To start off my new post I will share the flowers and plants photos I took over the week. The top two photos are of a lovely ground cover plant that I found during a neighbourhood walk with Jack. A quick Google search informs me that it is called "Parrot's Beak" or "Coral Gem". I had never seen it before but it is a beautiful colour and a lovely way to provide ground cover in a garden.
The next set of photos are of the Hibiscus plant in our church garden. I was astounded when I saw it, as I have never, in all the years we've been in this building, seen so many blooms on the plant at one time. It looked absolutely amazing.
Finally, the bottom two photos. The first photo was from a neighbourhood walk with Jack (left photo) where I found a beautiful pink flowering gum tree. The second photo was a rock wall at The Blue Mountains covered with these tiny flowers. Google tells me it appears to be Kenilworth Ivy, which is commonly known as Ivy-Leaved Toadflax - a MUCH better name!!
Monday Jack took me to our local park for his walk and we spotted Water Dragons everywhere. I only had my phone with me so couldn't get photos any closer or I risked Jack trying to lunge at them. I will look forward to spending some time in the park after my walking duties have finished so I can take my DSLR camera and focus on some nicer photos of the wildlife to be found.
Although Jack was fiercely protective of mum and I, he slowly learned to trust Monkey. We think it was because he is naturally quieter and calmer than the others. Thus we were able to snap some photos of the two of them together one afternoon.
A gift from my brother was two tins of corned beef hash. I ate this regularly as a kid/teen and hadn't eaten any since moving to Australia. What a treat it was to enjoy this childhood meal. Now to try the tins that are available here and see if they are the same.
When mum and I took our trip to the libraries together previously, I totally forgot to pick up all the books I had put on reserve. We weren't planning another trip, so I cancelled all the books at my regular library and put as many of them on reserve at my back-up library as I could. Then, Friday morning, I took a quick bus trip there to pick them all up. Again, they are all YA and Middle Grade books (or junior fiction as they are generally catalogued here) for my September Readathon event.
Saturday was our big excursion for my mum's visit. We packed the whole family in the car and headed to Katoomba to visit The Blue Mountains. It was a glorious day and we were excited to show her something outside of Sydney.
The viewpoint is a breath taking area that gives you a great view of The Three Sisters and the wider national park.
The trees all around are lovely as well and I enjoyed trying to snap some good pictures of them.
Some of the men (Hubby, Monster and Monkey) decided to do the Giant Stairway walking track that takes them all the way down close to the Three Sisters. Mum, Munchkin and I stayed up at the viewpoint and visitors centre. Below are pictures taken by Monster and Monkey as they walked down the 888 steps before then having to climb all the way back up! The photos give it MUCH more justice than just words.
The boys all really REALLY want me to do this trek with them but I think my fear of heights and general poor balance will freak me out too much.
The views during the walk are just stunning. All of the above photos were taken by Monster.
The above selection of photos were taken by Monkey and again show the beauty and wonder of the mountains. I particularly love the photo of the stairs with the surrounding ferns. Also, that is Monster in the photos just above. He is so rarely in our homeschool photos now so I was pleased that he gave me permission to share them.
Two additional photos that the boys took: Monster's photo on the left and Monkey's photo on the right. When they got to the bottom of the stairs and were resting, this little bird showed up and hung around for AGES. According to my quick Google search, it appears to be a Grey Shrikethrush.
While hubby and the two older boys did all their stair climbing, Grandmama, Munchkin and I enjoyed fun and games with this Sulphur Crested cockatoo in the look out area. Not surprisingly they are very tame because people are ALWAYS around, so I was able to get pretty close. I still used my super zoom lens though so as not to frighten him unnecessarily.
There was beautiful foliage to enjoy as well. The left photo is a lovely plant I had never seen before called Safari Gold Strike. Then my mum and I noticed this gorgeous red flowered tree that I correctly guessed was a Rhododendron tree. As I was walking by the woman who lives there was outside gardening so I stopped to ask and admire. She was lovely, we enjoyed a nice chat, and she gave me permission to take the photo.
It was a wonderful trip and a great day out.
No comments:
Post a Comment