Eating wood

If you look closely, this formerly sturdy wooden post looks like it's being savaged by termites, as well as ants. There were thousands streaming in and out all over it, so I dread to think what we'd find if it was split open down the middle.

Home grown kalamata

This is our olive tree, growing rapidly on my beloved dog's grave. As olives are a sign of peace ("put out an olive branch"), things must be going well, as this tree starts producing hundreds of kalamata olives ready for me to pickle. They start off green, then turn deep purple-black, when ready to be picked. The don't taste very nice straight off the tree, hence the pickling.
They make for a brilliant snack when pickled, and even better when olive oil is squeezed from them. Looks like I can try both, with olives a plentiful coming our way.

Bougainvillea. A beauty with a bite.

We have several bougainvillea plants in our yards. They are fantastic wall growers, screen plants, and very hardy. We're on black sandy earth (beach), which narrows our choice when it comes to planting colourful blooms.
This particular bougainvillea is a raspberry ice, which provides a brilliant display of colour when in bloom. It appears to be very happy in its spot, therefore growing very quickly, and requiring a harsh and brutal trim back each year. Each time I do, it gets its revenge on me by stabbing me with its somewhat hidden, yet awfully painful and large, thorns. They're often hidden under the leaves, so just when you think you've handled the cut leaves with care, it proves you wrong. Gloves are often no match for this thorny species.

The gum leaf: a healer, a cleaner, and source of fuel

Once again, as I stroll with our four-legged friends in the neighbourhood, I spot these beautiful gumtree leaves dangling over the footpath.
They are a species native to Australia, providing a natural eucalyptus oil, often used as a healing and cleaning remedy. Also highly flammable, which is hugely problematic when bush fires during the heat of the Australian summers.

Look what the drought has brought home...

When drought breaks, it unearths all sorts of natural wonders. Close to home, things in the garden begin to flourish, making up for lost time, during those rain deprived months or years. This, of course, brings with it an alluring sense of belonging to many a creature, including this eight-legged fellow who has just captured a fly. He (or she?) has cast a web so far and wide, it takes no prisoners. If you hit that web, you're well and truly a goner.
Fascinating to see he/she building objects within the net, such as the two vertical collections of garden clippings, so as to distract prey (or attract, perhaps) from or to the trap.

Adding simple & free effects

From time to time, pictures taken are too dark, too light, or just need some emphasis or added vibrance.
I love the free app called photoshop express, allowing me to add a number of basic effects at the tap of my screen. So simple! Below are examples of such. I particularly like the vibrant effect (which can really bring some pictures to life, enhancing existing colour tones), exposure effect (lightens dark photos), and vignette blur (places emphasis on a focal point within the picture whilst blurring the background "noise").

Modern cloth nappies: vibrant effect, vignette blur effect
Little gum tree- vibrant effect
Reedy wetlands- exposure effect
Home grown corn- vibrant effect

Second serve of crab apples

We have two apple trees in the yard, this one being a crab apple. After missing a season of apples due to drought conditions, we've had (what seems to be) an plethora of rain this year, giving us some lovely fruit.
Someone else whose discovered the fruit, is one of our dogs, who helps himself to various snacks in the yard, as and when suits. He is, part Labrador, so I needn't explain that one!
Unusually, we find ourselves with a second lot of crab apples for the year. Hopefully the dog and any stray locusts leave them alone, and I can make those home made apple pies from scratch... The only effect I've used on this picture, is vignette blur, on the Photoshop app.

A child's aftermath (after having a ball)

As I sit here, the first two minutes of the day to myself, no husband, no child, just me (oh, and the dogs), I stare at what's on the floor in front of me. My first thought was not, "I must put that away", but rather how much fun my son had just before he went to bed, sifting through the toy box pulling out things he wants to play with.
It's a moment in time where I stopped thinking about housework, or the things on tomorrow's to-do list, and just sat and reflected how happy and content our day has been.

Tiptoe through the tulips

Did you know that tulips are often credited as being Dutch, but they are originally though to have been a Turkish flower, before commercialisation set in? Either way, growers from the Netherlands have well and truly mastered the art of cultivating many of the world's most exquisite blooms. Every year, these, and many other stunning bulbs are organised, grown and on show for the world to see at the "Keukenhof", in Lisse, The Netherlands.
Just short of visiting the Keukenhof myself, I visited the Floriade in Canberra, where a much smaller version of brilliant flowers were on display. Simply stunning.

The last summerish rays on Frankston's waterfront

Beautiful day, with some of the last rays of sun as we stroll along Frankston's water front, 40km south west of Melbourne. Could laze around on this pier for hours.

Strolling along the footpath

As I strolled along the footpath, my hands so ridiculously full, I have two giant dogs to my right on a split lead, and a 9 month old baby in the pram oblivious to the lengths at which I go to get him to nod off for 45 minutes. 


Just because my hands aren't full enough already, I decide to capture some wonderful images on my iphone during my journey. Surely there has to be something nice to ponder as I walk down one of the main roads of a bogan-infested suburbs that normally offers a litter of jim beam bourban cans alongside the footpath as one of its main attractions...

autumn leaves dumped on the ground

Here is my beautiful snap. Magnificent autumn leaves strewn on to the ground as the trees shed their belongings. Thankfully, I managed to crop the JB can out of the picture!

I was minding my sister's three kids, plus one of my own, the other day (same day I went to "crazy town", but that's another story!), and her backyard is full of amazing autumn glow that is on display for a quarter of the year. This is such a beautiful tree, the betula birch, I had to take a picture. Amazing deep red colouring, that is so striking in any garden.

The weather is currently caught in the middle of the last bright rays of sun for the year, and winter is knocking heavily on the door ahead. The branches are reaching out and basking in those last rays, whilst holding on to some of the light drizzle drops that had earlier landed that day.

Betula birch foliage

Snapped with an iphone starts

For those who aren't aware, the iphone is a wonderful device that has been life-changing for many people, including myself. It's my first (well, actually second, if you count the mini ipod that preceded the phone) apple-branded product that I own.

A few weeks ago, I was the proud owner of an iphone 3, which was perfectly fine and did exactly everything I required. So, off I toddled to the shop to get some milk, and came back the proud owner of an iphone 4. "How does this happen?", you ask. Well, simple. Given I had my 7 month old son with me at the time, who really needed to sleep, I was killing time and *just happened* to casually stroll into a phone shop. Of course I had just been paid my fortnightly salary, so of course the answer was to ditch the milk and buy the phone (which was about 500 times more expensive than the milk).

the iphone 4

I wasn't even too sure what the difference between the iphone 3 and iphone 4 models were at the time, but had heard that the 4 has a camera flash, a groovey reverse lens feature, and a better quality camera. I also quickly came to the super-quick conclusion that my 4mpx digital camera required an upgrade, and therefore, in an instant, had well an truly justified my decision to upgrade. Hence, the start of images I've snapped with an iphone...