wisteria – bushboys world

Raindrops

Published on May 9, 2019 by bushboy12 Comments

The word prompt from Nancy: Raindrops

Purple

Published on November 11, 2018 by bushboy21 Comments

The word prompt from Debbie at Travel with Intent: Purple

Check out Debbies Purple – click on the above link – It is stunning and I was thinking what do I have that’s purple to be able to contribute to this photo challenge. There is no way I can do wonderful lights like Debbies post. But I do live in a city which just had it’s Jacaranda Festival and has Jacaranda trees. But I wanted more so it’s floral all the way.

Here’s my bit of Purple
Better start with a Jacaranda tree
171027_blog challenge_letter j_jacaranda

Purple berries from a native vine
purple fruit_home_named_nov 2015

Looking into a Torenia flower
torinia_purple yellow flower6_close_name_jan 2011

Another Native flower from my place. Haven’t identified it as yet.

The Native Wisteria or Wild Sarsparilla that grows all over my place
wisteria-native_named_home_aug-2016

and a regular Wisteria with bonus Wanderer Butterfly
wisteria02_wanderer butterfly_crop_named_binna burra_sept 2017

Purple Pansies
pansey purple_named_binna burra_august 2017

Another purple flower I found somewhere
purple flower_named_binna burra_oct 2017

Wonderful Water Lilies
170718_blog challenge_water lilles_purple

Another Australian Native flower found on the coast, Purple Fringe Lily
170927_blog challenge_square sept_purple fring lily

My old mates Iris
iris_purple_geoffs_named_home_sept 2018

Back to the streets of Grafton jacarands_named_grafton_oct 2017

Thought about a song. Here is the original from 1958

Mundane Monday Challenge #130: Wisteria

Published on October 10, 2017November 8, 2017 by bushboy18 Comments

My bestie has a wonderful arbour arc covered in a Wisteria. Trying to photograph wisteria has its challenges. Trying to capture the long hanging blooms makes you twist this way and that, stand back, go in close, shoot upwards or downwards. What do you think is best?

wisteria04_named_binna burra_sept 2017

You can go in close
wisteria01_named_binna burra_sept 2017

You can look at the jumble of flowers
wisteria03_named_binna burra_sept 2017

If you are lucky a passing Wanderer Butterfly might help
wisteria02_wanderer butterfly_named_binna burra_sept 2017

Or do you crop just for the Wanderer and ignore the flowers
wisteria02_wanderer butterfly_crop_named_binna burra_sept 2017

A bit of Italy

Published on December 3, 2014December 3, 2014 by bushboy10 Comments

I was looking for a photo a while ago and saw my last holiday photos folder. I have always wanted to do something with them otherwise they just sit there and no one ever sees them. I thought I would start with some of the Italy photos. Not the usual tourist ones but just interesting stuff I photographed. I hope you find them interesting too.

I took a lot of photos from the train as it rocketed through the countryside at up to 300kph. I like this one of a Tuscan villa as it almost looks like a painting. This is unchanged, the raw photo.

I found this colonnade of wisteria in a garden in Florence, the Gardenia Boldini. The light coming through the flowers looked very surreal.

I like the look of courtyards that are hidden away from the street. To get to this courtyard was a walk down a tunnel under the buildings. I am sure I have a number of “down the tunnel into a courtyard” photos.

Just walking down the side streets of Verona often yields something different. This cart was just there beside that wonderful coloured wall.

Everywhere are shutters. These shutters were on the Ponte Veicchio in Florence.

Yes, this was in the window of a hairdressers in Verona. No need to say more!!!

There are tons of photos of stained glass windows. I was going to do a blog of just stained glass window so here is a taste.

Some sculptures were quite different to others. I have no idea about this just that it was on a marble table like that. It was in a Basilica in Rome.

This is my favourite stained glass photo which was in the ceiling in a church in Rome.

Well thats a taste of Italy of things I found. I am so looking forward to going again.

Flowers bugs and birds

Published on October 12, 2014October 12, 2014 by bushboyLeave a comment

The many wanderings around the north coast of NSW has taken me to many places, seen many things and of course taken many photos. The last wandering took in the warm days of Spring. The flowers are blooming and many of the birds are coming back to the gardens.

The Calendulas are looking great in the garden.

The Gerberas just stand out in the sunshine.

Lemon trees are full of buds. It’s hard to imagine that this little flower will turn into a lemon.

All through the garden the nasturtiums are a riot of colour, brilliant reds and oranges.

I thought it would be good to look deep inside to see what they look like. The patterns and shapes are quite different.

The wisteria trailing over the arbour with the hanging blooms added a splash of mauve to the garden.

Lots of native flowers are looking good this year as well. The Egg and Bacon plants tiny flowers, only about 5 to 8mm across, are very showy.

With the onset of warm weather the insects are always present around the house and garden. This Crane Fly was hovering around and finally resting on a leaf.

The baby geckos are also on the move at night. This little bloke lives in the laundry.

The King Parrots send waves of reds and greens through the garden as the fly about the trees and bushes.

Whereas the Rainbow Lorikeets provide a constant chatter.

The old broken pot has made a great birdbath. The Wattlebird is a bit shy when bathing.

But doesn’t seem to mind sharing with the Spangled Drongo.

At Lismore Lake the birds are busy. The late afternoon has birds flying and singing everywhere. The Egrets stalk around the water plants, probably looking for an unsuspecting frog or fish.

The Superb Fairy Wrens were flitting about the shrubs.

I wondered why that little bloke was so intent of capturing my attention. A bit of an investigation found these two.

Back at home, the Scarlet Honeyeater kept a wary eye on me as he had a feed on the Bottlebrush flower.

A convenient post let the Eastern Whipbird call his mate.

The sunsets are quite spectacular this time of year, it must be time to go.

The candles are lit so time to settle down for a bit relaxing after a busy day wandering about. Good night.

Stuff I saw last weekend

Published on September 25, 2014 by bushboyLeave a comment

So much happened last weekend. Most of the things I found were during a drive to Murwillumbah plus bits and pieces around my besties place. There were things made of plastic, flowers, big things, small things and of course some birds.

Lets begin with the first thing we saw on the road to Murwillumbah. Cruising through Mooball we just had to stop at the Moo Moo Cafe as the biggest motorbike I have ever seen was “parked” outside. As a bloke who loves his MotoGP and road racing since the days of the Yamaha TZ750’s, this one was worth a quick stop.

Of course, the first stop was for coffee. This time we went to a cafe I hadn’t been to before. The inside was rather funky and we sat up the back so we could people watch and take in the feel of the place. I liked the lights.

One wall had some wacky art works and the biggest paella pan I have ever seen.

Of course the Op-shops had to be explored. I found one of my favourites, an elephant. It was made of plastic but at $45 it stayed in the shop.

So did the rocker. I think it was a deer?

The Garden around the Civic Centre was bursting with flowers. The Lilli Pillis were lovely.

I think this is a Lilli Pilli too but not sure.

Hanging around the garden was this little Water Dragon. He just ran every time I came near but stopped for a minute for me to get this shot before scurrying off again.

On the way to the Art Gallery is a Kapok tree whose seed pods were bursting open.

The Tweed Art Gallery is always a stop off when there are new exhibits. Only one really took my imagination. The art of Philip Wolfhagen was the best and well worth a visit. I just love the Margaret Olley Art Centre as I always find something that I hadn’t seen before. This time I found a chook. Okay, it may not be a chook but I want to think it is.

Looking out of the window we saw a storm heading over the range and over Mt Warning. They are always spectacular and dramatic looking.

That night the Huntsman came out from behind the cupboard to check out what we were doing.

The next day the overnight rain had refreshed the garden and it seemed that there were flowers everywhere. The scent in the air was from the Jasmin growing on the old fence around the garden.

And from the Wisteria growing on the arbour.

A splash of yellow caught my eye. It was a Day Lily all by itself standing tall.

The Azalias were full of blossoms.

The red of these tiny flowers provided a contrast in the garden.

There are Pansy’s everywhere, but these small ones looked a treat as they spilled over the edge of the garden.

I disturbed a small spider who had folded the petals of a Gazania. He was gone in a flash, probably in case I thought he was a snack.

High in the sky a couple of Kites wheeled about.

They didn’t come down very close unfortunately.

Walking around not caring about much, an Emerald Dove just walked down the track.

While a Galah sat on the powerline looking rather fluffy.

Among the bushes, a Brush Wattlebird was calling.

The Wonga Pigeon didn’t seem to mind the rasping call and sat around watching what was going on.

Late in the afternoon, it looked as if the wattlebird had its pants on fire.

The next morning back at home, the Satin Bowerbird was getting into the Honey Gem before the Blue-faced Honeyeaters or Friarbirds were awake. This bloke did look rather serious didn’t he?

Well, like the Brush Turkey, I’d better run.

Lots of new things to discover

Published on August 26, 2014 by bushboy8 Comments

I really enjoy discovering new things as well as seeing things through the lens of my camera in a different way. So far this year the rains that are usually around just haven’t come. But the middle of this month there was a good fall of 60mls and the follow-up rain arrived a week later with 15mls. This rain was the best since the 1st June when 22mls fell. The change to the landscape has gone from browns and yellows to a tinge of green and new shoots appearing on many plants.

The new shoots on the Native Wisteria suddenly started to appear.

The Pine Trees new cones came in a variety of shapes. Some in a random way.

With others seemingly more ordered. The Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos will be pleased.

The plum trees are flowering, some in groups.

While others are singles on the bare branches.

There is plenty of insect activity too. Some plants have evidence of insect activity like these leaves.

Some plants visitors are more obvious. This little beetle was very camera-shy and kept walking away from the camera despite my efforts. Those red legs were very determined to trudge away!

The Raspberries had a mixture of fruits and flowers but mainly flowers. The fruits were hard to find and weren’t all that nice to eat, but looked good.

I had never really looked at Raspberry flowers. They are quite pretty.

The bees seemed to think so as well. They were buzzing around going from flower to flower.

They were very intent on their pollen collecting.

The bees were also drawn to Fireweed. I can see why someone decided that they would be pretty in the garden, not realising what they would end up doing to the paddocks.

As always, there was an Eastern Yellow Robin nearby to see what was flushed out with the weed pulling going on.

While higher up the Little Wattlebird kept an eye on things.

But much, much higher up still, a Brahminy Kite wheeled over head.

During a drive into Ballina, we came across a puddle on a small park where a small flock of Plumed Whistling Ducks were having a good time wandering about.