Flowers and bees and a mantis

I cut through the south end of the Botanic Gardens on my way to catch a tram on St Kilda Road this morning. As soon as I set foot inside the gate near Guilfoyle's Volcano I was greeted with a riot of beautiful cactus flowers.  

  

A bee photobombed some of my flower pics, which always pleases me. I asked a bee-keeping friend about the blobs of pollen on the bee's leg and she told me bees collect pollen in "pollen baskets", which delights me. Baskets! They are also called "corbicula", which also delights me because I love words that end in "icula(r)", like funicular...and other words I can't think of right now. 

I visited the gardens three times today. I cut through again on my way home just after lunch and then I had a more leisurely wander around on my way back from the city. 

This fuzzy ferny bud was conveniently located in a shaft of sunlight in an otherwise shady spot. I didn't notice the little insect on it until I uploaded it to Instagram. 

I visited the Ian Potter Children's Garden on my longer wander because I haven't been in there in years.  There's some ace stuff in there, including fruit trees, herbs, vegetables and flowering gums that are just starting to burst into bloom. I think I was the only person in there without a child in tow, but my inner child enjoyed it.

This bee was so intent on filling its pollen baskets that it was oblivious to my camera hovering right over it. 

 Pretty flower

Anyone know what flower this is? 

I unintentionally made a praying mantis very cross. I was taking photos of some shrivelled berries and I was so focused on them that I didn't realise I'd invaded the personal space of Mr(s) Mantis. It gave me a little scare until I realised what it was (or what it was not).

Do you mind? I'm trying to pray here. 

Just before I left the gardens a Nankeen Night Heron landed nearby and sat there...and sat there...and sat there...I was hoping to see it catching its dinner, but maybe it couldn't see anything because of the weed cover, so it just sat there like a little birdy hunchback. I was still happy to see it. 

Round and round the garden

I wandered across the road to the Botanic Gardens this afternoon for vitamin D and photo taking. It's my first visit in months, partly because of our non-existent spring, but the sunshine today was splendid (my attention to re-applying sunscreen isn't so splendid...)

I saw a paddling* of teeny tiny ducklings, plenty of busy bees, a couple of caterpillars and some butterflies and moths. Also lots and lots of flowers. 

Strange bud 

One of only two poppies left in the herb garden 

Bananas in the glasshouse 

Tiny pond in the centre of a bromeliad

Purple

Munch, munch, munch  

The living and the dead

Succulent

Coming in to land

Bzzzzzz....

....bzzzzzz

Spent

*That's one of the collective nouns for ducks on water.

Visiting the corpse flower

We wandered over to the Botanic Gardens to visit the Titan Arum this afternoon. As expected, there was quite a queue to enter the tropical glasshouse, but a little white terrier in a  jaunty red cap helped entertain the masses. 

We were let through the doors after about 50 minutes lining up in the warm sunshine. 

The Titan Arum was at the far end of the glasshouse, and there were plenty of other plants and things to look at on the way to it, including the fern-shrouded pond in which I spotted two teeny weeny goldfish. 

The carnivorous pitcher plant

Spiral 

 And here it is!

The smell? There was hardly any smell at all! You had to stick your nose right up close to get a subtle whiff of its rotting flesh aroma. This is surely the first time ever people have been disappointed by the absence of a horrid stench.  

 The spathe (the phallic bit is the spadix)

The Titan Arum grows very, very fast. This one was only a 1.5cm shoot on 6 February but grew to 2.53 metres in only 35 days. Earlier this month it sprouted 38 centimetres in just 2 days! It's the tallest Titan Arum grown in Australia. 

Luke getting up close and personal 

This Titan Arum - which grew from a tuber weighing 34 kilograms - was cultivated from seed harvested by David Attenborough when he was in Sumatra filming the Private Life of Plants. 

  

Good timing, aerobatics, hyperbole, little pig

The corpse plant has conveniently waited until the weekend to unfurl its stinky flower after all. Hurrah! It's expected to be fully unfurled by morning, although apparently it already smells (like rotting flesh, hence its common name. Its proper name is Amorphophallus Titanum, which means 'giant misshapen phallus'!). I wonder if there will be a long queue to get into the glasshouse to see/smell it like the last time it bloomed? I hope not because I'm very impatient, but I also think it's pretty ace that so many people turn up to see a rare flower. 

The Australian Grand Prix is on this weekend. Today as part of the entertainment for those trackside, a fighter jet performed spectacular aerobatics over the circuit. We could see it and hear it from our office windows.  It was LOUD. At times it seemed as if we were higher up on the 38th floor than the jet was at the lowest point of its routine. 

You know that feeling when you read an article that perfectly expresses an opinion or feeling that you share, but haven't been able to properly articulate? How good is that? It happened to me today when I read this article about the hyperbolic language of the internet. Made me want to punch the air and yell, "Yeah!". 

Only the most bombastic and hyperbolic descriptions will now do, even if they are in jest, and it's a direct consequence of the internet, which has turned discourse's volume up so high that only the most caustic or reverential reviews will cut through the noise. Only extremes of feeling are worthy of your finite consideration, everything else is scrollable.

I love these gorgeous photos of kids and animals by Russian photographer Elena Kaneeva. I love the first one with the wee calf, number 12 with the hairy little pig and number 13 - the child's expression really makes it. I love the autumnal light in some of these shots. 

Another corpse flower, three walks, ready for faux-Friday

It's Moomba Festival time again 

Another stinky corpse flower is preparing to bloom at the Royal Botanic Gardens! Last time one flowered I was away for Christmas, so I'm pleased it's been more considerate  this time, although it is expected to bloom next week when I'll be at work. Hopefully there's premature bloomage. You can keep tabs on the corpse flower via its twitter account.     

Three days, three foot-powered commutes! I thought I was going to be a wee bit late this morning, but I was pretty much on time. 

I had another intense day at work so it feels like Friday already. Yay for faux-Friday tomorrow. 

Day 26: a stroll, a delivery, last beef

I walked home through the Botanic Gardens this evening for the first time in months. Despite being on the brink of summer, our weather hasn't been conducive to strolling in the gardens and I've only walked home from the office a few times since I got back from my holiday anyway. But today was a lovely warm day, and I have to start getting back in the habit. 

I ordered Alexandra Horowitz's On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes and it arrived in the mail today. I was expecting another book to be delivered with it, but it was by itself in the box. Something else to look forward to. 

We had enough corned beef leftovers for another meal. Three meals from a $9 piece of meat. Not bad. We ate it cold this time with very bitey dijon mustard. Delish.

Catching up: part I

The city, looking pretty

And now for all the other gleeful stuff that's happened lately. Can I remember it....C'mon, weary brain. 

Oh, yeah. Big changes are afoot at work! I will be taking on more responsibility and shedding some much-disliked mundane tasks, and I'M GETTING UNDERLINGS TO BOSS AROUND! Wooh! The topic hasn't been broached yet, but I expect some extra dollars will also be forthcoming. Money's not my prime motivator, but a little more in the pay packet is always welcome. 

I'm hoping these changes will ease the sense of ennui that has been creeping into my working days for a few months now. I had actually been toying with the idea of looking for a new job, but I realised in the last week or so that I now feel like I've settled into the firm - I know plenty of people outside my own team now and I've gone beyond small talk in the kitchen. I feel comfortable and I like it. I'm not naturally a serial job-hopper.  I was thinking it would be a shame to leave after just over a year and have to start making myself comfortable somewhere else, so the new developments are well timed. 

Gimme more hot towels

I had a Thai massage after work Friday, the second I've had recently. (I can't remember if I blogged about the first one.) It was 70 minutes of fabulous. It hurt, but it was good pain. I love the hot towels at the beginning and end. I could seriously spend a whole day lying face down with hot towels on my back, as long as there were someone there to replace them as they cool. If I ever strike it rich, I'll pay someone to do that.

New specs

I have my new stripey spectacles! The frames are black, with black and white vertical stripes on the arms. I like them very much. I'll post a photo soon. I think it's time I had a new avatar actually. I've had the same photo, which I also use on Facebook and Twitter, for years. Clearly I'm not a compulsive selfie-taker. I've also been cultivating my quiff - it's longer than I've ever worn it before and stands up better without the aid of product now than it ever did before with product.  

Two herons

Remember me saying that I liked to think there was only one Nankeen Night Heron that I passed on my way home from work? And how we almost had one of those nodding relationships you develop with people you see on the train platform every morning? Well. THERE'S TWO OF THEM! TWO! Or perhaps even more. They were stalking the shallows about 10 metres apart when I walked past on my way home on Tuesday night. I don't know if they were together together, like Mr and Mrs Plover always are, or just in each other's vicinity. 

Hello, gardens; it's been a while

I made an unplanned visit to the Botanic Gardens on Sunday. I was nearing my front door after a walk up the street, thinking about how I couldn't wait to get back into bed because I felt really average (sensing a theme?) and *scratched record sound* I realised I'd locked my keys in the flat in my other bag.  Waaah. I had at least three hours to wait for Luke to get home from work. 

It was a sunny afternoon and I hadn't been to the gardens for a while, so off I went. I visited the Californian garden. 

 Moss and lichen. Not sure that's particularly Californian...

I walked through Fern Gully

 I can't recall the last time I saw water in the gully

I visited the Fern Gully resthouse especially to find and photograph fungus on the timber roof. And...bingo! There were several of these tiny fungus there, only a few centimetres high. The roof is mostly covered in moss, which is quite dense in places and, not surprisingly for moss, very moist. I had water dribbling down my sleeves as I reached up to take photos. 

The rest house

 This tree is half bare and half hanging on to its autumn

 leaves. Quite striking

 The echinacea is hanging on 

I also went to the herb garden, which has become another of my must-visit places in the gardens. Winter isn't its best time of year, although the lemon verbena leaves still smell divine. 

My (proper) camera battery died and it was quite cold by this stage, so I went to the Observatory Cafe for a hot drink (and ridiculously overpriced tiny cake), then I wandered over to the Shrine of Remembrance, just in time for the lowering of the flags and The Last Post, which I always find affecting. I had the idea of warming myself on the Eternal Flame, but I couldn't get close enough to it, dammit. 

By now I knew Luke was going to be late home so I headed into the city, thinking I'd find somewhere to warm up before heading home, but I found the Light in Winter Festival in Federation Square instead. 

This is the Helix Tree, which lights up at the sound of human voices. They have a choir singing at the base every day at sunset in June, and I heard the Melbourne Mass Gospel Choir. Although I'm a heathen, I do enjoy gospel music.  

And then I headed home and Luke was there and it was warm. 

At last: what I did on my holidays

I've lost enthusiasm for writing a lengthy post about my week in Sydney, but there's a few gleeful things I want to show you, so here's a bunch of photos.

The entrance to Tooronga Zoo

 

 One of the meerkats, pretending he's people

There didn't appear to be any otters in the otter enclosure,
 but there was a duck

It was rather perplexed by the glass. It was paddling like mad but going nowhere. It's pretty funny when you can see below the water as well as above. More zoo photos here 

 

 Matthew Flinders' sea-faring moggie, Trim, beside the State Library of 

New South Wales, near a statue of his owner 

The reading room of the library's Mitchell Wing is a light and pleasant space, but it doesn't come close to the grandeur of  Melbourne's La Trobe Reading Room

 The facade of the Mitchell Wing is not unlike the exterior of the 

State Library of Victoria

This carved inscription on the wall in the foyer of the Mitchell Wing was my favourite bit of my (short) library visit 

I like this sign at the Botanic Gardens, which are lovely

I didn't smell the roses but I took lots of photos of the water lilies

 Lotus pods

Lotus buds

A very tall eucalyptus tree in the gardens

 Iconic Bondi Beach - the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk was my favourite part of my time in Sydney

My first glimpse of Waverley Cemetery. See here and here 

for more photos of the cemetery and the coastal walk

 This SIGN made me CHUCKLE

 Coogee beach, the end of the 6km walk. 

Does anyone else primary schooled in Australia in the 1980s remember the ABC singing books and the song about "chish 'n fips 'n riko cholls, somato tauce 'n raussage solls"? 

 After a few days of stunning harbourside scenery I needed a bit of inner urban grunge. I spotted this on someone's front fence in inner city Newtown.  The cards were just little plain squares with 'To' at the top and 'From' handwritten at the bottom, but still...

A few doors down, I saw this sign

And this 

 And this, I presume, is Florian. Home safe, albeit legless 
and rather pale after his ordeal

While I was in Sydney, there was a report on the news about the corpse plant in the Botanic Gardens in Melbourne blooming for the first time in seven years. The bloom, which is said to smell like rotting flesh, only lasts for a few days, so you can imagine my irritation that it had the audacity to flower while I was interstate. Such impertinence! 

I visited the gardens on the day I got home not expecting to see anything (or smell anything). This is the sight that greeted me (click on the links above for comparison, if you don't know what it looks like in full bloom):

Teehee. Rather flaccid. Coincidentally, I just learnt from Wikipedia that the plant's scientific name, Amorphophallus titan,  means 'large, misshapen phallus". 

Nevertheless, it's still an interesting plant, and some if its neighbours in the tropical hothouse were interesting and unusual too, like this white bat plant.