Tuesday 31 December 2019

SYDNEY FIREWORKS

Sydney has a great reputation for fireworks and New Year celebrations on the Harbour. After all it is a perfect setting for a fireworks show. This year, however, it has been tough as the bushfires around the country with great losses of lives, property and natural resources has made many people question the wisdom of letting off fireworks as way of celebrating the coming of the New Year. Alternatives that have been proposed include laser light shows, which seems to me a much more sensible way of doing things.

All the best for a wonderful New Year! I hope that 2020 is full of health, happiness and prosperity for you all.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.


Sunday 29 December 2019

XMAS BRIDGE

Southgate Pedestrian Bridge – Built in 1992, crossing from Melbourne City to Southbank.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

Thursday 26 December 2019

TULIP TREE

Liriodendron tulipifera (known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddle-tree, and yellow poplar) is the Western Hemisphere representative of the two-species genus Liriodendron, and the tallest eastern hardwood. It is native to eastern North America from Southern Ontario and Illinois eastward across southern New England and south to central Florida and Louisiana.

It can grow to more than 50 m in virgin cove forests of the Appalachian Mountains, often with no limbs until it reaches 25–30 m in height, making it a very valuable timber tree. It is fast-growing, without the common problems of weak wood strength and short lifespan often seen in fast-growing species. April marks the start of the flowering period in the southern USA; trees at the northern limit of cultivation begin to flower in June. Surprisingly, the flower-bearing branches make good cut flower displays.

The flowers are pale green or yellow (rarely white), with an orange band on the tepals; they yield large quantities of nectar. The tulip tree is the state tree of Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Tulip trees make magnificently shaped specimen trees, but are very large, growing to about 35 m in good soil. Liriodendron tulipifera has been introduced to many temperate parts of the world, at least as far north as Sykkylven, Norway.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

Sunday 22 December 2019

PINK LAKE, AUSTRALIA

A few kilometers west of Dimboola, Victoria, next to the Western Highway, you can find Pink Lake. This lake is easily viewed from the rest-stop beside the highway and you can walk down the path to the edge of the lake. As you walk along the path to the lake, you will see yellow gums, buloke trees and paperbarks, giving way to the smaller and very distinctive salt tolerant plants that grow in this unique environment. The pink colour of the water comes from a pigment secreted by microscopic algae.

The intensity of the pink varies with the amount of water in the lake. When the lake is drier more light is reflected from the white crystallised salt reducing the impact of the pink. The salt was commercially harvested from the lake for many years and some of the relics from that time can still be seen near the edge of the lake. Harvesting and selling of Pink Lake Salt is now carried out again.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme,
and also part of the Photo Sunday meme.




Friday 20 December 2019

HAZY

Thick haze descended on Melbourne today, with a north-easterly wind carrying smoke from the fatal NSW bushfires into our city, a distance of hundreds of kilometres. The temperature soared to a maximum of 45˚C making for apocalyptic scenery and a terrible day to have to be outdoors...

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

Thursday 19 December 2019

PRUNUS MUME

Prunus mume is an Asian tree species classified in the Armeniaca section of the genus Prunus subgenus Prunus. Its common names include Chinese plum and Japanese apricot. The flower is usually called plum blossom. This distinct tree species is related to both the plum and apricot trees. Although generally referred to as a plum in English, it is more closely related to the apricot.

In Chinese, Japanese and Korean cooking, the fruit of the tree is used in juices, as a flavouring for alcohol, as a pickle and in sauces. It is also used in traditional medicine. The tree's flowering in late winter and early spring is highly regarded as a seasonal symbol.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

Wednesday 18 December 2019

XYLEM

xylem | ˈzʌɪləm |
noun [mass noun] Botany
The vascular tissue in plants which conducts water and dissolved nutrients upwards from the root and also helps to form the woody element in the stem. Compare with phloem.
ORIGIN
late 19th century: from Greek xulon ‘wood’ + the passive suffix -ēma.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

Tuesday 17 December 2019

VALENCIA, SPAIN

Valencia on the east coast of Spain, is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-largest city in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona, with around 800,000 inhabitants in the administrative centre. Valencia is Spain’s third largest metropolitan area, with a population ranging from 1.7 to 2.5 million depending on how the metropolitan area is defined.

Valencia was the capital of Spain when Joseph Bonaparte moved the Court there in the summer of 1812. It also served as capital between 1936 and 1937, during the Second Spanish Republic. The city is situated on the banks of the Turia, on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula, fronting the Gulf of Valencia on the Mediterranean Sea. Its historic centre is one of the largest in Spain, with approximately 169 ha (420 acres); this heritage of ancient monuments, views and cultural attractions makes Valencia one of the country's most popular tourist destinations.

Due to its long history, this is a city with numerous popular celebrations and traditions, such as the Fallas (when you can taste the traditional Spanish dish paella), which were declared as Fiestas of National Tourist Interest of Spain in 1965 and Intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in November 2016. In 2015, Joan Ribó, from Coalició Compromís, became mayor.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

Saturday 14 December 2019

JEWEL BUG

Jewel Bugs (Family Scutelleridae) have broad rounded bodies with an undivided shield covering the whole abdomen. Jewel bugs get their common name from their bright colours. Jewel Bugs have the scutellum expanded to cover the whole abdomen and both pairs of wings, leading to their other common name, Shield-backed Bugs. Australian jewel bugs suck plant sap and feed on a broad range of seeds, either while they are still attached to the plant, or after they have fallen to the ground.

In Australia, some are known as Harlequin Bugs, a common name used for several other sorts of bugs elsewhere in the world. There are 25 Australian species of jewel bugs in the Family Scutelleridae. The Hibiscus Harlequin Bug, Tectocoris diophthalmus, sucks sap from hibiscus plants, bottle trees and related species. Its main foodplant is the native Beach Hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus). It is also a minor pest of cultivated cotton, a member of the hibiscus family Malvaceae, leading to its other common name, the Cotton Harlequin Bug. In our garden it was feeding on a native hibiscus bush.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

Thursday 12 December 2019

CASUARINA

Casuarina is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian Subcontinent, southeast Asia, and islands of the western Pacific Ocean. It was once treated as the sole genus in the family, but has been split into three genera. They are evergreen shrubs and trees growing to 35 m tall. The foliage consists of slender, much-branched green to grey-green twigs bearing minute scale-leaves in whorls of 5–20. The apetalous flowers are produced in small catkin-like inflorescences. Most species are dioecious, but a few are monoecious.

The fruit is a woody, oval structure superficially resembling a conifer cone, made up of numerous carpels, each containing a single seed with a small wing. The generic name is derived from the Malay word for the cassowary, kasuari, alluding to the similarities between the bird's feathers and the plant's foliage, though the tree is called rhu in current standard Malay. Casuarina species are a food source of the larvae of hepialid moths.

Casuarina obesa (shown here), commonly known as Swamp She-oak or Swamp Oak, is a species of Casuarina that is closely related to C. glauca and C. cristata. The Noongar peoples know the plant as Goolee, Kweela, Kwerl and Quilinock. It is native to a broad area of south-western Australia, with a much more restricted occurrence in New South Wales and Victoria. It is a small dioecious (male and female flowers on separate trees) tree, growing to 1.5 to 10 metres in height and capable of flowering at any time of year. It has male and female flowers on separate plants, the female plants produce woody cones in an indehiscent state, with crops from two seasons sometimes present. It is found in sand or clay soils, often in brackish or saline environments, along rivers, creeks and salt lakes. It is widely planted for agroforestry, particularly in salt-affected areas, and as a street tree.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

Tuesday 10 December 2019

DARWIN, AUSTRALIA

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities. It is the smallest and most northerly of the Australian capital cities, and acts as the “Top End’s” regional centre.

Darwin has grown from a pioneer outpost and small port into one of Australia’s most modern and multicultural cities. Its proximity to Asia makes it an important Australian gateway to countries such as Indonesia and East Timor. The city itself is built on a low bluff overlooking the harbour. Its suburbs spread out over some area, beginning at Lee Point in the north and stretching to Berrimah in the east—past Berrimah, the Stuart Highway goes on to Darwin’s satellite city, Palmerston, and its suburbs.

The region, like the rest of the Top End, has a tropical climate, with a Wet and a Dry Season. The city is noted for its consistently warm to hot climate, all throughout the year. It receives heavy rainfall during the Wet Season, and is well known for its spectacular lightning. The original inhabitants of the greater Darwin area are the Larrakia people. On 9 September 1839, HMS Beagle sailed into Darwin harbour during its surveying of the area. John Clements Wickham named the region “Port Darwin” in honour of their former shipmate Charles Darwin, who had sailed with them on the ship's previous voyage which had ended in October 1836.

The settlement there became the town of Palmerston in 1869, and was renamed Darwin in 1911. Having been almost entirely rebuilt twice, once due to Japanese air raids during World War II, and again after being devastated by Tropical Cyclone Tracy in 1974, the city is one of Australia’s most modern capitals.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

Sunday 8 December 2019

GREEN EUPHORBIA

Euphorbia characias subspecies wulfenii is a shrubby perennial in the spurge family (Euphorbiaceaegrowing to about 1 m, with blue-green leaves. In late winter and spring it has stunning rounded heads of acidic lime-green bracts, which last for a long period. A Mediterranean plant, it needs a sunny, well-drained position. It combines well with other Mediterranean plants which grow in temperate climates, such as French lavender Lavandula dentata, tough purple flag irises (the original Iris germanica), perennial statice (Limonium perezii), Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans), rosemary, perennial wallflowers (Erysimum mutabile) - which all enjoy the same garden conditions.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme,
and also part of the Photo Sunday meme.

Thursday 5 December 2019

ROBINIA

Robinia pseudoacacia, commonly known as the black locust, is a tree of the genus Robinia in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. It is native to the southeastern United States, but has been widely planted and naturalised elsewhere in temperate North America, Europe, Southern Africa, Australia and Asia and is considered an invasive species in some areas. A less frequently used common name is false Acacia, which is a literal translation of the specific epithet. It was introduced into Britain in 1636.

With a trunk up to 0.8 m diameter (exceptionally up to 52 m tall and 1.6 m diameter in very old trees), with thick, deeply furrowed blackish bark. The leaves are 10–25 cm long, pinnate with 9–19 oval leaflets, 2–5 cm long and 1.5–3 cm broad. Each leaf usually has a pair of short spines at the base, 1–2 mm long or absent on adult crown shoots, up to 2 cm long on vigorous young plants. The intensely fragrant (reminiscent of orange blossoms) flowers are white to lavender or purple, borne in pendulous racemes 8–20 cm long, and are edible. In France and in Italy Robinia pseudoacacia flowers are eaten as beignets after being coated in batter and fried in oil.

The fruit is a legume 5–10 cm long, containing 4–10 seeds. Although the bark and leaves are toxic, various reports suggest that the seeds and the young pods of the black locust are edible. Shelled seeds are safe to harvest from summer through fall, and are edible both raw and/or boiled. Due to the small nature of Black Locust seeds, shelling them efficiently can prove tedious and difficult. The name locust is said to have been given to Robinia by Jesuit missionaries, who fancied that this was the tree that supported St. John in the wilderness, but it is native only to North America. The locust tree of Spain (Ceratonia siliqua or Carob Tree), which is also native to Syria and the entire Mediterranean basin, is supposed to be the true locust of the New Testament.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

Wednesday 4 December 2019

VIOLET CRUMBLE

Violet Crumble is an Australian chocolate bar made in Adelaide, South Australia by Robern Menz. The bar is a crumbly honeycomb toffee centre coated in compound chocolate. It is similar to the Crunchie made by British firm Cadbury. Its advertising slogan is "It's the way it shatters that matters", and previously was "Nothing else matters". Aside from Australia, it is common in Hawaii and a selection of other places, such as Hong Kong and Mollie Stone's Markets in California. They can also be found in some import speciality stores such as Cost Plus World Market in the United States.

It was one of my favourite chocolate bars in my childhood here in Australia and occasionally I still manage to crunch through one of these, the nostalgia neatly enclosed in the violet and yellow shiny wrapper.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,
and also part of the My Corner of the World.

Monday 2 December 2019

SOUNION, GREECE

Cape Sounion (Modern Greek: Aκρωτήριο Σούνιο Akrotírio Soúnio; Ancient Greek: Ἄκρον Σούνιον Άkron Soúnion, latinised Sunium; Venetian: Capo Colonne “Cape of Columns”) is the promontory at the southernmost tip of the Attic peninsula, 8 kilometres south of the town of Lavrio (ancient Thoricus), and 70 kilometres southeast of Athens. It is part of Lavreotiki municipality, East Attica, Greece. Cape Sounion is noted for its Temple of Poseidon, one of the major monuments of the Golden Age of Athens. Its remains are perched on the headland, surrounded on three sides by the sea.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

Sunday 1 December 2019

LUNA PARK

The St Kilda Luna Park in Melbourne has been one of the city's most prominent landmarks ever since its opening in 1912, and is intrinsic to the suburb's resort character. Melbourne's Luna Park is acclaimed as the world's oldest amusement park under private management and is possibly the only one of its kind still in operation. It is typical of the type developed in America in the late 19th century, catering for the entertainment and relaxation of large numbers of people.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme,
and also part of the Photo Sunday meme.