CANNA

Canna or canna lily is the only genus of flowering plants in the family Cannaceae, consisting of 10 species. All of the genus's species are native to the American tropics and naturalised in Europe, India and Africa in the 1860s.  Although they grow native to the tropics, most cultivars have been developed in temperate climates and are easy to grow in most countries of the world, as long as they receive at least 6–8 hours average sunlight during the summer, and are moved to a warm location for the winter.

Cannas are not true lilies, but have been assigned by the APG II system of 2003 to the order Zingiberales in the monocot clade Commelinids, together with their closest relatives, the gingers, spiral gingers, bananas, arrowroots, heliconias, and birds of paradise. The plants have large foliage, so horticulturists have developed selected forms as large-flowered garden plants. Cannas are also used in agriculture as a source of starch for human and animal consumption. C. indica and C. glauca have been grown into many cultivars in India and Africa.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

AFTER THE RAIN

As the final month of Spring nears its end in Australia, in Melbourne we've had several days of rainy, cool and sometimes stormy weather. The garden is suffering a little, but the plants seem to persevere and try to grow despite the adverse weather.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

MELBOURNE TRAM

On Swanston St, outside the University of Melbourne, looking South. Early on Saturday morning and it's quiet there!

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme.

NATURAL

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

UP

The stairwell at the new gym in my neighbourhood.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

SEAGULL

The Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae) also known simply as "seagull" in Australia, is the most common gull seen in Australia. It has been found throughout the continent, but particularly at or near coastal areas. It is smaller than the Pacific gull (Larus pacificus), which also lives in Australia.

The silver gull should not be confused with the herring gull, which is called "silver gull" in many other languages (scientific name Larus argentatus, German Silbermöwe, French Goéland argenté, Dutch zilvermeeuw), but is a much larger, robust gull with no overlap in range.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

GOLDEN AFTERNOON

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

MAGENTA STORKSBILL

Pelargonium rodneyanum, commonly known as magenta storksbill, is a perennial herb species that is endemic to Australia. It grows to 40 cm high and has leaves with 5 to 7 shallow lobes. Dark pink flowers appear between October and February in the species native range.

The species was first formally described in 1838 by English botanist John Lindley in the second volume of Thomas Mitchell's "Three Expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia." It occurs on rocky slopes in forested areas of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

In cultivation, the species prefers a sunny position with good drainage. It tolerates a variety of soil conditions as well as periods of dryness and frost. It is suited to rockeries and can be grown in containers.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DAREBIN PARKLANDS

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme

IN WILLIAMSTOWN

The St Kilda Ferry about to approach Williamstown pier.  In the background, HMAS Castlemaine (J244/M244/A248), named for the city of Castlemaine, Victoria, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II, and one of 36 initially crewed and commissioned solely by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

Launched in 1941 and commissioned in 1942, Castlemaine operated during World War II in the waters of Australia, New Guinea, and Timor. She remained in service until 1945, when she was decommissioned into reserve and converted into an immobilised training ship. In 1973, Castlemaine was presented to the Maritime Trust of Australia for conversion to a museum ship. She is one of two surviving examples of the Bathurst class, the other being HMAS Whyalla.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme.

IN THE GARDEN

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

WEST GATE BRIDGE

The West Gate Bridge is a steel box girder cable-stayed bridge that spans the Yarra River, just north of its mouth into Port Phillip, and is a vital link between the inner city and Melbourne's western suburbs with the industrial suburbs in the west and with the city of Geelong, 80 kilometres to the south-west. The main river span is 336 metres  in length, and the height above the water is 58 metres. The total length of the bridge is 2,582.6 metres. It is the third longest in Australia behind the Houghton Highway and the Hornibrook Bridge, and is twice as long as the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The bridge passes over Westgate Park, a large environmental and recreational reserve created during the bridge's construction. This view is from Newport, looking towards the northeast, with the City skyline in the background.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

EASTERN ROSELLA

The Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) is a rosella native to southeast of the Australian continent and to Tasmania. It has been introduced to New Zealand where feral populations are found in the North Island (notably in the northern half of the island and in the Hutt Valley) and in the hills around Dunedin in the South Island.

The eastern rosella is 30 cm long. It has a red head and white cheeks. The beak is white and the irises are brown. The upper breast is red and the lower breast is yellow fading to pale green over the abdomen. The feathers of the back and shoulders are black, and have yellowish or greenish margins giving rise to a scalloped appearance that varies slightly between the subspecies and the sexes. The wings and lateral tail feathers are bluish while the tail is dark green. The legs are grey.The female is similar to the male though duller in colouration and has an underwing stripe, which is not present in the adult male. Juveniles are duller than females and have an underwing stripe.

The diet of eastern rosellas mainly consists of fruit, seeds, flowers and insects.The natural range of the eastern rosella is eastern Australia, down to Tasmania. The species is found in lightly wooded country, open forests, woodlands, gardens, bushlands and parks. Eastern rosellas usually breed in spring but if needed summer as well. They can have 2-9 eggs. In the wild their breeding hollow is 1m deep and 30m high up a tree. The sign the eastern rosella mostly shows that they are breeding is that they give food to each other.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

SUNRISE

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

ITOH PEONY

ITOH Peony "Garden Treasure" is a very successful Intersectional (Itoh) Peony first released in 1984. Gold medal winner with the American peony society and for good reason! Fast to establish, extremely floriferous over a long period maybe 3 weeks, tall and bushy makes this beauty a desired plant in the garden. One of the Itohs that has also been successfully used as a cut flower, with over a week vase life if cut in bud.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

AT THE MARKET

Preston Market is the second largest market in Melbourne selling fresh produce, clothing and homewares with a variety of restaurants and food stalls; it attracts over 80,000 visitors per week. The market opened in 1970, however, its long-term survival is in jeopardy as the new owners plan to redevelop the site, wishing to build high rise apartment blocks on the site.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

LUSH

Lush farmland and wooded hills in West Gippsland. A rich fertile area that offers many attractions and is only a short drive from Melbourne. Many cafés, restaurants, cellar doors and breweries  are to be visited, serving up award-winning cool-climate wines, mouth-watering farm-fresh cheeses, small batch craft beers and gins, and menus packed with the best regional produce.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

UP, UP & AWAY

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

SOUTHERN CROSS STATION

Southern Cross Station is the most important rail terminal in Victoria and has been redeveloped into a world-class public transport interchange, with fast rail connections to regional Victorian centres and new facilities for rail, taxi and bus passengers. Now more than just a railway station, Southern Cross Station is a combination railway, shopping centre and bus terminal. The shopping centre includes supermarkets, DFO - Direct Factory Outlet and over 100 other shops, bars and restaurants.

On Spencer Street between Collins and La Trobe Streets at the western boundary of the central business district, it is the hub of the state's regional railway network, serving as a terminus for long-distance V/Line trains. It also serves the twice-daily Countrylink XPT service to Sydney, and The Overland to Adelaide three times per week. It has a bus station with 24-hour Skybus service to Melbourne airport.

Southern Cross is one of five stations forming the City Loop, a mostly underground railway that encircles the CBD. Southern Cross and Flinders Street are the only stations in the Loop that are above ground.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

WATCHING THE WORLD GO BY

A neighbour's cat enjoying the Spring sunshine behind the safety of window glass.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

SUNSET REFLECTIONS

The sunset is reflected on the façade of the ANZ headquarters in South Wharf in Melbourne.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

ROSE TIME

An unknown wild-type rose hybrid blooming at the moment. It is very prolific and makes quite an impression, however, it's not fragrant and looks a little messy when it finishes blooming, needing a good prune, which may encourage a few more flowers to bloom.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

PLANE TREES

Many Melbourne streets are lined by plane trees, an imported exotic species, which reminded the old colonists of home (London is also famed for its plane trees). Here they cause some trouble because of their spreading roots, branches that entangle into power lines and a big mess in Autumn (dead leaves) and Spring (thousands of seed balls dispersing). However, here in late Spring and in Summer later on, they are beautiful and green...

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme

IN GIPPSLAND

Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers an elongated area of 41,556 km2 located further east of the Shire of Cardinia (Melbourne's outermost southeastern suburbs) between Dandenong Ranges and Mornington Peninsula, and is bounded to the north by the mountain ranges and plateaus/highlands of the High Country (which separate it from Hume region in Victoria's northeast), to the southwest by the Western Port Bay, to the south and east by the Bass Strait and the Tasman Sea, and to the east and northeast by the Black-Allan Line (the easternmost section of the Victoria/New South Wales state border).

It is a convenient region close to Melbourne for a day-trip, but not only. There are many attractive spots to see and many wonderful small towns to see and spots of  historical interest to visit.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme.

LONELINESS

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

WHERE'S WALLY?

At the Camberwell Sunday Market, of course!

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

GOLDFISH

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

CATHEDRAL SUNRISE

 In the City, looking East towards St Patrick's Cathedral.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

CYMBIDIUM ORCHID

Cymbidium, commonly known as boat orchids, is a genus of evergreen flowering plants in the orchid family Orchidaceae. Orchids in this genus are epiphytic, lithophytic, terrestrial or rarely leafless saprophytic herbs usually with pseudobulbs. There are usually between three and twelve leaves arranged in two ranks on each pseudobulb or shoot and lasting for several years.

From one to a large number of flowers are arranged on an unbranched flowering stem arising from the base of the pseudobulb. The sepals and petals are all free from and similar to each other. The labellum is significantly different from the other petals and the sepals and has three lobes. There are about fifty-five species and sixteen further natural hybrids occurring in the wild from tropical and subtropical Asia to Australia. Cymbidiums are well known in horticulture and many cultivars have been developed.

This hybrid is growing in our garden at the moment and is very hardy and prolific.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

CONTEMPLATION

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme