stinking willie
A Jacobaea vulgaris (also known as ragwort, common ragwort and stinking willie) I photographed in Jo and Becky's backyard in Cotton End while sitting Meg and Mog in August 2022.
singapore graveyard flower [dunphy street park, sunnybank hills, queensland, australia, 2023]
Whilst staying with my uncle and his partner in the southern suburbs of Brisbane, shortly after arriving in Australia in June, I ventured out to purchase various devices I lacked.
I had never needed a UK-to-Australian adaptor outside my Apple travel kit, but I relied on a Windows laptop from my day job on this visit. I also needed a replacement cable for my iPhone to feed into my Apple adaptor as my existing cable was lightning to lightning, not lightning to USB, and the adaptor was many years old.
All that is beside the point, really.
The point is that I walked from my uncle's to one of the three plus shopping centres "nearby" (all were at least a 20-minute walk) to get such items, and I took my camera, foreseeing that I could capture something of the local area.
frangipani [dunphy street park, sunnybank hills, queensland, australia, 2023]
My uncle was somewhat sceptical of what I might find to photograph along the way. Which was, in fairness, understandable. Except my idea of photogenic is often not the same as others’.
These and other flowers I photographed in parkland near my uncle's home were more traditionally photogenic. But, had I not had my camera with me, I wouldn't have captured them (well, I would have, with my phone, as I did, but not at the same quality).
The odd thing, though, has been coming back to these photos months later, knowing they are frangipanis and having Wikipedia tell me that Australia recognises a different tree as a frangipani.
This genus is the only frangipani I know as someone who grew up in Canberra, Brisbane, Darwin, Melbourne, country Victoria, and later in life lived on the Gold Coast, and I photographed these in a park in Sunnybank Hills, Brisbane.
We had what I believe to be a plumeria obtusa on the nature strip at the front of the house we rented in Darwin. I remember the fragrant flowers and climbing into its branches to lounge whilst listening to Madonna's album, Like a Virgin, playing from the cassette player I'd fed out my bedroom window onto the table on the balcony.
Photo © 2021 Google Street View
I looked up where our house used to be in Rapid Creek (or Nightcliff, as we knew it to be at the time), and though the house is long gone (I already knew this from previous searches of former homes), I'm pleased to say the frangipani tree was still standing in 2021.
granny-pop-out-of-bed [pondwicks meadow, amersham, buckinghamshire, england, 2020]
This post isn't the first time I've shared a photograph of hedge bindweed for my series, a floral tribute. And I'm sure this won't be the last.
Despite being considered a noxious weed in the US and being able to overwhelm and pull down cultivated plants, including shrubs and small trees, and potentially toxic to humans and animals, I think the flowers are beautiful. I tend to photograph them in most places I find them.
In particular, because they're often found in the least beautiful places: by railway lines where people have tossed their trash, growing by or over derelict structures, in the overgrown perimeters of parks and other tended spaces (often alongside brambles and, in this case, stinging nettles).
Reading more about them, they seem like something out of a horror film: they can self-seed, and their seeds can remain viable for as long as 30 years. And whole plants can regrow from discarded roots. Apply those concepts to "dead" humans, and you have the storyline of many of my favourite horror films and novels.
untitled #844 [pondwicks meadow, amersham, buckinghamshire, england, 2020]
Once again, my photography introduces me to new things. I learn from it all the time.
I had difficulty deciding on a title for this post based on the various names for Achillea millefolium: yarrow or common yarrow.
untitled #845 [pondwicks meadow, amersham, buckinghamshire, england, 2020]
According to Wikipedia, it has many evocative alternative names, including arrowroot, nose bleed, death flower, eerie, hundred leaved grass, knyghten, sanguinary, seven-year's love and snake's grass.
I settled on the one I spoke out loud and chuckled at as I read it.
untitled #843 [pondwicks meadow, amersham, buckinghamshire, england, 2020]
Apparently, in Ireland and Great Britain, it was believed to be able to foretell your romantic future.
It appears ingesting it has positive and negative effects on humans and animals.
untitled #842 [pondwicks meadow, amersham, buckinghamshire, england, 2020]
And, for a kid growing up in the 80s, I was amused that yarrow was used to make pick-up sticks. (Though, if I remember correctly, ours were brightly coloured plastic).
These particular specimens were obviously at the end of the season. I photographed them on 10 September 2020 in Pondwicks Meadow in Old Amersham.
untitled #861 [pondwicks meadow, amersham, buckinghamshire, england, 2020]
darwin’s barberry
I took this photograph of Berberis darwinii a few streets from where I sit my "regulars" on my birthday this year.
This plant is a perfect example of my argument that "weeds are just plants in the wrong place".
From Wikipedia: It is a popular garden and hedging shrub in the British Isles. The Royal Horticultural Society has given the species its Award of Garden Merit.
and
Berberis darwinii is regarded as an invasive plant pest in New Zealand that escaped from gardens into indigenous plant communities via its bird-dispersed seeds. It is considered a serious threat to indigenous ecosystems throughout New Zealand and is listed on the National Pest Plant Accord.
sundae fraise
Some Hydrangea paniculata I came across while wandering through Bounds Green in August.
I believe these particular ones are Sundae Fraise.
untitled #9 [bromley, london, united kingdom, 2023]
I took these photos of Sabine's azaleas during my last cat-sitting for her before I went to Australia.
The blooms were beautiful and eye-catching.
untitled #11 [bromley, london, united kingdom, 2023]
According to Wikipedia: Azaleas and rhododendrons were once so infamous for their toxicity that to receive a bouquet of their flowers in a black vase was a well-known death threat.
untitled #12 [bromley, london, united kingdom, 2023]
But they were apparently immortalised by Tang dynasty Chinese poet Du Fu in the last two stanzas of his poem, Alone, looking for blossoms along the river:
The sorrow of riverside blossoms inexplicable,
And nowhere to complain — I've gone half crazy.
I look up our southern neighbor. But my friend in wine
Gone ten days drinking. I find only an empty bed.
A thick frenzy of blossoms shrouding the riverside,
I stroll, listing dangerously, in full fear of spring.
Poems, wine — even this profusely driven, I endure.
Arrangements for this old, white-haired man can wait.
A deep river, two or three houses in bamboo quiet,
And such goings on: red blossoms glaring with white!
Among spring's vociferous glories, I too have my place:
With a lovely wine, bidding life's affairs bon voyage.
Looking east to Shao, its smoke filled with blossoms,
I admire that stately Po-hua wineshop even more.
To empty golden wine cups, calling such beautiful
Dancing girls to embroidered mats — who could bear it?
East of the river, before Abbot Huang's grave,
Spring is a frail splendor among gentle breezes.
In this crush of peach blossoms opening ownerless,
Shall I treasure light reds, or treasure them dark?
At Madame Huang's house, blossoms fill the paths:
Thousands, tens of thousands haul the branches down.
And butterflies linger playfully — an unbroken
Dance floating to songs orioles sing at their ease.
I don't so love blossoms I want to die. I'm afraid,
Once they are gone, of old age still more impetuous.
And they scatter gladly, by the branchful. Let's talk
Things over, little buds — open delicately, sparingly.
untitled #8 [bromley, london, united kingdom, 2023]
In Chinese culture, it's apparently known as the "thinking of home bush", thus my title for this post.
Sabine's home has become something of a second home for me over the past year and a half, and spending time with her kittehs most months last year and many months this year so far has impacted my mental health positively.
Not to mention the enjoyment I get from the evenings spent in conversation with her the nights before she goes away. And the delicious and varied salads she usually makes us.
armenian grape hyacinths [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
The last of the (live) flowers I photographed in St Kilda General Cemetery during a visit in September 2007.
Muscari armeniacum or Armenian grape hyacinths.
agrostemma [helmingham hall, helmingham, suffolk, england, 2017]
Sorry once again for the radio silence.
As I mentioned in my post of images from Bosham back on 10 February, I had some worrying news about my Mum.
At 19:20 GMT on 28 February, I found out my Mum passed away 10 minutes earlier (though, technically, she passed away at 06:10 on 1 March 2023 AEST. Time differences are weird when dealing with someone's time of death).
So, as you might expect, I've needed some time to process that.
As I do in these situations, I've been writing.
It took time, and there were many tears along the way.
I'm currently editing photographs of Mum and photos taken by Mum to go with the piece.
I'll share it here and on my blog as soon as it's ready. Hopefully, tomorrow but definitely in the coming days.
In the meantime, here are some Agrostemma (common corncockles) I photographed in the gardens at Helmingham Hall on the last road trip I took with Mum and Dad in 2017.
Hold your loved ones tightly.
passiflora caerulea [nightingale gardens, wood green, london, united kingdom, 2022]
I knew the floral name passiflora through a Flickr friend's username over a decade ago but had never seen one or really even knew what they were.
But then, on a photo walk late last year with Sarah, another Flickr friend I met around the same time as I met Mary Elise, we noticed some Passiflora caerulea overhanging a fence facing onto a park that is literally around the corner from the first two flats I lived in when I moved back to London in 2011.
untitled #83 [nightingale gardens, wood green, london, united kingdom, 2022]
They are beautiful, intricate and eye-catching flowers.
I was pleased to capture a couple of photos of them that day, though the daylight was starting to fade as we passed through Nightingale Gardens.
untitled #118 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
Some Dimorphotheca ecklonis I captured in St Kilda Cemetery on the first day of Spring in 2007.
untitled #117 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
untitled #123 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
untitled #116 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
untitled #122 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
untitled #127 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
And some beautiful monarch butterflies hanging out amongst them.
untitled #128 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
untitled #126 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
I took these photos after going to my old GP practice for a check-up because of some odd sensations I'd been experiencing.
untitled #119 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
That appointment resulted in me having blood tests that revealed I had vitamin D deficiency and B12 anaemia for the first time.
untitled #121 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
Good times...
untitled #115 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
untitled #120 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
with friends like these, who needs anemones? [marvels wood, bromley, london, england, 2022]
la vie en rose [itchenor, west sussex, england, 2021]
against her yellow i'm no longer me [grove park cemetery, grove park, london, england, 2022]
Yellow baby, a yellow baby is a bad sign.
But I don't mind, I don't mind.
Ohhh, Forsythia.
Spider monkey, a spider monkey is a good lie.
But I don't know why.
Ohhh, Forsythia, oh-ohhh.
I don't mind sitting in the way, way back.
I don't mind, lying to my friends.
One thing about Forsythia,
She comes around and I get lost
Against her yellow, I'm no longer me.
Yellow daisy, a dandelion or a pussy willow,
It's a different thing.
Oh-oh, Forsythia. Forsythia. Forsythia.
One thing about Forsythia,
She comes around and I get lost
Against her yellow I'm no longer me.
One thing about Forsythia...
There's one thing about Forsythia...
Forsythia - Veruca Salt
border forsythia [grove park cemetery, grove park, london, england, 2022]
lamb's tongue (one o'clock gun)
friendships [golders hill park, golders green, london, england, 2020]
embracing the stem [golders hill park, golders green, london, england, 2020]
Bistorta amplexicaulis, the red bistort or mountain fleece.
From Wikipedia: 'The Latin specific epithet amplexicaulis means "clasping or embracing the stem", and refers to the leaves' habit of growing around the stem.'
untitled #769 [golders hill park, golders green, london, england, 2020]
untitled #21
untitled #18
untitled #24
untitled #57
Here are some beautiful Phalaenopsis or moth orchids I photographed the weekend before last in the home of a woman I regularly cat-sit for.
My own have also been flowering, and I captured them a month ago when some of the flowers were still in the bud. I'll share images of those in my next instalment of a floral tribute.
untitled #58
I'm playing 'catch-up' again after returning from my latest cat-sitting gig and dealing with some personal bits and pieces.
There may be a break in my regular cat-sitting for a bit, so that will mean fewer hiatus here, hopefully.
I absolutely adore the kittehs and love spending time with them. But the laptop I use when I'm away isn't great for editing photos (or anything creative). Aside from anything, the screen is too small.
I also feel like I should savour every chance for kitteh snuggles when cat-sitting. So, sitting at a desk instead of reclining on the lounge where I'm more likely to attract those snuggles seems silly.
The impact of my vitamin deficiencies has also been heavily felt lately. I'm thankful I'll have a follow-up appointment with my GP next week as I imagine she will start me on B12 injections, and then maybe I can start to get my energy back. The lethargy and fatigue I fight are becoming... well... tiresome.
I hope you're all doing okay. Feel free to leave a comment to check in and say hello!
amber treasures [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
The last of my Gazania photographs from St Kilda Cemetery from my visit in 2007.
untitled #166 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
untitled #160 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
untitled #166 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
untitled #163 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]
untitled #161 [st kilda cemetery, st kilda, victoria, australia, 2007]