DESKTOP 2740 - PATH

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

DESKTOP 2739 - BEETLE

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

DESKTOP 2738 - BIKE

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

DESKTOP 2737 - ROSE

This is the Ketchup And Mustard Floribunda Rose (Plant Patent #23289, Var: WEKzazette). A case of a classic condiment combo that works well on a rose too! The eye-catching combination of bright red with a mustard yellow reverse is sure to make everyone blink and take a second look. Velvety, double blooms hold their bold color right to the very end. The floriferous, rounded plants filled with extremely glossy green foliage bloom in flushes throughout the season and are perfect for tucking into landscapes and containers as accents or focal points. Flower Size: 7-10 cm. Fragrance: Mild. Hybridizer: Bedard, 2012.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

DESKTOP 2736 - SUMMER RAIN

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

DESKTOP 2735 - DONEGAL CASTLE

Donegal Castle (Irish: Caisleán Dhún na nGall) is a castle situated in the centre of Donegal Town in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland. For most of the last two centuries, the majority of the buildings lay in ruins but the castle was almost fully restored in the early 1990s. The castle consists of a 15th-century rectangular keep (right) with a later Jacobean style wing (left). The complex is sited on a bend in the River Eske, near the mouth of Donegal Bay, and is surrounded by a 17th-century boundary wall.

 

There is a small gatehouse at its entrance mirroring the design of the keep. Most of the stonework was constructed from locally sourced limestone with some sandstone. The castle was the stronghold of the O'Donnell clan, Lords of Tír Conaill and one of the most powerful Gaelic families in Ireland from the 5th to the 16th centuries.

 

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 2734 - CHARM

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

DESKTOP 2733 - CORROSION

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

DESKTOP 2732 - DOG WALKER

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

CONTRAIL

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

DESKTOP 2730 - FLOWERING RUSHES

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 2729 - LEAVES

Even evergreen trees like the Australian eucalypts lose their leaves all the time as the trees renew their photosynthetic apparatus. In Summer, especially, quite a lots of leaves are shed as these water-wise plants conserve moisture by getting rid of old or damaged leaves.

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

DESKTOP 2728 - TWILIGHT IN MELBOURNE

COVID-19 is still at large and wreaking havoc with our lives, not least our travel plans. Local travel and tourism is fortunately an option here in Melbourne, with many places in Victoria still offering a wealth of options for local tourists both in the metropolitan area, as well as further afield, daytripping! 

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 2727 - GROWTH

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

DESKTOP 2726 - PRICKLY PEAR

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

DESKTOP 2725 - LONE BIRD

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

DESKTOP 2724 - MORNING SILHOUETTES

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

DESKTOP 2723 - LYTHRUM

Lythrum salicaria, or purple loosestrife, is a flowering plant belonging to the family Lythraceae. It should not be confused with other plants sharing the name loosestrife that are members of the family Primulaceae. Other names include spiked loosestrife and purple lythrum. It is native to Europe, Asia, northwest Africa, and southeastern Australia.

Lythrum salicaria is a herbaceous perennial plant, that can grow 1–2 m tall, forming clonal colonies 1.5 m or more in width with numerous erect stems growing from a single woody root mass. The stems are reddish-purple or red to purple and square in cross-section. The leaves are lanceolate, 3–10 cm long and 5–15 mm broad, downy and sessile, and arranged opposite or in whorls of three.

The flowers are reddish purple, 10–20 mm diameter, with six petals (occasionally five) and 12 stamens, and are clustered tightly in the axils of bracts or leaves; there are three different flower types, with the stamens and style of different lengths, short, medium or long; each flower type can only be pollinated by one of the other types, not the same type, thus ensuring cross-pollination between different plants. The flowers are visited by many types of insects, and can be characterized by a generalized pollination syndrome.

The fruit is a small 3–4 mm capsule containing numerous minute seeds. Flowering lasts throughout the summer. When the seeds are mature, the leaves often turn bright red through dehydration in early autumn; the red colour may last for almost two weeks. The dead stalks from previous growing seasons are brown.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 2722 - SUNSHINE

Sun backlighting leaves of Coprosma repens, which is a species of flowering shrub or small tree of the genus Coprosma, in the family Rubiaceae, native to New Zealand. Common names include taupata, mirror bush, looking-glass bush, New Zealand laurel and shiny leaf. In Australia it has become naturalised in coastal areas of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania, to the extent that it is now classified as an environmental weed.

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

DESKTOP 2721 - WARSAW, POLAND

Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa), is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.711 million residents within a greater metropolitan area of 2.666 million residents, which makes Warsaw the 9th most populous capital city in the European Union. The area of the city covers 516.9 square kilometres, while the city's agglomeration covers 6,100.43 square kilometres.

Warsaw is an Alpha– global city, a major international tourist destination and an important economic hub in East-Central Europe. It is also known as the "phoenix city" because it has survived so many wars throughout its history. Most notably, the city had to be painstakingly rebuilt after the extensive damage it suffered in World War II, during which 85% of its buildings were destroyed. On 9 November 1940 the city was awarded Poland's highest military decoration for heroism, the Virtuti Militari, during the Siege of Warsaw (1939).

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

DESKTOP 2720 - TECHNICOLOUR!

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

DESKTOP 2719 - YARRA RIVER

Summertime on the banks of the Yarra River in Melbourne.

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

DESKTOP 2718 - MAGPIE-LARK

The magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca), also known as the peewee, peewit or mudlark, is a passerine bird native to Australia, Timor and southern New Guinea. The male and female both have black and white plumage, though with different patterns. John Latham described the species in 1801. Long thought to be a member of the mudnest builder family Corcoracidae, it has been reclassified in the family Monarchidae (the monarch flycatchers). Two subspecies are recognized. 

 

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

DESKTOP 2717 - SUMMER MORNING

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

DESKTOP 2716 - HAWKWEED

Hieracium known by the common name hawkweed and classically as hierakion (from ancient Greek ιεράξ, hierax 'hawk'), is a genus of the sunflower (Helianthus) family Asteraceae), and closely related to dandelion (Taraxacum), chicory (Cichorium), prickly lettuce (Lactuca) and sow thistle (Sonchus), which are part of the tribe Cichorieae. Hawkweeds, with their 10,000+ recorded species and subspecies, do their part to make Asteraceae the second largest family of flowers.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 2715 - MOSSY

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

DESKTOP 2714 - HAMBURG, GERMANY

Hamburg, officially Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg (Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg), is the second largest city in Germany and the eighth largest city in the European Union. It is the second smallest German state by area. Its population is over 1.7 million people, and the wider Hamburg Metropolitan Region covers more than 5.1 million inhabitants. The city is situated on the river Elbe. The official long name reflects its history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, a city-state, and one of the 16 states of Germany.

Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a fully sovereign state. Prior to the constitutional changes in 1919, the civic republic was ruled by a class of hereditary grand burghers or Hanseaten. Though repeatedly destroyed by great fires, floods and military conflicts including WW2 bombing raids, the city managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe. Hamburg is a transport hub, being the 2nd largest port in Europe by TEU's and the 3rd largest by cargo, and is an affluent city in Europe.

It is a global service, media, logistics and industrial hub, with headquarters and facilities of Airbus, Blohm + Voss, Aurubis, Beiersdorf, Unilever and a range of innovative startups. The radio and television broadcaster NDR, Europe's largest printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr and the Spiegel company are pillars of the media industry in Hamburg. Hamburg is an important financial centre for centuries, and is the seat of Germany's oldest stock exchange and the world's second oldest bank, Berenberg Bank.

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 2713 - 2020 REVIEW

This was the year 2020 in images, one from each month in this blog. Let's hope 2021 is a much better year for us!

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.
and also part of the Seasons meme.

DESKTOP 2712 - CREEK

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

DESKTOP 2711 - HORSES

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

DESKTOP 2710 - YARRA SUNRISE

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.