COVID – the dreaded Delta – continues to play havoc with the cancellation of the Castlemaine and District Festival of Gardens this year – an event I was looking forward to with much anticipation. However, there is a lot going on in my garden at present so I thought I would share some photographs.
The iguana hangs out among the succulents.
This flowering succulent is soaking up the sun in my front garden.
The pansies continue to flower happily on the front verandah.
The cymbidium orchids with their long lasting blooms are my pride and joy.
I took advantage of today’s fine weather to visit the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens this morning.
This post follows my gentle progress around Lake Joanna.
As I crossed the footbridge over Barkers Creek, I could see these remarkable pink flowers in one of the newer garden beds which have been established around the edges of the lake.
These tulips are in one of the flower beds near the main entrance to the gardens.
The crabapple is fully magnificent at present. Its blossom will soon be spent.
Katie and I wandered across the grass to sit under the big, old, horse chestnut tree……..
……..and gaze up at the tracery of its still bare branches against the blue sky.
There was more tracery of bare branches along the gravel path.
The tall chimney of the Mill can be clearly seen behind the tree tops.
These bountiful leaves grow in a long established bed by the lake. The path leads back to the footbridge over Barkers Creek.
This is what took me to the Welshmans Reef cemetery today – Templetonia stenophylla or Leafy Templetonia. I recently purchased a field guide, Native Peas of the Mount Alexander Region, which directed me to the cemetery if I wanted to see this pea with its striking colours. The short stemmed plant would be very easy to overlook if it were not for the flowers. The photographs have been downloaded from the internet.
The small cemetery is in a bushland setting on a gravel track. Most of the graves are unmarked with some having a numbered post and a few with headstones.
Katie enjoys our excursions to cemeteries. She gets to explore freely whilst I view the graves and any other features of interest.
Below is a view from the cemetery across to an olive grove.
This memorial is placed in the centre of an attractive cluster of eucalypts.
Descendants have erected most of the headstones or memorials.
At this time of the year, the cemetery is full of wildflowers. These photographs show the prostrate form of the Eutaxia microphylla or Common Eutaxia as well as a Bulbine bulbosa or Bulbine Lily.
Here is a Pimelea linifolia or Slender Rice-flower. There were other floral delights as well.
I plan to return to the cemetery in the next two to three weeks to see what else is blooming as there are plenty of plants in bud.
I have been searching through my archives during this current period of lockdown when travel is limited to 5 kilometres from my home. I enjoy documenting the open gardens I visit. The photographs of flowers quite often include insects. Sometimes, I am aware of the insects whilst taking the photograph, whilst at other times I am unaware of them until the photograph is enlarged on the computer screen – always a pleasant surprise.
I recommend you enlarge the images so you can fully appreciate the creatures depicted.
I have photographed quite a lot of roses over time. Not only are they photogenic, they are also bug magnets. In some instances the insect/s is plain to see whilst in others, a careful look is required.
Insects enjoy these rock roses (cistus) at Forest Edge.
A bee flies in to this poppy at Plaistow.
An ant wanders by a pile of wombat poo at the Garden of St. Erth.
These sedums in my own garden enjoy a variety of visitors when in flower.
On the Saturday before Regional Victoria’s current lockdown, some friends and I travelled to Maryborough, a town in the Shire of Central Goldfields.
Maryborough boasts a very grand train station built in 1890. The scale of the station reflects the vision in the late 1800s of Maryborough being the hub of an extensive rail network.
The station closed in 1993 but reopened in December 2008 after extensive renovations and repairs.
Today the station complex serves as a train station being the terminus of the line from Ballarat, a cafe, a tourist information centre and a private museum and art gallery.
My friends and I were at the station to enjoy a very satisfying lunch.
Photographing the facade of the entire building is beyond the capability of my camera so I focused on some of the details.
The platform is enormously long ………
……..with various decorative features.
The marble fireplace is in the cafe whilst the pressed metal panel forms part of the counter in the tourist information centre.
I admired these coloured glass panels in the upper sections of the windows.
The blue ‘V’ and the red ‘R’ are the initials for Victorian Railways.
After exploring the train station, we moved on to the Central Goldfields Art Gallery housed in the former fire station to see their last exhibition before the gallery closes for renovations. It will reopen in 2022.
Bronnie is a member of the U3A garden group here in Castlemaine. She very kindly opened her garden in North Harcourt in April for the group to visit.
This is the view looking across to Mount Alexander as I drove down the long driveway. If you click to enlarge the image, you can see the orchards in the valley and the quarries on the sides of the mountain.
The driveway is lined with callistemons or bottle brushes which were in flower at the time of our visit. The colour of this shrub is stunning.
Just before the entrance to the garden is a large conifer. It is easy to look up into its branches from the deck which has been built on top of an outbuilding.
The autumn colours of the grapevine were a magnet for the eye.
There are decorative features fashioned from discarded and recycled materials scattered throughout the garden.
I liked this succulent and the decorative toadstools near the front door of the house
These autumn flowers were delightful.
At the end of the visit to Bronnie’s garden, I was very happy to take home some tasty apples grown on the property.
Rural Victoria is becoming a giant art gallery as the grain silos of small towns become the surfaces for art works.
The silo trails are bringing visitors to country regions and boosting local economies.
Some friends and I recently visited Avoca where a Powerful Owl is being painted on a silo. The Powerful Owl is found in the nearby Pyrenees Ranges which overlook the town.
Â
I look forward to seeing the painting another time when it is finished.
This is the view of the silo from the railway station. There is a change of weather rolling in across the Pyrenees.
Â
It is a while since I last published a post. There have been frustration and tears as I have struggled to adapt to the new way of uploading images. I am disappointed that viewers can no longer click on a photograph to obtain a larger, more detailed image.
