
Wordless Wednesday – 25 January

Number twelve in the Life of….flower series.
Thanks for everyone’s lovely comments and encouragement over the past posts. I have already shown the blue Agapanthus flower life cycle and, as promised, here is the white Agapanthus flowers life cycle.
“Agapanthus (Agapanthus spp.) also known as the African Lily or the Lily of the Nile is a fleshy rooted perennial. It is part of the Liliaceae family and is native to Southern Africa.”
* https://www.gardenexpress.com.au/growing-guide/agapanthus-growing-guide/
Some of the spears appear to be quite small at the start of flowering
Gradually filling out
Then a slight opening to reveal the white flower buds
Finally breaking free from the casing into the sunshine
The remnant of the casing still clinging on
The buds are so full and soon the umbrel will explode into flower
When some of the buds open, it doesn’t take long for the Stingless Native Bees to come for some pollen
An open flower makes it easy to hang on while gathering pollen
Many of the flowers have opened and other buds are waiting
The flowers are so white
Finally some of the flowers are dying while there are still lots of buds yet to open
The flower heads are almost finished leaving stalks where the flowers once were
I hope you have enjoyed the white Agapanthus flowers life story. There are some more that I am working on but they will have to wait a while until I can get organised and the flowers cooperate.
Cee’s FOTD
Paula’s WOW – Words of Wisdom Y23 #1
No one can know the infinite importance of a tiny drop of water better than a thirsty bird or a little ant or a man of desert!
Mehmet Murat Ildan
Contemporary Turkish playwright, novelist and thinker
Lens-Artist Photo Challenge #231: Favourite Images From 2022
The last 2022 favourite image post I selected your favourite images month by month. This time it is going to be an avalanche of my favourites.
January saw the first of my Life of a flower series which is now up to issue #11. It all started with a Hibiscus
Minimalism became a sort of theme for Wordless Wednesday 2022
Odd Squares was the first of Becky’s Square format challenges
There were always a cow appearing for Monday Portrait
Black and white challenge always give scope for selective colour
I started to become more adventurous with my Water Water Everywhere abstracts
There is always cuteness in my garden
Coastal scenes from around the coast where I live
Or images of the Aussie bush appeared every now and then
With a few trips up the mountains to my favourite place, the Raspberry Lookout
More monochrome images were created for a lot of different photo challenges
Eastern Whipbirds have been in the bush around my home for a few years now. 2022 saw them venture into the garden.
Always lots of bird photos. Variegated Fairy Wrens are popular to share
Not all was nature. I did venture into the city every now and then
My updated photo editing program gave me great pleasure in being creative
2022 was the start of the Shades of Grafton series for Ludwigs Monday Windows
Always flowers
Australian native flowers as well
I started taking part in Dan’s Thursday doors
Goannas like to explore my garden and will run up the nearest tree when discovered
Macro Monday is always fun
Colourful fungi popped up around the place
Playing with toys can evoke memories
Jacaranda time in Grafton is everyone’s favourite time
I had a great time editing photos for Silent Sunday
Discovering a new butterfly was exciting
Sharing my excitement of discovering new plants and flowers on my place in 2022. Purple Fringe Lillies are one of my all time favourite Australian flowers
Thanks for getting this far. I will try to promise that I won’t take more of your time next year and hope that all of those who run looking back photo challenges can all set the challenge at the same time. Yes I am joking 😂
This is number eleven in my series of following flowers from buds to wilt and beyond. I discovered that I had a different blue Agapanthus flower from all of the others I have in my garden. I also have white Agapanthus flowers and that may be the next life of….
“Agapanthus (Agapanthus spp.) also known as the African Lily or the Lily of the Nile is a fleshy rooted perennial. It is part of the Liliaceae family and is native to Southern Africa.”
* https://www.gardenexpress.com.au/growing-guide/agapanthus-growing-guide/
I took this photo this afternoon, it was a bit hot. They are quite different aren’t they.
Let’s start with the buds. I have a number of bud photos. I should have really thought about presentation but oh well.
All the future flowers tightly wrapped waiting to burst forth.
A trio of the dark blue flower buds
Still snug in their safety wrap
Starting to push forward and into the sunlight
Finally casting the casing aside preparing for all the florets to open – photo in the shade
Finally casting the casing aside preparing for all the florets to open – photo in the afternoon sunshine
The paler blue flowers are falling out of the bud casing
Reaching to the sky to open into the sunlight
While other buds struggle to open and flower fully
What I like about Agapanthus is how their flower buds mature at different times so there always seems that there are Agapanthus flowers in the garden. Look how many are almost ready to open and how many are still uncoloured buds.
Almost fully open. The casing is still attached to a couple of florets.
Finally free to start to become the flowers that they are meant to be
The outside florets open first while the inner buds bathe in sunlight
Gradually the whole umbrel or flower head starts to become full of open florets becoming the flower everyone knows.
Soon the umbrel will be full of open florets
The ones I have (in this series) are so different to the ones I usually know. The petals are getting paler, I think, while the stripes are becoming stronger
I have a number of clumps of Agapanthus throughout the garden. Some are smaller than others. They never seem to flower all at once as I see around town. In one clump this year, probably the best flowering year I have seen in ages, not all of the plants flowered.
Getting in close
There are lots of insects who enjoy the shelter and food the Agapanthus can supply.
These next two photos come from my archives.
An Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly getting right into the flowers
A Blue-faced Honeyeater intently getting to the bottom of the flower
Like everything on this world, the demise is always on the horizon. The mingling of buds, open flowers and withered flowers
I love the various colours as the flowers slowly deteriorate
Some of the flowers just fall to the ground while others drop only their petals.
Some flower heads don’t have many seed pods developing
While others are laden with pods
The next stage is a brown dried spindly ball. I thought I may have had an old photo but can’t find it. So this is where you use your imagination
This is my warm up guitar playing song. The Stones with one of their county best
Also for Cee’s FOTD
Terri’s Sunday Stills: What did YOU do in #2022
I intended to do a selection of YOUR favourite photos over the year. Graham from Hawaii had a great idea so I am going to steal his idea for my 2022 wrap up. Grab a photo from a post and add the post link in case you would like to see more of what is in that post.
It appears my home page and my photo challenge, Last on the Card, are the two most popular pages on my blog every month. So I have selected the most popular post for the month. Let me know if your favourite photo appears.
JANUARY
As seen in My last post for 2021
FEBRUARY
The Seagull was part of Finding Gold
MARCH
In the Peaceful evening post
APRIL
A selection of wet fluffy birds in After the bath but these three little Thornbills stole hearts
MAY
The bees were popular as much as the flowers in Life of a Blue Ginger
JUNE
A mix of fireside photos and poetry in Tonight is the Winter Solstice
JULY
Monday Portraits always drew comments and likes. A female Satin Bowerbird in Monday Portrait – 18 July
AUGUST
Kangaroos enjoying the sunshine in my Some of my favourite sun photos
SEPTEMBER
A little Red-necked Wallaby Joey Taking a peek
OCTOBER
The prompt was “Birds” hence the title Where do I begin The Royal Spoonbill individually drew the most comments
NOVEMBER
Everyone wanted this T-Shirt I found at the markets for Becky’s Square photo challenge for the month Walking Squares#5 – Bubbles, Fun and Nudity
DECEMBER
In Parrot patterns you didn’t have a favourite, you seemed to enjoy the whole post, photos of a female King Parrot and the silly story
So to 2022…..
A mixed bag for December full of highs and lows. It is getting dry again. The lush green that developed over Winter and Spring seemingly disappeared overnight and left brown and crunchy mingled among those stoic grass stems. Most of the photos are from home, a few in town and at Caniaba.
Not as many photos either so maybe you’ll finish before the music
Your scrolling song for December
Let’s get going then
Some mornings were quite misty
A few days ago I visited my daughter and drove past the “Fence Tree” It first featured in this Pick a Word post
That photo was from 2017 but was sure I posted an older photo.
I am happy to report that the tree is well and healthy.
I don’t think I have ever shown where the fence tree lives
I was looking for a plant that I was going to afix to this board. I picked up the board again and it had a hitch hiker. The caterpillar must have heard that a plant was going to be there just in time for lunch. Sorry little bud, go and munch some bush tucker not garden produce.
I went over to the house dam to see what was going on and found a bit of action. More of the dam stories in this post
I looked down after trying to track a dragonfly and there it was sitting on some bark right beside me
At the start of the month I found the first Cicada shell. They are very quiet so far this Summer compared to other years.
There seemed to be a lot of skinks scuttling around the verandahs in December. A little Copper Head had his own patrol line
There was a lot of blue skies and Cabbage Whites were the butterfly I saw the most
I loved the contrast between the flower and the butterfly
Every morning and evening the peep peep peep constant call of the White-throated Treecreeper fills the garden cheerily as they hop up and down the trees looking for a snack.
A couple of Spangled Drongos dropped in for a bath one afternoon. They are around a lot and I hope they have nested here again.
Since the Pied Currawongs left for the mountains for the Summer, there has been a lot more smaller birds around the garden. The Red-backed Wrens come through in their little flock whizzing among the plants. When it’s time to move on, one of the older ones, like this female, hop onto a good vantage point to see if the way to the next stop off is clear.
Most times if there are Wrens around, then Red-browed Firetail Finches won’t be far away
Are you still here?
Well come on, it’s time to fly over to see some flowers like the following have done
The eyes on the prize. A Blue-banded Bee picks a tasty Pentas flower
As does a Teddy Bear Bee. One thing I noticed while doing a bit of bee watching is that Blue-banded Bees bully and chase Teddy Bear Bees. I saw a small gang of two then three Blue-banded Bees suddenly appear and chase the Teddy Bear Bee. Strange behaviour for solitary bees I thought
The Crocus flowered very well in the hanging pot in the garden.
Now onto some flowers from the garden at Caniaba. The yellow throat of this Petunia is such a contrast
The bed of Petunias looked lovely
This is the tiny flower of a Paperbark Tree in my place. The birds and bees love them.
Last month I showed the life of a red lilli pilli flower. This is the first flower on a white Lilli Pilli
I just love the petal shapes and colours
Isn’t this rose one of the most beautiful you have ever seen? A Double Delight Rose
Colours shape and form won me with these Gaillardia flowers
I enjoyed being at the dam on hot days before it became too hot. Watching dragonflies dance over the water, the occasional Kingfisher or Kookaburra sit on a branch waiting for movement below
I hope you enjoyed a look at what I found and saw in December. If you had a favourite drop me a comment as I like to know what I am doing right. Also you might have a few photos or something to contribute to The Changing Seasons
The Changing Seasons is a monthly project where bloggers around the world share their thoughts and feelings about the month just gone. We all approach this slightly differently, though generally with an emphasis on the photos we’ve taken during the month.
For many of us, looking back over these photos provides the structure and narrative of our post, so each month is different. Some focus on documenting the changes in a particular project — such as a garden, an art or craft project, or a photographic diary of a familiar landscape.
But in the end, it is your changing season, and you should approach it however works for you.
There are no fixed rules around post length or photo number — just a request that you respect your readers’ time and engagement.
Tag your photos with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so that others can find them
Create a ping-back to Ju-Lyn at Touring My Backyard or this post, so that we can update it with links to all of yours.
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