My boys have just headed back to school after our 'spring break'. We have four school terms here, broken up with a two week break between terms 1, 2 & 3 and then six weeks summer vacation after term four.We took a mini trip during the break, funnily enough to visit Kandy Sheperd who blogged yesterday! It was so great to visit her and her lovely husband and to meet the cats and horses she often blogs about.
On the last day of our trip, we visited The Royal National Park in Sydney. Back in the 1870s, when this park was declared, I am sure it was in the middle of nowhere, but now it is surrounded by the southern suburbs of Sydney and on a public holiday, everyone was there taking advantage of having rugged coastal beaches and glorious bush right on their doorstep.
And the flowers were out. I wanted to share some of them with you....
This is pink heath. Although I took this photo in New South Wales, it is the state flower of my state, Victoria.
Sorry, I have no clue what this is but it's pretty, right ? ;-)
I have exhausted my knowledge here but wanted to share them all with you.
So tell me, what is your favourite local flower? Or what is your state flower? I would love to know!
Fiona
Lowe is a RITA® and R*BY award-winning, multi-published author
with Harlequin and Carina Press. Whether her books are set in outback
Australia or in the mid-west of the USA, they feature small towns with big
hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love. When she's
not writing stories, she's a weekend wife, mother of two 'ginger' teenage boys,
guardian of 80 rose bushes and often found collapsed on the couch with wine. Yyou can find her at her website, facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.
Her most recent releases are Letting Go Wiht Dr Rodriguez, Boomerang Bride and Sydney Harbour Hospital :Tom's Redemption
Her Christmas novel, NewBorn Baby For Christmas is up for pre-order now
19 comments:
Hey Fiona,
Love Australian Fauna. My favourite are Waratahs and Eucalyptus. Eons ago I was a florist so love all flowers. All plants and flowers have a unique beauty which I adore.
That tree that you don't know the name of is called a Crab Apple Tree and it grows tiny little fruit which are edible of course. My neighbour makes jam out of it and it's delicious.
Smiles,
Effie
Thanks, Efthalia! Can you name any others???
It's Spring here in Brazil as well, Fiona! My favorite flower is the simple white daisy. My second favorite would be honeysuckle (although I know it's invasive in some places). The scent is divine! We have several small bushes growing in our yard called golden shrimp plants. The flowers are yellow with white looking sections coming off of them. I'd never seen them before coming to Brazil. But they're quite pretty.
Love all your pictures, Fiona!
The Texas state flower is the bluebonnet
which grows wild in the state. Back in
the day, a road trip into East Texas to
see the bluebonnets was on the schedule
each Spring. My favorite flowers are the
wild varieties found out in the fields
every year. Here in the city, roses of
all kinds and colors are our garden
favorites.
Tina, we had a shrimp plant here too. I wonder if it's similar? I love daisies too. I dropped the boys off at school the other day and the ever lasting daisies were all in flower,. They're so cheery!
Thanks, Pat. I'll go check them out!
Hi Fiona
Lovely post. We were just up in Lamington National Park for a week. Lots of bushwalking (and snakes!!). The only plant I can remember is the Wait a While - it wasn't very nice. So, I'm not very good at the wildflowers, but I love having vases of flowers at home. Currently have roses and pink and white Lilium around the house. The violet Irises sadly just died.
Does it have to be a local flower? I love all perfumed flowers, and mostly the old fashioned ones like Daphne, Peony roses and the old roses that had perfume that would fill the air. There aren't too many like that any more. Also, my Mamma used to buy me a small posy of Lily of the Valley (Mughetto in Italian)because she knew I loved them, so they hold good memories for me. To this day, some of my favourite perfumes have a Rose (YSL's Baby Doll) or Lily of the Valley (Dior's Diorissimo) base.
Jenn, I just mentioned the Lamington National Park in the book I am writing! I love Irises but sadly they tend to die quite quickly inside.
Serena, I love fragrant flowers too and I have peony roses in the garden.
The State flower for QLD is the Cooktown Orchid. It's rather beautiful.
I used to live near the Lamington National Park. All my High School camping trips were there. It ALWAYS rained.
I love tuberose flower, because waiting for these flowers grow and bloom, it's very long time and it's only bloom at night at 12 and i love the smell of this flower :)
One of my fav flowers that I always wait to bloom in Spring is the Lilac trees.. They were also my mom's fav too.. We are just heading into Fall in the Northern Hemisphere and of course all those lovely orange and yellow potted mums dress up the front porch...
LOL on raining school camps, Mary.
I will look up the QLD flower....I confess to only knowing the state flower of SA, Victoria and NSW!
Flowers that only flower at night, Eli, tend to always be very fragrant. I had a bush near my bedroom window that responded to the evening air and the perfume was amazing. Sadly, it died in the drought.
Kathleen, I passed a lilac tree in full bloom just today!
Our national flower, Sampaguita! Sampaguita are pure white, small, dainty, star-shaped blossoms. The flowers open at night and wilt in less than a day. They're very sweet smelling. :D
So Lory, you must be in the Philippines! Thanks for sharing :-) They are very pretty flowers.
Wow, how did you know? Really surprised and pleased at the same time! :D
Post a Comment