DIARY 

This week...

Waterfront Grebe bedroom. 360 degree view. Grebe babies have to be the cutest things ever. About the size of a large walnut. Three hatched this week.

Australasian Grebe Nest

It's Echium-time. This be Echium simplex on the left. You should see the bees go. Towers of white jewels 6ft tall. And the purple/blue spires of Echium fastuosum. Delicious.

 

One of the few roses the wallabies have left us...Golden Wings...(or is it Winds) anyway it smells like bread. Delirious.

 

Cistus Brilliancy (top left)  and Halimium ocymoides (bottom left), together with Cistus Bennet's White. The light & colour & scent of the Mediterranean.



Grey Cheeks (left), a regular morning visitor, not looking very pleased. Melianthus major, Berberis x juliane Spring Glory (top right) and Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea superba, a magnet for Silver Eyes.




Umbellifers that send the bees demented - Ferula communis (Giant Fennel) A Mediterranean plant with ferny foliage and umbels the size of bread and butter plates. Can reach 3-4m tall.

A close-up of Heracleum ... another giant Mediterranean umbellifer for keeping the bees and other pollen-feeders amused.

Arum dioscorides (left). What is it about Aroids?  Ugly & smelly & irresistible to me & blowflies...it must be genetic!  Flower bud Amorphophalus Konjac (right) - another metre to go!
 

Osteospermum (Dimorphotheca) a long flowering Sth African daisy that provides plenty of entertainment for insects. The combination of the rich red flowers & the burnt stumps also delights me.