Now for a stroll in my garden
The only orchid I’ve managed to keep
Hellebores also known as winter roses
Mock orange
We’ve been traipsing around the wonderful national parks of western USA, but we’re home now. I promise to share many more posts about the parks, but it’s spring in Australia and I have to share what’s going on in my backyard.
Actually this post covers three backyards.
Most pics are from my backyard in Canberra. Another is from our bush garden at the coast in Rosedale. A few others are from a front garden in Yass. Once a week, I drive to Yass to stay with my friend, Maggie.
Male fairy blue wren at Maggie’s
Maggie’s irises
Maggie’s banksia rose
There’s not much by way of explanation. Just pics and captions (where possible) for you to enjoy.
As an aside, these last few days have been Australia’s annual bird survey. People are asked to watch (in blocks of 20 minutes) to see what birds visit their garden, local park, neighbourhood or any other address they choose.
You can count birds you hear (but can’t see) if you know their calls. You can count birds that fly overhead if you can recognise them.
I watched for a total of 100 minutes over five days and saw more than 25 different birds. Obviously, I didn’t get to photograph all of them.
House sparrow
Yellow bunny rose
Peace rose
Honeyeater at Rosedale
Where to next? 
You are lucky to have three gardens to enjoy, Peggy. But I find it hard to manage just one these days. 🙂 We have also had a bird survey, which I completed online. It made me realise just how many local birds I never see around now.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Thanks Pete, but you need to know that I manage only one garden. Maggie looks after hers. I do a bit of ‘management’ in mine. The one at the coast looks after itself. It’s a rough block, but the birds like it.
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Wonderfully lovely gardens. I can feel myself in them. Our patio is raised (the builder goofed) and blessed with full, sub-tropical sun. What I have is bright, but what I want is what you have shared here. You have given me direction and food for thought. 😎🌴
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So pleased to be some inspiration. Hope to see the results you post in future.
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Thanks, Peggy. Our neighbor suggested succulents, but it’s hard to feel all cozy with a prickly pear. lol
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The right prickly pears can be tasty. 🙂
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I always thought orchids required a milk winter, until I considered the tubers. It is a hardy plant. Enjoyed the photos of the Honeyeater and all, as well.
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Thanks so much. I have no idea what I’m doing with orchids. The fact that this plant has bloomed twice in two years is a mystery to me.
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I intended to write mild winter (not milk winter). I found Sego Lilies blooming on the flanks of the Rincon Mountains, the Sonora Desert.
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I knew what you meant! 🙂 The lilies would have been an unexpected find.
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Lovely pictures! It must be nice to be home after such a long time away!
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Thanks so much. Always nice to be home, if only to do laundry! 🙂
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Haha so true
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Wow, what a gorgeous garden – thanks for sharing! The flowers are amazing as is your photography! 💕😊
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Thanks so much. I could spend hours in the garden.
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Reblogged this on Blue Dragon Journal and commented:
Sweet photos! I love birds and gardens!
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Always appreciate the reblogs. Thanks so much.
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How lovely it is in Australia – thank you for so many photos of your Southern Hemisphere beauty. I’ve always loved flowers and birds though we can’t grow anything in our yard except jade plants and asparagus fern. Actually we live in a eucalyptus forest planted many years ago, and they’re impossible for anything else to grow around them. We’re going to have at least 3 more cut down as they’ve grown dangerously huge. We’re trying to switch to mostly succulents and native Southern California plants but it’s a slow process met with lots of failure. So it was a great pleasure to see such profusion of spring here. I especially love the tiny fairly blue wren – gorgeous colors and a perky silhouette. I also like the honey eater sipping nectar anyway she can get it. Thanks for the spring break, Peggy – enjoyed this morning’s view.
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I know what you mean about eucalyptus trees. These are native to Australia and nothing will grow under them. We have just ONE in the front yard and have tried unsuccessfully for years to get some ground cover to grow under it. Ugh.
I love the little blue wrens. We get them in Canberra too. The females are brown year-round and the males are blue only during the mating season.
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Mating costumes! I know people as fickle as that.
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Being a great fan of Peggy I often read the comments people make. Eucalypts have a built in way of discouraging competition but I find that Verbena, Snapdragons, Petunias and freesias go quite well.
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Thanks, I’ll give them a try. Nothing else has worked.
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And make sure you rake the gum leaves up. They have a toxin in that stops some seeds from germinating.
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Thanks for that tip too.
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You must green fingers. These are lovely.
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Thanks, but in all honesty my garden grows because it’s hardy and not because I’m especially good at caring for it. 🙂
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Beautiful photos – especially great to see as we head into winter. 🙂
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Thanks, our garden looks especially good this time of year.
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Birds and Flowers make every day look a little brighter, that’s for sure! 👁👁🍃
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I hoped this would brighten someone’s day.
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It’s nice to travel, but I think it’s also nice to be home….
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I love both.
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All of these images are lovely, but I must say I’m taken by the hellebores. So interestingly beautiful…
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The hellebores range in colour from white to pink to green. Didn’t see much pink this year.
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Reblogged this on dreamweaver333.
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Thanks so much. Always appreciated.
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Isn’t spring just gorgeous. Even the birds become colourful. Paul tried (unsuccessfully) to photograph a gorgeous male fairy wren as he flirted with one of his harem ladies yesterday. Never mind, they kept us entertained despite the lack of photos, and I enjoyed your photos even more because our attempts were unsuccessful.
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You WOULD believe how many times I’ve tried unsuccessfully to photograph fairy wrens. Just got lucky the other day.
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How lovely to see your garden (and that of your friend).
(as an aside I think I have a photo of the Mock Orange and don’t have a name for it 🙂 ).
Nice to see an image of your Hellebores (one of of my favourite flowers, but so hard to photograph as you have to get down low to catch their hanging flower heads).
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Luckily I don’t have to bend down too far. The Hellebores are planted in a part of the garden that’s raised about two feet.
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Phew! i had visions of you lying on your stomach to get that shot 🙂
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Nope, only had to bend at the waist.
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I love that blue wren. Great catch.
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They flit so fast, they’re hard to photograph. Luckily this one stopped for a second on the tomato stake.
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I remember spring in Canberra – all the flowers and birds coming to life. I imagine many of those birds you saw were various kinds of parrots. Gorgeous roses.
Alison
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Thanks. Our springs really are beautiful. Some of the birds I saw were crimson rosellas, blue wrens, sparrows, galahs, magpies, cockatoos and wattle birds.
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Isn’t spring lovely? I saw something about the bird watch but I’m not very good at recognising what’s what.
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There’s an app that is quite helpful for identification.
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Beautiful pictures – As Fall heads towards winter in the northern hemisphere, I’m slightly jealous that you live somewhere where the irises are blooming. 🙂
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Glad you like the pics. Your spring will return.
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Beautiful – I love seeing Northern American birds, especially ones that must be distant cousins of our European wrens and sparrows.
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I love bird watching in general.
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Gardens definitely have magic in them! A garden is a special place. A place for thoughts, inspiration and just peace. Your garden images are simply lovely!!!
Thank you for sharing!! Have a nice week!!!!!!
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Thanks so much. Wishing you a lovely week too.
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What gorgeous flowers. I don’t know how you manage it all but it’s wonderful.
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Our garden was overhauled about 18 years ago. We got rid of all the lawn (too water-hungry for dry Australia) and focused on easy care plants.
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Lovely. Especially the blue wren.
Peta
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Oops and I meant to add, the roses and irises (I love irises) and the orchid.
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I’m partial to them all too!
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What a gorgeous garden you have!
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Thanks. It looks its very best at this time of year.
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What a gorgeous orchid!
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Thanks. If one had to survive, this one is a beauty.
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So pretty
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Nice pictures, its nice to see flowers that are not killed by frost. We had our first snowflurries of the fall a few days ago and the leaves are very rapidly falling off the trees as we slowly plunge into winter. Its been a cool October and I was not able to get outside much. I can only hope for April when it will start to warm up again.
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Stay warm this winter. April is when our frosts will return.
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You must be really far south in Australia to get frosts in April…….. Or high altitude!!
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We are south, in the national capital. Most years, our cold weather arrives on April 26th—the day after ANZAC Day. Although it’s been getting later in recent years.
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You have three backyards?! Whoa. More space for lovely blooms. Your photos are beautiful, Peggy!
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Thanks so much. I like to ‘borrow’ other people’s backyards when they let me.
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What a novel idea! 🙂
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Hi Peggy
You take great garden pics, I think I need to delete all my garden pics. How did you get such a great photo of the bird? You are doing well to grow orchids in Canberra.
Kristine
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Thanks Kristine. I’ve had that orchid for 20 years and it hasn’t flowered since that first year, until last year and this. Obviously years of neglect was useful.
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Beautiful post Peggy. The bird count was a great exercise in mindfulness wasn’t it? And showcasing the abundance of birdlife we have.
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Thanks Miriam. They had a prize draw for those who took part. I didn’t win anything, but I thought first prize was perfect—binoculars.
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Isn’t the spring awesome, when the birds and nature come back to life? Lovely pics!
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Thanks so much.
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this is your garden? wow.
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I didn’t show the messy bits. 🙂
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Lovely flowers. And 25 different birds! I’m just happy the cardinals finally came back. 🙂
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Oh Jean, we don’t get cardinals in Australia. I love them and so does one of my sisters. Feel free to post pics of the cardinals you see.
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Hmm. I’ll do my best in the coming weeks!
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Your photographs continue to amaze me. You are really a gifted photographer.
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Thanks so much. I spent five years as a reporter–photographer on a daily newspaper, so something must have rubbed off.
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Well, that was fun! Especially liked the photo of the honeyeater. I saw the legs and followed that to see the head. Great photo!
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Glad you noticed the honeyeater that way. I got two pics of it upside-down.
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So beautiful and serene. I’d be out there all the time if it were mine.
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You are most welcome to join us any time.
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Wonderful photos. Birds and flowers difficult to capture.
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Thanks. It took a lot of patience and a telephoto lens to get the birds. Could get the flowers because it wasn’t windy.
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I have to hypnotize the birds to get photos. hahahahahah…just kidding. It’s so hard. They are so wary of people.
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I do have the luxury of being able to sit in my garden and wait for them to appear.
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Mind blowing
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It’s a great garden.
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Please read my first post
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Checking out your first post now.
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Absolutely beautiful
!
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Thanks. I’m glad I took pictures when I did. The hot summer sun is taking its toll.
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