DESKTOP 3163 - CASUARINA FLOWERS

More information on casuarinas here.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

DESKTOP 3162 - BAMBOO

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 3161 - SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE

Santa Cruz de Tenerife (commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz) is a major city, capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and capital (jointly with Las Palmas) of the Canary Islands. Santa Cruz has a population of 206,593 (2013) within its administrative limits. The urban zone of Santa Cruz extends beyond the city limits with a population of 507,306 and 538,000 within urban area. It is the second largest city in the Canary Islands and the main city on the island of Tenerife, with nearly half of the island's population living in or around it.

Santa Cruz is located in the northeast quadrant of Tenerife, 210 kilometres off the northwestern coast of Africa within the Atlantic Ocean. The distance to the nearest point of mainland Spain is 1,300 kilometres. Between the 1833 territorial division of Spain and 1927, Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands, until 1927 when a decree ordered that the capital of the Canary Islands be shared, as it remains at present. The port is of great importance and is the communications hub between Europe, Africa and Americas, with cruise ships arriving from many nations. The city is the focus for domestic and inter-island communications in the Canary Islands.

The main landmarks of the city include the Auditorio de Tenerife (Auditorium of Tenerife), the Santa Cruz Towers (Torres de Santa Cruz) and the Iglesia de la Concepción. Santa Cruz de Tenerife hosts the first headquarters of the Center UNESCO in the Canary Islands. In recent years the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has seen the construction of a significant number of modern structures and the city's skyline is the sixth in height across the country, behind Madrid, Benidorm, Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao. In 2012, the British newspaper 'The Guardian' included Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the list of the five best places in the world to live. The 82% of the municipal territory of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is considered a natural area, this is due in large part to the presence of the Anaga Rural Park.

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

DESKTOP 3160 - VEGIES

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 3159 - COLEUS

Coleus is a genus of annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes succulent, sometimes with a fleshy or tuberous rootstock, found in the Old World tropics and subtropics. Coleus are cultivated as ornamental plants, particularly Coleus scutellarioides (syns. Coleus blumei, Plectranthus scutellarioides), which is popular as a garden plant for its brightly coloured foliage.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

DESKTOP 3158 - FISHPOND

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

DESKTOP 3157 - AT PORT

Gantry cranes for loading and unloading shipping containers at the Port of Melbourne. I was rather pleased this photo came out as I was stretching the zoom capability of my camera, these structures being about 3.5 km away.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

DESKTOP 3156 - DAISY

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness." - Desmond Tutu

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

DESKTOP 3155 - LEAF SKELETON

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 3154 - SYDNEY BY NIGHT

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

DESKTOP 3153 - AUTUMN ARRIVES

The Autumnal Equinox on the 21st of March in the Southern Hemisphere heralds the arrival of Autumn...

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 3152 - BY THE SEA

Williamstown Beach in Melbourne Australia.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

DESKTOP 3151 - CAT

My bedroom is on the first floor and I can see the neighbour's roof from my window. I saw their cat and it saw me...

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

DESKTOP 3150 - SUNSET

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

DESKTOP 3149 - ROSES, ROSES

Although Autumn is obvious in Melbourne, there are still roses blooming in our gardens and the florist shops are fully stocked!

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

DESKTOP 3148 - CHESTNUT TEAL DUCKS

Chestnut teal duck family, Anas castanea (Eyton, 1838). The chestnut teal is darker and a slightly bigger bird than the grey teal. The male has a distinctive green coloured head and mottled brown body. The female has a brown head and mottled brown body. The female is almost identical in appearance to the grey teal. The female chestnut teal has a loud penetrating "laughing" quack repeated rapidly nine times or more.

The chestnut teal is commonly distributed in south-eastern and south-western Australia, while vagrants may occur elsewhere. Tasmania and southern Victoria are the species’ stronghold, while vagrants can be found as far north as New Guinea and Lord Howe Island. The chestnut teal prefers coastal estuaries and wetlands, and is indifferent to salinity. This bird is an omnivore.

Chestnut teals form monogamous pairs that stay together outside the breeding season, defend the nest site and look after the young when hatched. Nests are usually located over water, in a down-lined tree hollow about 6–10 m high. Sometimes nests are placed on the ground, among clumps of grass near water. The young hatch and are ready to swim and walk within a day.

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 3147 - LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND

Lucerne (Luzern) is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 80,000 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and a nexus of transportation, telecommunications, and government of this region. The city's urban area consists of 17 cities and towns located in three different cantons with an overall population of about 250,000 people.

 

Due to its location on the shore of Lake Lucerne (der Vierwaldstättersee), within sight of Mount Pilatus and Rigi in the Swiss Alps, Lucerne has long been a destination for tourists. One of the city's famous landmarks is the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a wooden bridge first erected in the 14th century.

 

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

DESKTOP 3146 - MUSIC

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 3145 - SUNRISE

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

DESKTOP 3144 - 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

DESKTOP 3143 - MOONRISE

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

DESKTOP 3142 - HIBISCUS 'TROPICANA'

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, known colloquially as Chinese hibiscus, China rose, Hawaiian hibiscus, and shoe flower, is a species of flowering plant in the Hibisceae tribe of the family Malvaceae, native to East Asia. It is widely grown as an ornamental plant throughout the tropics and subtropics. As it does not tolerate temperatures below 10 °C, in temperate regions it is best grown under glass. However, plants in containers may be placed outside during the summer months or moved into shelter during the winter months.

Numerous varieties, cultivars, and hybrids are available, with flower colours ranging from white through yellow and orange to scarlet and shades of pink, with both single and double sets of petals. The cultivar 'Cooperi' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Illustrated here is a Flamenco™ Hibiscus 'Tropicana', featuring spectacular long-lasting (4-5 days) large flowers. These varieties have a compact, well branched habit that provides a neat frame for the lush dark green foliage and the many spectacular full blooms that appear continuously during the warmer months.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

DESKTOP 3141 - DECLINE

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 3140 - YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, USA

Yellowstone National Park is a national park located in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world.

The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular features. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion. Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least 11,000 years. Aside from visits by mountain men during the early-to-mid-19th century, organised exploration did not begin until the late 1860s.

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

DESKTOP 3139 - PEACE

 MAKE PEACE NOW!

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 3138 - AUTUMN IS COMING

Summer is finishing, Autumn is coming...

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

DESKTOP 3137 - BIRD ON A WIRE

A magpie admiring the sunset and singing.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme

DESKTOP 3136 - SUNRISE

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

DESKTOP 3135 - JAPANESE ANEMONES

Anemone hupehensis, Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, and Anemone × hybrida (commonly known as the Chinese anemone or Japanese anemone, thimbleweed, or windflower) are species of flowering herbaceous perennials in the Ranunculaceae family. A. hupehensis is native to central China, though it has been naturalised in Japan for hundreds of years. 

The species was first named and described in Flora Japonica (1784), by Carl Thunberg. Thunberg had collected dried specimens while working as a doctor for the Dutch East Indies Company. In 1844, Robert Fortune brought the plant to England from China, where he found it often planted about graves. Height is 1–1.5 m and the leaves have three leaflets. Flowers are 40–60 mm across, with 5-6 (or up to 20 in double forms) sculpted pink or white petals and prominent yellow stamens, blooming from midsummer to autumn. 

These plants thrive best in shady areas and under protection of larger plants. They are especially sensitive to drought or overwatering. They can be invasive or weedy in some areas, throwing out suckers from the fibrous rootstock, to rapidly colonise an area. Once established they can be extremely difficult to eradicate. On the other hand, they can take some time to become established.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 3134 - NATURAL CITY

Hard to believe that today's photo was taken about 4.5 km from the Melbourne CBD... Yarra Bend Park is a glorious bushland reserve within shouting distance of Melbourne city centre. One hopes that building development will not encroach on this truly magnificent nature reserve right within the metropolitan area.

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 3133 - PORT DOUGLAS

Port Douglas is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Douglas, Queensland,approximately 60 km north of Cairns. In the 2016 census, Port Douglas had a population of 3,504 people. The town's population can often double, however, with the influx of tourists during the peak tourism season from May to September. The town is named in honour of a former Premier of Queensland, John Douglas.

Port Douglas developed quickly based on the mining industry. Other parts of the area were established with timber cutting occurring in the area surrounding the Daintree River and with settlement starting to occur on lots around the Mossman River by 1880. Previous names for the town included Terrigal, Island Point, Port Owen and Salisbury. The town is situated adjacent to two World Heritage areas, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest.

This post is part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.