When so many roses are blooming at once I don’t always notice the uniqueness of each bloom. I happened to see this low hanging pink bloom and bent down to take a look and noticed the magnificent symmetry of it’s centre swirl.
Photo 1: Pink Rose Swirl
Photo 2: Swirl to the left
Photo 3: Swirl to the right
Photo 4: Low hanging bloom
Photo 5: Rosey Symmetry
I had to do some significant pruning of the hybrid tea rose bush in the garden and was concerned about how it would recover in the drought. I am very happy to see that it is coping and producing lovely blooms again.
Photo 1: Tea Rose in the morning sun
Photo 2: Bloom and buds
Photo 3: Face down
Photo 4: Rosey delight
Photo 5: Rose opening
Photo 6: Rose cluster
Photo 7: Rose in Bloom
The cobwebs in the ivy provided a lovely settling spot for some water droplets. Clearly we have several spiders! To add a touch of a colour I added a pink Geranium. It was rather difficult to get the droplets on the web in focus as the slightest camera shake or breeze produced fuzzy smudges. Here are some of the results.
Photo 1: Wet spiderweb and pink Geranium
Photo 2: Pink Geranium under web of droplets
Photo 3: Sparkling droplets and Geranium
Photo 4: Ivy, droplets and Pink Geranium
Photo 5: Geranium on wet cobweb
Photo 6: Droplet Shimmer
Photo 7: Droplets on web over Ivy
Another beauty found growing along the Creek – think they have been cultivated though but they are still lovely flowers. Their petals appear crinkly like tissue paper after it’s used for wrapping and their orange and yellow centres contrast dramatically with the pink bloom.
Photo 1: Pink Cistus – Rock Rose
Photo 2: Rock Roses back-to-back
Photo 3: Rock Rose Bloom and bud
Photo 4: Rock Rose cluster
Photo 5: Rock Rose centre
Photo 6: Single Rock Rose
Photo 7: Rock Rose side view
Photo 8: Rock Rose in bloom
On the creek trail not too far from our house I found a rather large thistle in bloom. While I was focussing on the bloom a lovely Painted Lady Butterfly came to feed off it and it was followed by some bees and a little Skipper butterfly as well. Thistles must taste good to bugs and they don’t seem to like sharing a bloom either.
Photo 1: Painted Lady Butterfly on Thistle
Photo 2: Butterfly and Bee on Thistle
Photo 3: Thistle bloom
Photo 4: Thistle bud
Photo 5: Two blooms, two bugs
Photo 6: Bee and Skipper butterfly on Thistle
Photo 7: Bee on Thistle
Photo 8: Butterfly and Thistle bloom
Every artist would like to create something unique. Something special and memorable that draws one nearer and is intriguing. In my quest to find that special something to make my images unique I keep experimenting. Today’s experiment is with radial gradient fills. Some of them I like, some of them I don’t but nothing ventured means nothing gained.
Photo 1: Peach pink Rose
Photo 2: Blue Chrysanthemum
Photo 3: Orange Rose
Photo 4: Deep Pink Rose
Photo 5: Blue Iris
Photo 6: Pale Pink Roses
Photo 7: White Rose on Purple
Another lovely addition to the garden is this hybrid tea rose. It has the loveliest pinkish-yellow-orange shading when it starts to bloom and then becomes the palest yellow to deep pink as it peaks.
Photo 1: Tea Rose in bloom
Photo 2: Tea rose and bud
Photo 3: Tea Rose opening
Photo 4: Tea Rose new and old
Photo 5: Tea Rose single
Photo 6: Tea Rose
Photo 7: Tea Rose and company
Some buds never flower. If we are fortunate enough to bloom, we should do so with all the enthusiasm and vigour we can muster.
Striking Gazanias are also native to Southern Africa and are sometimes called African Daisies. My preference is for the striped versions as those are the flowers I recall from my childhood but this little patch of white and yellow was still delightful. They only open in full sun and that is when they thrive.
Photo 1: Sun-loving Gazanias
Photo 2: Patch of Gazanias
Photo 3: Single Yellow Gazania
Photo 4: Single White Gazania
Photo 5: Gazania Trio
Photo 6: Gazanias blooming
Photo 7: Gazania cluster
There is a lovely patch of Gazanias flowering close to the school so I went out early to take some snaps. Unfortunately I was a bit too early and they needed more time to open. The Society Garlic growing close by looked so pretty in the morning sunlight though that I wasn’t too disappointed.
Photo 1: Society Garlic in the morning light
Photo 2: Purple Society Garlic
Photo 3: Sociable Society Garlic
Photo 4: Society Garlic Mood
Photo 5: Society Garlic swaying