Cee’s FOTD
A native Australian water plant – Water Snowflake Nymphoides indica

The Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #137: Soft
Here is your soft tune to scroll through some images from my island home
A soft landscape at sunset
A soft cityscape through a rainy window
A blue landscape filled with mist
Our Moon and clouds during the day
A soft feather like moss cascading over a log
Just a feather I found
The beautiful Water Snowflake lilies that grow on my dam
The softness of a butterfly atop a flower
The Lens-Artists Sunday Word prompt: Delicate
Caper Berry flower
Bee
Superb Fairy Wren holding a gift for his mate
Butterflies on flowers. Ever so delicate
The tiny Water Snowflake flowers
A Scarlet Honeyeater assessing the juiciest flower in the Pink Euodia
OK folks strap yourself in for this ride. You will need stamina, food, drinks and a possible toilet break as I have been unrelenting in snapping away with all manner of things. I was going to break the photos down into subject groups in separate posts, but I thought “What the heck, you can scroll through at your own pace.”
What better way to start the day (or post) than with a sunrise from my besties new place
Let’s start with things. I don’t know what to call this bunch of photos as they are different. Enough talk. Off we go!
I found these gelatinous blobs on the beach, hundreds of them. Perhaps baby jelly fish?
When you see a land form that resembles something else
The planes have been showing themselves a bit in October.
Just love these rock cliff, the colours and again, can you see a face?
The moss gave the tree a bit of a dress with a vine for dramatic effect.
More moss. This time at the waters edge at the beach
The rock pool took on an ethereal mood
Just the shelf at my besties place
When I put on this lamp, I just had to take the photo. Another shelf at my besties
October saw the rain come. This dam, I use the water around the house and garden, was about one-eighth full. Seeing the water flow into the dam cured my blues.
The waterhole on my place never is dry but came very close this year. Seeing it full again made me happy. I think the birds and animals are pleased as well
Waterfalls make such a soothing sound don’t you think? Even little waterfalls that help fill the waterhole.
Of course a bit of rain and sunshine brings out the fungi
Fungi of all shapes and colours. Some big….
…some small
and some are edible
I love Grass Trees. These are at a place called Naughtons Gap. They are bigger than some of the Grass Trees on my place.
A wonderful discovery was a whole street in Grafton lined with Bottle Trees. This will be investigated as to why and how and perhaps a bushboy post about the history of the Bottle Trees in Grafton may evolve.
The early morning dew and spiders webs. I can’t resist
Sitting having a cup of tea with my bestie when a large Skink wandered about the garden. Wonderful markings aren’t they?
Would you believe that this tree is called a Cheese Tree?
Just an ant having a swim. He did get out eventually.
The flower and a bee. The flower is on what is called a broad leaf weed which is supposed to be undesirable in a lawn. Look at the bees pollen sacks. I don’t think the bee would be as happy if the “weed” wasn’t there. Think before you mow please.
Just a feather
and another
The Forest Kingfishers have arrived. The male looked about for anything that moved in the grass or the garden.
The colours on his back are lovely.
This photo shows a bit more of the iridescence
Galahs are funny birds. This bloke is sitting on the stock trough on next doors place at my besties
It’s a bit of a way down to get a drink.
Another arrival in Spring are the Grey Shrike Thrush. They are in the trees around the garden and sing in the morning and in the afternoons. What a delight to have in my garden.
The Pied Currawong didn’t mind a bit of rain.
Doesn’t he look great. The black with the red of the Flame Tree
The Fig Bird was spotted eating Mulberries
So was his mate
A Coucal Pheasant came for a visit and sat high in the Gum Tree.
Later on, I think he was checking me out through the undergrowth.
Another October visitor, a Brown Honeyeater
He soon found the bird bath
The Blue-faced Honeyeaters have arrived in numbers to feast on the Honey Gem Grevillea
The female Blue-faced Honeyeaters also drop in for a snack
Remember the post about the Post where the Noisy Friar Bird was chased away by the Spangled Drongo. Here Rainbow Lorikeets get a serve from the Friar Bird. A bit of a peck to the head.
The Rainbow Lorikeets were a bit bemused by all the carry on.
A female Satin Bowerbird enjoyed the nectar in the Yamba Sunshine Grevillea.
But like everyone else, the Honey Gem Grevillea is the best place to get a meal.
Yellow-faced Honeyeaters seem to have a constant scowl on their faces.
I think this Yellow-faced Honeyeater spotted me and my camera
The gravity defying White-throated Treecreeper taken from the comfort of the chair in my office
They are lovely as they hop up and down the trees looking for something to eat.
Another photo from my office chair. I call this one, “I can see what you are doing” is what the King Parrot is saying.
A young King Parrot morphing into a male
Getting a good Eastern Rosella photo quest continues
Out for a drive, we spotted a smallish bird run across the road and into a paddock. A new bird has been seen, an Australasian Pipit.
On another adventure drive, we spotted flashes of green zooming across the road. A flock of Rainbow Bee Eaters were hanging about. This is a breeding pair
Aren’t the males colours amazing?
You may wonder why we are back at a couple of young King Parrots. I thought it was lovely to have them sitting on a hanging pot under the verandah, until I spotted what they were doing
Yes, these “lovely” young birds had eaten half of the succulents in the pot. All around the pot, the succulent trailed over the edge. Can you see the bit trailing over the edge now. This hanging pot is no longer hanging where pesky King Parrots can get at it.
Water drops and new growth
I love the colour of this Succulent. Was tempted to pinch a leaf or two
I love the colours in this photo of a Hanging Violet with red in the background
A lovely Native Geranium growing in the “lawn” Another reason not to mow
Pansies, pansies, pansies
and more Pansies
This year the Silky Oaks flowering was spectacular
A flower of a Succulent
The Budlea flower spike wonderful and smells delightful
Some of the Roses looked a treat this year
A pink Bottlebrush flower
The native water lillies on my dam. Water Snowflake
The rain knocked a lot of the flowers off the Flame Tree. The little cups filled with water
Some native flowers that grow on my place. This yellow beauty is Dogwood
I think this native flower is a Hairy Guinea Flower
I have been encouraging a lot of Egg and Bacon plant to grow on one part of my property. It’s spikey habit is good for protecting small birds when it is in a fairly dense thicket
Plus the flowers are lovely. You can see the sharp points in the leaves
A small pink Grevillea.
My besties flower beds are looking great
and yet more flowers
This flower has caused great excitement for me. This is the first time I have seen a Hakea Florulenta on my property.
Aren’t the tiny flowers delightful?
The early morning fog gives a sense of wonder to start the day
Of course when it rains, you also find rainbows. This one had a faint double above.
Well, the sun is setting and you have reached the end. Well done for sticking around to get to the end and thanks for having a look at my October 2018
Did you have a favourite photo?
Here are a few water lillies for Cee’s Flower of the Day: Water Lily Pond
I love the subtle pink hue
The Cape Waterlily stands out among the crowd
The Yellow Waterlily is from Mexico
The Cape Waterlily is from South Africa and is everywhere in Australia
An Australian native waterlily the Water Snowflake. This one is growing on my dam.
FEBRUARY has been quite busy. A new thing for me this month has been submitting some photos in photo challenges, which I have found to be quite interesting. The photo challenges make me think about my photography and that my photos elicit comments from other bloggers and in turn, I comment on their photos or the words used to enhance the photos in their blogs. So if you would like to see what I have submitted, have a look at my last few blogs in February. Maybe you would like to comment too.
In this blog I would like to take you on an adventure with me.
Lets set off, do you have a cuppa or something to sustain you while we explore my world?
I like to find something unusual to capture. The frangipannis shadow on the fence post caught my besties eye so this photo is inspired by her. I also took the photo in black and white but it didn’t have the same effect as a splash of colour in the background.
We like to get away in February for a couple of days (we call our mini-holiday) to Ballina Beach Resort. Among the gardens there is always a Water Dragon or two sunning themselves. Looking down from the balcony you get a different perspective of the Water Dragon.
But he is always watchful and spied me looking over the edge.
Back at my besties famous bird bath, where many a bird photo has been taken, the Striated Thornbill liked to show off his little reddish leg, almost taking a bow.
Now we are going for a bit of a walk around my place. For once I just took my camera to get some of the stuff around here. Most walks get disturbed by the habit of pulling out weeds as I walk around. This time I concentrated on getting some of the life around here. OK, I may have pulled a few weeds here and there!
One of the weird and wonderful are the air ferns. They look rather alien at times don’t you think? This one is growing on a fence post.
As I walked around, every now and then, I smelt the heady scent of honeycomb. The Bloodwoods are in flower. I love the creamy colour of the flowers and green of the leaves against the blue sky.
OK back to ground level. The native flowers that abound the bush come in a number of colours, blues, purples, yellows and occasionally red. Most of the flowers are quite small, ranging from about 5mm to 15mm. I have to find something to take with me to show the size of the flowers. I also need an identification guide to let you know what the flowers are so if anyone knows a good publication on native flowers of north-east NSW please let me know
This blue flower is one of the bigger ones.
It was hard to capture the lovely mauve of this little pea like flower. The flower is around 5mm.
The star shape is common. Previous blogs have had the yellow and blue star shaped flower. This walk I found a pale purple star shaped flower. This flower is about 10mm in size.
More purple flowers. A bit bigger in size and a bit hairier. Grows closer to the ground than the other flower which are on stalks.
A small yellow pea type of flower similar to the mauve flower a few flowers back, a about the same size. IÂ love the red stripes. This one comes with a bonus water droplet.
More yellow flowers. A lovely bunch of tiny yellow puff balls. The whole bunch would be no more than 12mms.
A bit of rain saw the mosses come back to life after seemingly disappearing during the dry spell. The smaller star moss and the feathery moss that cascades over the log.
A wonderful discovery was the Hyacinth Orchid just standing tall in the bush. No leaves or anything else, just a lovely flower spike about 20cms tall. It was the only one in the surrounding area. I haven’t been back for a week or so, so I wonder if it is still there?
Rain has put a bit of water into the dam, freshening up the water and the water plants are flowering. The Water Snowflake’s flower is a lovely flower. A wonderful fringe form and so white against the dark green leaves and water.
The Cape Waterlily is also flowering and the reeds are starting to set seed. Among the reeds is a number of frogs whose song at night is quite loud. Also flitting about the dam are a variety of Dragonflies.
The little iridescent blue dragonfly doesn’t sit still as long as the larger dragonflies. They are different to the other Dragonflies as they have their wings folded along their body.
The many blue dragonflies fly off, swoop and then land to catch their breath on any small piece of reed they can find.
There is as many red dragonflies as blues. They seem to land on the dead reeds on the ground although some never seem to land. The red and blues also fly around the house almost like a patrol flying back and forth along the front verandah, occasionally flying under the verandah roof.
Now this little bloke is so different from the others, not only in colour and patterns, but seems to prefer to land on the end of seed heads of the water plants and then stick it’s rear end up in the air. It doesn’t seem to mind how it has it’s wings either.
I found this orange dragonfly at my besties but they are also at my place but not as common as the others.
The Blue Gingers have the most delightful flowers. The flower spikes have so many tiny flowers and buds that there is always a number of flowers open so the bees have a chance to get inside. As I have said before, the bees have to scrunch to get at the pollen of the Blue Ginger flowers.
The native Blue-banded Bees certainly love the Blue Ginger flowers and have a good scrunching technique as well.
This Summer, my verandahs have been taken over by night spiders. Unfortunately they have become very lazy and leave their webs up during the day. Luckily they have been catching lots of insects so the web is easy to see but there may have been a time or two where I have walked into a web.
There are quite a number of Bull Ant nests in the bush. When I try to get a photo, I make sure I look all around to see if there are any outside the nest on patrol or bring back food to the nest. When they bite you know you have been bitten!
I was surprised to find the Satin Bower Birds bower was still in operation and chock-a-block with a variety of blue bits and pieces in the collection. The only things that come from my place are the blue pegs. I know when a Bower Bird has come calling when I find the peg basket up ended. The Satin Bower Birds have made my place home. Years ago they only came here when it was too cold in the Gibraltar Ranges and leaving when it got too hot here.
On our mini-holiday, we managed to get to the beach at sunrise one morning. The sunrise over the sea is fantastic.
The Seagull was patient and seemed to like getting its picture taken early in the morning.
There was a line-up of Seagulls checking out the surf.
One of my favourite photos of February. Just a branch on the beach. I was tempted to put the photo in the blog upside down.
Well it’s getting dark so I must head off to bed. I hope you have enjoyed this little bit of my world in February.
I leave you with the Paperbark tree and the street light.
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