This little guy wouldn’t venture out from behind his mushroom.
Isn’t it amazing what you can spot with a zoom lens? When taking a close-up of these mushrooms, imagine my surprise to find a garden gnome peeking out from behind!
For April, Jude is looking for macro photography or close-ups of anything you’d find in a garden. She wondered if anyone would submit a photo without flowers or insects. What luck for me to find this garden gnome! 😉
The camellia shrub beside my apartment building’s entrance has begun to flower.
For my second “macro or close-up of something in a garden“, I have a camellia. I think its cluster of stamens looks like sea anemones waving in a gentle current, but no underwater creature ever had such a lovely scent!
Hibiscus viewed from above
This is the same butterfly seen in the feature image, with the glorious blue (blurry!) wings.
What more lovely wildife in a garden than butterflies?
Butterflies
Butterfly
Habitat loss is threatening North America’s Monarch butterfly population. Many people have begun growing butterfly-friendly plants to provide food and shelter for these insects as they make their way on migration from Mexico in winter to the US and Canada in spring. My parents have milkweed plants in their garden in south Texas, where the butterflies will stop, eat, lay eggs and hatch. We have found chrysalises hanging under lawn chairs, tucked under wall siding and attached to the shed. I was lucky enough to capture one hatching. How beautiful is that transparent green chrysalis with the golden dots?
Noisy Miner looking for food in a gum tree
For wildlife in a garden, this week I have some Noisy Miners. According to Wikipedia, these honeyeaters are endemic to eastern and south-eastern Australia. Once you’ve encountered a few, it’s clear why are they called ‘noisy’ (!), but I’ve never figured out the miner part. “Foraging in the canopy of trees and on trunks and branches and on the ground, the noisy miner mainly eats nectar, fruit and insects. Most time is spent gleaning the foliage of eucalypts, and it can meet most of its nutritional needs from manna, honeydew and lerp gathered from the foliage.”
These ones are busy “gleaning” in the gum trees that grow in the communal garden area of an apartment building I used to live in.
He’s got his eye on something!
You can almost hear him, can’t you?
They also like hibiscus flowers! This is not a great quality photo (so-so camera, through a window, bright light behind and shadow in front) but you can see the bird stretching to get deep inside the flowers. I’d been puzzled for some time why some of the branches and flower stems were broken — until I caught this guy in action!
Here’s one foraging in the hibiscus plant on my balcony a few years ago.
Squirrel in rose pot. He looks soooo guilty!
For March, Jude is looking for wildlife in the garden. These photos from when I lived in London (circa 2005 in this case) are pretty rubbish quality, but you can see the furry little devil in action. (This patio and the pot of mini yellow roses also appears in this post.) This squirrel and I had ongoing battles marked by offensive and counter-offensive. For example, I set up a feeder for the birds, which he promptly began to climb …
You have to admire his determination.
… until I added a homemade anti-squirrel device. Try as he might, he could not climb around that cone!
This is the pole after I added my nifty DIY squirrel defence.
A bit cheeky here, as I’ve left a splash of colour in this photo of Mimosa flowers.
In my second post of black-and-white garden images, I have a few flowers from Darwin Botanic Gardens.
A type of orchid, I think.
Feel free to tell me what this is!
(By the way, the pig sculpture peering from the foliage in the badge below is also from the Darwin Botanic Gardens.)
Dead leaves hanging from a branch.
I have two posts featuring the Darwin Botanic Gardens in black and white, for inclusion in Jude’s Garden Challenge. While visiting the gardens in September last year, I was struck by the stark beauty of the shapes of the many dead and dried plants, and the play of light and shadow. Next week’s post will highlight some of the gardens’ flowers.
This sweep of dried fronds remind me of an angel’s wing.
Dried palm fronds.
A scroll of dried bark.
(By the way, the pig sculpture peering from the foliage in the badge below is also from the Darwin Botanic Gardens.)
Does this look familiar? 😉
Does a windowbox of petunias constitute a garden? While the philosophers among you debate this weighty matter, I would like to present my first entry in Jude’s Garden Challenge with the February theme of black and white (monochrome). And if you’re thinking this photo looks awfully familiar, you’re right! It was Wednesday’s Flower a couple of weeks ago, in glorious colour.
The sunken garden, and exotic spiky palm-type plants in the snow.
I’ve gone with a large interpretation of “garden” for this winter garden post. These photos are of Walpole Park, which is in Ealing Broadway (London). I lived across the road from this 28-acre site for a year or so (not the same place in last week’s snowy patio photos).
Fountain and cherry tree, a sprinkle of snow — and a bench! 😉
According to Wikipedia, “In 1987 Walpole Park was registered by English Heritage on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. Within its boundaries are the Pitzhanger Manor museum & art gallery and Perceval Lodge. These buildings and part of the boundary wall are also statutory protected structures of Grade I and Grade II respectively. There is also a late Victorian ornamental lake bordering the House’s rear lawn and further west a pond which has a pair of fountains, both of which attract waterfowl. The original house which stood here, and its grounds which make up the present park, was once the property of John Soane the architect, who bought it in 1800. After several more changes of ownership it was purchased by the Urban District Council of Ealing in 1900.”
Tulips and pansies in the snow.
Rose garden in the snow.
“Most of the park consists of open flat grassed areas bordered by tree lined avenues.” (Wikipedia) You can get an idea of those open areas and trees in these next two shots.
Tree blossom weighed down with snow.
A line of flowering trees dusted with snow.
And I just like the whimsy of this cute little guy with his flower petal buttons, and branches for arms.
Snowman with petal buttons.
“The park was extensively renovated from August 2013 onwards and reopened fully in the summer of 2014.” (Wikipedia) My photos were taken in late winter/early spring 2008, so I’ll have to go back and see how this lovely park and its gardens have changed.
Flowers by Kaz 