CONTRAIL SKY

Spring blossom, blue skies and a speeding jet up high. See the bee?

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

DAFFODIL - 'COOL FLAME'

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

BY THE POND

Still looks wintry by the large pond at the Darebin Parklands...

This post is part of the Roentare’s Water Meme

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme
and also part of the Nature Notes meme

WINTRY SKY

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

SPRING IS HERE!

First day of Spring in Melbourne today and the weather has been a Melbourne mixture, as usual. However, the flowers have already started to bloom and the gardens are starting to look very attractive!

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

Flowering aloes, three-cornered leek and wattle.

MELBOURNE MUSEUM

The Melbourne Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. Located adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building, the museum was opened in 2000 as a project of the Government of Victoria, on behalf of Museums Victoria which administers the venue. The museum won Best Tourist Attraction at the Australian Tourism Awards in 2011.

The last few days of Winter here in Melbourne have been windy, cold and wet, so museums, libraries and art galleries are definitely the places to be!

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

BLACK SWAN

The Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand, but later reintroduced. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic conditions.

Black Swans are large birds with mostly black plumage and red bills. They are monogamous breeders that share incubation duties and cygnet rearing between the sexes. Described scientifically by English naturalist John Latham in 1790, the Black Swan was formerly placed into a monotypic genus, Chenopis. Black Swans can be found singly, or in loose companies numbering into the hundreds or even thousands. 

Black Swans are popular birds in zoological gardens and bird collections, and escapees are sometimes seen outside their natural range. This specimen was snapped in our local park.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

SUNSET ON THE LAKE

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

PITCHER PLANT

Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants with pitcher-shaped, modified leaves that trap and digest insects and other small prey for nutrients, as they typically grow in nutrient-poor environments. There are two main types: New World pitcher plants (genus Sarracenia), which are ground-dwelling and native to North America, and Old World tropical pitcher plants (genus Nepenthes), which are liana-like and found in the Old World tropics. Their elaborate traps use nectar, color, and scent to lure prey, which then slides down the slippery, downward-haired inner surface and drowns in digestive fluids.

Nepenthes gaya was originally bred by Sam Estes of Leilani Nepenthes in 2004. This is the first of his plants to be mass produced and widely available. A full size plant will sport 15 cm colourful pitchers with red-orange splotches against a yellow background. It grows very well as a houseplant and appreciates lots of bright filtered sunlight or partial sun. The full parentage of this plant is Nepenthes khasiana x ( ventricosa x maxima).

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

ST KILDA ESPLANADE

The original meaning of esplanade was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide clear fields of fire for the fortress' guns. In modern usage the space allows people to walk for recreational purposes; esplanades are often on sea fronts, and allow walking whatever the state of the tide, without having to walk on the beach. Esplanades became popular in Victorian times when it was fashionable to visit seaside resorts.

This post is part of the Roentare’s Water Meme

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme

and also part of the Nature Notes meme