AUTUMN SUNSHINE

The pond on the grounds of La Trobe University in Bundoora, Melbourne.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

CREEK

By the creek, one early Autumn morning. Fine, warm Autumn days just as the season has turned are beautiful...

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

SUMMER AFTERNOON

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

A SUMMER WALK

Walking in the Darebin Parklands one fine Summer's day, enjoying the green ambience, the sound of running water, the splashing and barking of happy dogs...

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,
and also part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

PARKLANDS MOONSET

The moon setting in the West at the Darebin Parklands in the Melbourne suburb of Fairfield.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

SUMMERFIELD

Summerfield

On a perfect Summer's day
Walking on a fresh green field,
Making memories warm and bright
For a cold and dismal Winter's night.

On a Summerfield my merry fay,
With a kiss a promise sealed:
Lips that savoured cool sweet wine, 
Now in Winter's tears taste brine.

Oh to be in Summerfield again,
'Neath blue sky on verdant grass,
Clasping hands and heart alight
How we'd love, all sense delight...

But instead in Winter's bane
I look in frozen looking glass:
Wrinkles, white hair, all decline,
And for Summerfield I long and pine.

NJV

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

SERENE REFLECTIONS

By the waters of the Darebin Parklands in Melbourne.

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

SUNNY LEAF

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

RELIC

After we are long gone, green will prevail...

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme

SPRING GREEN

The elms are wearing their new Spring green leaves...

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme.

ICE PLANT

Aptenia cordifolia is a species of succulent plant in the ice plant family known by the common names heartleaf ice plant and baby sun rose. Perhaps the most common plant seen under this name is actually Aptenia 'Red Apple', a hybrid with red flowers and bright green leaves, whose parents are A. cordifolia and A. (Platythyra) haeckeliana. The true species of A. cordifolia has magenta purple flowers and more heart-shaped, mid-green, textured leaves.

Native to southern Africa, this species has become widely known as an ornamental plant. It is a mat-forming perennial herb growing in flat clumps on the ground from a woody base. Stems reach up to about 60 centimetres long. The bright green leaves are generally heart-shaped and up to 3 centimetres long. They are covered in very fine bumps. Bright pink to purplish flowers appear in the leaf axils and are open during the day. The fruit is a capsule just over a centimetre long.

The hybrid, Aptenia 'Red Apple', has, in some areas, escaped cultivation and now grows as an introduced species. Its far more vigorous growth and ability to root from small bits of stem makes it a poor choice for planting adjacent to wild lands as it can overwhelm native plants.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

AT DIGHTS FALLS

Dights Falls is located in Melbourne, Victoria just downstream of the junction of the Yarra River with Merri Creek, about 2 km east of the City. At this point the river narrows and is constricted between 800,000 year old volcanic, basaltic lava flow and a much older steep, Silurian, sedimentary spur.

Prior to European settlement, the area was occupied by the indigenous Wurundjeri tribe of the Kulin nation. The rock falls would have provided the Aboriginal people with a natural river crossing and place to trap migrating fish. It was also a meeting place for many clans where they would trade, settle disputes and exchange brides.

In the 1840s, an artificial weir was built on the natural bar of basalt boulders to provide water to the “Ceres” flour mill, one of the first in Victoria. In the early 1840s John Dight established Melbourne’s first water-powered flour mill on the site. In 1888 “Yarra Falls Roller Mills” built a water-turbine powered mill, which was the largest and most sophisticated of the thirty two water powered mills built in Victoria before 1900.

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

WHITE CAMELLIA

“Her delight in the smallest things was like that of a child. There were days when she ran in the garden, like a child of ten, after a butterfly or a dragon-fly. This courtesan who had cost more money in bouquets than would have kept a whole family in comfort, would sometimes sit on the grass for an hour, examining the simple flower whose name she bore.” ― Alexandre Dumas fils, “La Dame aux Camélias”

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

WINTER GREENS

By the Darebin Creek in Melbourne in Winter.

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

IVY

Ivy was a sacred plant of the Greek god Dionysos, the god of wine, fertility and the theatre. It is said that at a celebration honouring Dionysos, a young maiden, Cissos, who overdid the dancing, drinking and celebrating, died of exhaustion, so Dionysus turned her into an ivy plant. Since then, the god was said to wear a crown of ivy leaves in memory of the poor young woman who died in his honour in a paroxysm of ritual madness.

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme.

PARKLANDS WALK

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

A WALK IN THE PARK

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

TREE DAHLIA

Dahlia imperialis or Bell tree dahlia is an 8-10 metre tall member of the Dahlia genus native to Mexico, Central America and Colombia. It is a plant of the uplands and mountains, occurring at elevations of 1,500–1,700 metres, and its leaves are used as a dietary supplement by the Q'eqchi' people of San Pedro Carchá in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

It is a tuberous, herbaceous perennial, rapidly growing from the base after a dormant winter period, developing brittle, cane-like, 4-angled stems with swollen nodes and large tripinnate leaves, those near the ground soon being shed. The pendant or nodding flowerheads are 75-150mm across with ray florets lavender or mauvish-pink in colour.

This species is fast-growing, the growth spurt being linked to shorter daylight hours, and usually comes into flower in autumn before the first frost. Propagation is by seed or by stem cuttings of some 30 cm long having at least two nodes, laid horizontally below the soil.

Some Dahlia species were brought from Mexico to Europe in the 16th century. D. imperialis was first described in 1863 by Benedikt Roezl (1823–1885), the great Czech orchid collector and traveller, who, ten years later in 1872–73, went on his odyssey through the Americas.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

AUTUMN GREENS

As we have had quite a lot of rain lately and relatively mild temperatures, a walk in the Parklands will reveal a wealth of green, lush new growth as shown here in this merged image.

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme.

SOLDIER BEETLE

The plague soldier beetle or green soldier beetle (Chauliognathus lugubris) is a species of soldier beetle (Cantharidae) native to Australia. It has a flattened body to 15 millimetres long with a prominent yellow-orange stripe behind the black prothorax. The abdomen is yellow-orange but is mostly obscured by the metallic olive green elytra. The beetles often form large mating swarms.

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal.