Natural goings on this week

After a hot and mostly sunny week with a bit of rain last night, I’m going to share what’s put a smile on my face this week.

I say natural as I came across this chap, in the picture below, this morning. I apologise if the photo is blurry as I didn’t want to get too close! I’m not sure what species of lizard this is, but the fact that it’s here is great as far as I’m concerned.

Jacaranda flowers are still looking fabulous today.

My all-time favourite tree is the Sydney red gum (Angophora costata) which is a fabulous relative of eucalyptus trees. The tree these flowers are from is still quite small, so I thought I’d grab a photo of them while I could.

One of the reasons why I like the Sydney red gum so much is because of the colour of its bark which is a lovely orange colour. It also loses its bark every summer, which is a quirky feature to encourage fire. All part of what makes Australian plant wonderfully odd and also rather feral.

Ferns are also lovely things and I love to see their new fronds as they start unfurling.

Australian king parrots are very cute little red and green birds. These three are the first ones I’ve ever seen, I was more than happy to watch them for a bit instead of working!

The flowers of blueberry ash (Elaeocarpus reticulatus) are very pretty. This is another native Australian tree. Pretty and tough, but not as feral as the Sydney red gum!

These pinkish-red flowers of this Mandevilla sp. are lovely. I’m not going to give a species name as I would wrong! The flowers are wonderful though and give much needed colour around here!