. But then at times the days seemed to loom empty before me. I even said to my lunch-girl-friends that not going to work was a little isolating... But now it seems other things have come into my life to fill the space. I have so many thoughts of things I want to do, new things to try, and lists of things to do, sometimes I feel pulled in many directions at once. And I still haven't decluttered my house! How easily that has moved down the list! 

 So I have decided to give myself a little blogging break this week, and just bring to you a short post, a snapshot of my world this past month. 

Enjoying the Australian bush

This time of year with crisp cold mornings, it is a delight to go walking in the bush, particularity on days like last Sunday when we had a clear sunny day. Just to wander with my camera trying to catch the light filtering through the trees and taking time to be quiet and at peace away from the usual work-day world.

All these photos were taken with my 100mm macro lens.  I achieved this look below by moving the camera quickly upwards as I took the photo. Do you like it? You can see before and after here.

A walk on the Bibbulmun Track with track volunteers

On Saturday we had a fabulous day bushwalking and assisting Bibbulmun Track volunteers on their section of the Bibbulmun Track at Grimwade.

The Bibbulmun Track is one of the world’s great long distance walk trails, stretching nearly 1000km from Kalamunda in the Perth hills, to Albany on the south coast, winding through the heart of the scenic South West of Western Australia
Please click on the link here to read more - Bibbulmun Track

 It has been some time since we had been out on the track, and it was great to revisit it with like minded people who enjoy bushwalking. This time however we were not there to just bushwalk, we went along to find out what my friend Wendy does as a volunteer for the Bibbulmun Track. As you would expect for a track which is nearly 1000km long, volunteers are essential to help maintain the track and campsites to a high standard for those walking the track.