DESKTOP 1431 - WINTER SUNSET

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme,
and also part of the Orange you Glad It's Friday meme.

DESKTOP 1430 - POLYANTHUS

The first polyanthus (Primula × polyantha) are blooming at the moment in Melbourne, although they are struggling to thrive with the cold temperatures we are having. Nevertheless, they are a cheerful sight!

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 1429 - YARN

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

DESKTOP 1428 - AEGINA, GREECE

Aegina is one of the Saronic Islands of the Saronic Gulf in Greece, 27 km from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of Aeacus, who was born on and ruled the island. During ancient times, Aegina was a rival to Athens, the great sea power of the era. The capital is the town of Aegina (population ≈8,000), situated at the northwestern end of the island. Due to its proximity to Athens, it is a popular quick getaway during the summer months, with quite a few Athenians owning holiday houses on the island.

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.

DESKTOP 1427 - TIMBER

Old timber bleached by time and weather would tell a few stories if it could talk...

DESKTOP 1426 - RAINDROPS

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the My Sunday Best meme,

and also part of the My Sunday Photo meme.

DESKTOP 1425 - DAISY

Bee on Euryops daisy.

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

DESKTOP 1424 - HOPE

Hope sustains us in our darkest days and hope warms us in our coldest nights. Hope heals our wounds and hope makes our inner deserts begin to sprout with green again. - NJV

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,

and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

DESKTOP 1423 - RED GERANIUM

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 1422 - XYLOKASTRO, GREECE

Xylokastro (Greek: Ξυλόκαστρο) is a seaside town and a former municipality in Corinthia in the Peloponnese, Greece. The name of the town means "wooden castle" in Greek. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Xylokastro-Evrostina, of which it is a unit or component. The municipal unit has an area of 310.252 km2. In 2011 its population was 5,715 for the town and 13,277 for the municipal unit.

Geographic features include a large beach and semi-arid forests on varied terrain, scattered with early churches and evidence of early settlements and religious sites. It has narrowly separated upper and lower coastal roads and forms a medium-sized touristic resort on the Gulf of Corinth.

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

DESKTOP 1421 - GREEK 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.

DESKTOP 1420 - LEAF LITTER

The plane trees ling our street have lost nearly all of their leaves by now and the leaf litter keeps everyone in the neighbourhood busy: Raking, collecting, composting, mulching... But before one cleans up, there are plenty of photo opportunities!

This post is part of the Through my Lens meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

DESKTOP 1419 - CHINESE GARDEN

The Chinese Garden of Friendship was built as a symbol of the friendship between Sydney and Guangzhuo in China, to mark Australia’s bicentenary in 1988. The garden was designed and built by Chinese landscape architects and gardeners following the Taoist principles of 'Yin-Yang' and the five opposite elements—earth, fire, water, metal and wood. These principles also stress the importance of Qi, the central force of life and energy.

Yin-Yang plays such a vital role that just one missing element would disrupt the garden's harmony and balance. However when combined perfectly, the five elements form a fluid and nurturing environment. Everything you encounter in the garden has been hand-picked and meticulously placed to capture the five elements and the energy of Qi. Even the buildings meld with the landscape and complement the sinuous lines of the trees and vegetation.

Unlike western-style gardens, there are no planted flowerbeds or manicured lawns. Instead, wild aspects of nature are recreated in landscapes that feature waterfalls, mountains, lakes and forests.The art of Chinese Garden design began in imperial parks during the Shang dynasty 3,000 years ago. Later they flourished on a smaller scale in the private gardens of China's rich and powerful. Darling Harbour’s Chinese Garden of Friendship is a small-scale version of a typical private garden from this era.

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

DESKTOP 1418 - REFLECTION

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

DESKTOP 1417 - OXALIS

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,

and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

DESKTOP 1416 - CORREA

Correa is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rutaceae, with bell-shaped flowers, native mainly to eastern Australia. There are about 11 species in the genus and 26 subspecies. Natural hybridisation between the species makes taxonomic relationships within this genus problematic.

There are also hundreds of named cultivars, many of which have been registered with the Australian Cultivar Registration Authority (ACRA). The genus Correa is named after the Portuguese botanist José Correia da Serra (1750–1823), known as Abbé Correa.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 1415 - WERRIBEE RIVER

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

DESKTOP 1414 - SAHARA

The Sahara (Arabic: الصحراء الكبرى‎‎, aṣ-ṣaḥrāʾ al-kubrā , 'the Greatest Desert') is the largest hot desert and the third largest desert in the world after Antarctica and the Arctic. Its area of 9,200,000 square kilometres is comparable to the area of the United States. The desert comprises much of North Africa, excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb, and the Nile Valley in Egypt and Sudan

It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains. To the south, it is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around the Niger River valley and the Sudan Region of Sub-Saharan Africa. The Sahara can be divided into several regions including: The western Sahara, the central Ahaggar Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the Aïr Mountains, the Ténéré desert, and the Libyan Desert. The name 'Sahara' is derived from ṣaḥārā (‏صحارى‎, pronounced /ˈsˤaħaːraː/), the plural of the Arabic word for "desert".

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.

DESKTOP 1413 - BLENDED VISTAS

This is an image created from three separate photos of different locations and layered together so as to form a horizontal mosaic of three component parts: Sky; mountains; and flowering field.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Through my Lens meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

DESKTOP 1412 - PEACOCK

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

DESKTOP 1411 - YARRA BEND PARK

Vista of the Yarra River in suburban Melbourne, about 4 km from the CBD. Yarra Bend Park is an amazing nature reserve in the midst of the City.

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

DESKTOP 1410 - WINTER SUN

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

DESKTOP 1409 - ERYNGIUM

Eryngium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apiaceae. There are about 250 species. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with the centre of diversity in South America. Common names include eryngo and amethyst sea holly (though the genus is not related to the true hollies, Ilex). These are annual and perennial herbs with hairless and usually spiny leaves. The dome-shaped umbels of steely blue or white flowers have whorls of spiny basal bracts. Some species are native to rocky and coastal areas, but the majority are grassland plants. In the language of flowers, they represent admiration.

Species are grown as ornamental plants in gardens. Numerous hybrids have been selected for garden use, of which E. × oliverianum and E. × tripartitum have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Many species of Eryngium have been used as food and medicine.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 1408 - DANDELION WET

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

DESKTOP 1407 - STONEHENGE, UK

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, 3 km west of Amesbury and 13 km north of Salisbury. It consists of a ring of standing stones, with each standing stone around 4.1 metres high, 2.1 metres wide and weighing around 25 tons. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds.

Archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC.

One of the most famous landmarks in the UK, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon. It has been a legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1882 when legislation to protect historic monuments was first successfully introduced in Britain. The site and its surroundings were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage; the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.

Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, and continued for at least another five hundred years.

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.

DESKTOP 1406 - MUSHROOMS

This post is part of the Macro Monday meme,
and also part of the Through my Lens meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

DESKTOP 1405 - MELBOURNE

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

DESKTOP 1404 - IN FLIGHT

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

DESKTOP 1403 - WINTRY SKY

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

DESKTOP 1402 - CRASSULA

Crassula ovata, commonly known as jade plant, friendship tree, lucky plant, or money tree, is a succulent plant with small pink or white flowers in the Crassulaceae family. It is native to South Africa and Mozambique, and is common as a houseplant worldwide. It is sometimes referred to as the money tree; however, Pachira aquatica also receives this nickname.

The jade plant is an evergreen with thick branches. It has thick, shiny, smooth, leaves that grow in opposing pairs along the branches. Leaves are a rich jade green, although some may appear to be more of a yellow-green. Some varieties may develop a red tinge on the edges of leaves when exposed to high levels of sunlight. New stem growth is the same colour and texture as the leaves, but becomes brown and woody with age. Under the right conditions, they may produce small white or pink star-like flowers in early spring.

Numerous varieties and cultivars have been selected, of which C. ovata 'Hummel's Sunset' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. As a succulent, Crassula ovata requires little water in the summer, and even less in the winter. It is susceptible to overwatering. C. ovata may attain a red tinge around its leaves when grown with bright sunlight. In more extreme cases, the green colour of the plant is lost and can be replaced by yellow. This is caused by the jade plant making pigments such as carotenoids to protect from harsh sunlight and ultraviolet rays.

The jade plant does best in rich, well-draining soil. The plant flowers in the wintertime, particularly during a cooler, darker, dry spell. C. ovata is sometimes attacked by mealybugs, a common nuisance of the succulents. The jade plant is known for its ease of propagation, which can occur by clippings or even stray leaves which fall from the plant. Jade plants propagate readily from both with success rates higher with cuttings. In the wild, vegetative propagation is the jade plant's main method of reproduction. Branches regularly fall off wild jade plants and these branches may root and form new plants.

Like many succulents, jade plants can be propagated from just the swollen leaves which grow in pairs on the stems. While propagation methods may vary, most will follow similar steps. Typically, the wounds on the leaves are left to dry and callus forms over them. Then the leaves are placed in or on soil. Roots begin to grow on severed leaves about four weeks after being removed from the stem. Environmental factors such as temperature and humidity affect the speed at which the roots and new plant develop. Foliage usually appears soon after new roots have formed. 

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.