Wha?

This blew my little mind this morning. There was a Pelican in the lake. I have never seen one there before. He was gone by smoko. Never a dull moment really.

Touching

Im a touch late for Anzac Day, I was out of town and I do apologise. But better late then never.

The top photo is the Kelmscott War Memorial, and I took that photo a couple of days before Anzac Day. That memorial was built in 1926 and has been in that spot ever since. When I was a teenager, I used to go to Memorial Services there during the day, although Im sure they run Dawn Services there. It tends to be a bit quieter than the Armadale services, but still manages to draw quite a crowd considering.

 The bottom photo is of the Armadale War Memorial. That memorial was built in 1916 on  the corner of Eleventh Rd and Fourth Rd, then was relocated to Memorial Park in the 1950s. Just before Remembrance Day last year, the coloured glass panels were put in, reflecting the ribbons worn on war medals. They also contain information on various conflicts. This photo was taken on the Sunday morning, 3 days after Anzac Day. Hence the reason for all the floral tributes. There is a Dawn Service held at this memorial and will draw a crowd of about 5000 people. Which personally I think is a very touching thing.

Ooga Booga

This guy made me grin for a good hour. I was blowing around admin and I found this piece of paper caught in amongst the leriopes. When I pulled it out, one side was munched on by the snails, the other side was untouched, just a bit dirty from the sand. The piece of paper was this little guy. I have no idea where he is from, who had lost him, or how he came to be in the bushes at admin. He is rather amusing though, and I couldnt help but feel happy about finding such a cool little guy.

1 Day

The thing with gardening is, everything changes. These pictures were taken 1 day apart. The first photo was taken on a Thursday, just as it was opening. It isnt quite the perfect bud, and thats what I like best about it. It sums up nature magnificently, it may not be exactly perfect, but nether the less, is very beautiful. The last photo was taken on the Friday, I imagine the flower will be spent by the Monday when I return to work. Its part of why I love my job, it teaches you to look closer, look for the little things, and to enjoy the beauty while it lasts.

In Disguise

I apologise to the spider phobics out there. There seems to be a bit of a plague of Redbacks at work at present, I swear I find another one every time I swap a bin at work. They seem to love hanging out on the lids of the wheelie bins inside the bin cages. Im quite grateful I wear gloves, to be honest. Spider bites arent fun. So, an explanation of the photos. Well, I thought I would introduce the many disguises of the Redback. The top photo is of a male Redback. He is very small, his abdomen wouldnt even be half a centimeter across, and he has no red or strong black colouring. You pick him from his brown stripe on a white abdomen.That and he looks like a Redback that has been coloured in wrong. Male Redbacks mature in about 90 days and they are short lived, mostly because they encourage the female in sexual cannibalism! During mating he somersaults his abdomen infront of the females jaws and is consumed by her during mating. The bottom two pictures are of female Redbacks at different juvenile stages. It takes approximately 4 months for the female to mature, so it takes a little while for her to grow into her colours. she starts off the ligher brown colour with white splotches amongst her red stripe, then slowly turns black and loses her white. She will grow to about the size of a pea. Now that you are all educated, I really wish they werent hanging out in the bins so much at work.

Tropical Trickery

This is a plant I remember from my youth. Every man and his dog had one, Im sure. I was in my late teens, just starting to study horticulture, when I found out the name of this hibiscus. Its an Apple Blossom Hibiscus. It always made me think of tropical places as a kid. I guess Hibiscus will do that to you, but its actually from China. Blew my little mind when I found out. Its one of those lovely large shrubs, that can handle a good prune when it gets too big. Even if you take it back to fairly bare stems, it will usually reshoot and look quite shrubby again after a few months. They do have the bad habit of all hibiscus, of having a branch randomly dying off for no apparent reason. Its just what it does, I have no explanation as to why. They are a rewarding shrub though, fairly hard to kill once established and very rewarding with flowers. This one grows in an area that receives no reticulation and the only maintenance it has received, was to cut it down to 2m tall about 18 months ago. Cant even tell where we've pruned it now. Tough as old boot hide and good on it too.

I'll Land Here

The front camera on my phone isnt the best, however it was easier to take a picture this way. I introduce .... A Ladybird. The Aphids are comming back for the season, so the Ladybirds have also returned to feast. This one decided that my sunglasses would be the best spot to land. Cheeky little bugger.

Half The Tree

Im not entirely certain on species of this eucalyptus. I think they are Sugar Gums, but unfortunately Eucalypt ID, has never been my strong point. I do know that these trees acquire the nick name 'Widow Makers'. Aptly named as they have a bad tendency to drop large branches, without warning. We discovered this mess on the rubbish run, first thing in the morning, so it had probably fallen over night. Due to its size, we had to call in the help from another team, as they have a larger chainsaw then us and they have a truck. If we had done it with our puny little chainsaw and ute, it would have taken all afternoon to chop up and remove. It took just over an hour to remove and tidy up. Nothing like a fallen tree branch to break up the monotony.

Cry

This is a sad story, and I have been putting off writing it for a few days now. This happened on Thursday. What you are looking at is the last moments of this poor little duck. One of the workers from maintenance flagged me down on Thursday morning, asking what we do about injured ducks. What we normally do, if we manage to catch an injured bird of any kind, we take them to the vet on Railway Ave, as they have an agreement with a bird sanctuary that heals them, then releases them back to the wild. He said that a car didnt see the ducks on the road and had hit one, up by the railway crossing. It couldnt walk and could barely flap its wings. Crows were hanging around her and he was worried they would start attacking. I went over with a bucket to see, and there she was. A little woodland duck, frightened half to death, staring wide eyed at me. I picked her up, her neck was lolling about and she couldnt hold her head up. She could open her wings, but had no strength. Her back was most likely broken and it was pretty clear, she wasnt going to live. I wanted to get her away from the crows that were hanging about, as they are notoriously unkind birds. I had to hold her wings while I walked her back to the bunker, as she struggled and made herself worse. At the bunker, she went limp and I held her head in my hands til her breathing stopped. This photo was taken in the last few minutes of her life. Just as she started closing her eyes.

I do not question the fact that I hastened her end, the terror she must have felt from this whole ordeal would have most likely killed her long before her broken body would have given in. I spoke as soothingly as I could and was as gentle as possible. I know its a duck, to all of you out there who are reading this and wondering why Im getting all sentimental over a wild duck. However, it is still a living creature and did not deserve to die in such a fashion, it must have been so very frightening for her. So my reasoning for putting off writing this blog has been: should I have left her die in peace? The crows were near her, but not yet attacking. Was it worth the gamble? or did I do the right thing by removing her from the potential pecking and attacking from them, making her die from fright? What is best? To die from potentially being attacked, while suffering from painful internal wounds? or to die in the arms of a large creature, with no clear motives, speaking an alien tongue?

Energizer Bunny

Vinca's are like the little energizer bunnies of the annual flowering world. The plants in this photo are about 2 years old, and show no sign of slowing down. Vinca's are sold as annual flowers in Australia, however if you look after them, as you can see, they keep growing. They come in an assortment of colours, including red, white, light and dark pink and light purple. They dont grow much higher then about 40cm and if they are happy, they will flower profusely. The biggest thing you have to watch for is mildew and similar fungi. The plant will look wilty, and sometimes has a slight powder on the leaf. The leaves will start to die and get little black spots on them. When this happens, and it usually happens in the winter time, cut the plant back to about half its size and spray with a fungicide (usually anything that contains copper sulfate, fungi hate copper), and they should spring right back after a month or so and keep on keeping on.

*Blush*

I took this photo about a week or 2 ago, when the flower was quite young and vibrant. Unfortunately their flowering has almost come to an end (they are March flowering bulbs). So without further ado, I introduce to you A Naked Lady. The bulb sends up a flower first, without any leaves. Which explains where the common name comes from, as the flowers come up 'naked'. They are quite a hardy bulb. They dont have to be dug up and left to air for half of the year, like most bulbs do. The flowers in this photo grow where there is little/no reticulation, they receive no love or maintenance, and they still show up every march and look beautiful. Also, a side note. In Australia, they are sometimes referred to as an Easter Lily, as the flowering sometimes coincides with Easter.

Kamikaze Frog

This was yesterdays job. Planting up the island on Albany Hwy. This isnt our area and we wont be looking after it once it is completed, for that we are quite grateful. The design isnt the greatest, as there are too many plants for the area. I realise why the bed was designed that way, so it looks 'full' once its been planted, however it doesnt allow any room for the plants to grow.  So who ever maintains this bed, is going to have a horrible time doing so.

There is quite a nice story from this planting endeavor, however. I met the most suicidal frog this side of the black stump! I was using the auger, making holes for the plants to be planted into, when suddenly this frog jumped out of the plant I was drilling next to and I nearly hit him. I figured this was an unsafe place for a little frog, so as I went to catch him, he high tailed it away from me ... TO THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!!!!!! I stayed on the verge as 2 cars approached and ran over the top of the little frog, but managed to miss him! I didnt want to watch as the cars went past, I have a soft spot for frogs. When we realised he was still alive and very unscathed, we shooed him into the bushes on the other side of the road. May he live to scare the bejimmenies out of some other gardener, another day.

And The Birds In The Sky

I apologise that the photos arent the best quality, but I had the zoom in as close as possible and flying birds are moving targets. The top photo is of an eagle. This is the first time I can recall seeing an eagle flying around at work. I normally see them up in Roleystone and the more bush/rural areas outside of work, however today, this one was cruising quite contently above the parks at work. This, I imagine, would have triggered the bottom photo. The flock of white cockatoos, that are currently inhabiting the park, flew several laps above the parks while the eagle was in sight. They refused to settle in the trees until the predator was quite a distance away. I have never seen this behavior first hand before, it was quite a surreal experience.

Dropping In

Splendid news! I met a ladybird. He/She came flying in towards me and landed on my shirt. Then calmly ran around for a few minutes before flying off again. Woot! Lady bird season is upon us again.