Friday 2 December 2016

'You see but you do not observe.'


My 11 year old daughter is full of Sherlock Holmes' quotes this week and included this one in her nature journal after quoting it at every opportunity:

You see, but you do not observe.






Flannel flowers in bloom - so named because they have a lovely soft, flannel-like feel to their petals.




Not a great photo but I was excited to find this and identify it when we got home: Lambertia formosa commonly known as Mountain Devil or Honey Flower. It was quite striking and the first time I've come across it. It belongs to the Grevillea family.




New growth after controlled backburning in the bush





Australian Magpie - there is a website to track aggressive magpies. We've never had a problem with them, thankfully!



One of our regular visitors, the laughing kookaburra




Oops...I forgot to add, 'Tis the season of the shedding of bark for the Angophora costata, or Smooth-barked Apple...'
It's an Australian native, doesn't produce apples and is notorious for dropping its branches and making an awful mess at this time of year.






Linking up with Celeste at Keeping Company



12 comments:

Brian Joseph said...

Those are some great pictures. My wife and I also take a lot of nature photographs.

It is late fall/early winter here. Though I appreciate and enjoy all the seasons thanks for the reminder that warmer spring will eventually come!

Cleo said...

Oh, I love Kookaburras! They are such delightful creatures! I really need to get my nature journal going again. I tend to only do it in summer, but there must be something in winter that I can find to draw, surely. Thanks for sharing your daughter's!

Aflyonmyhomeschoolwall said...

Your daughter sounds so charming. :)

And those birds and flowers are lovely. Your regular visitors seem so exotic to me in the middle of the US. Our regular bird visitors right now are Cardinals and Black-capped Chickadees. No flowers here, less than 3 weeks before the start of winter. :)

Carol said...

Unfortunately, most of the photos I take end up blurred. I think I've got a great image until I put them on the computer.

Carol said...

We have some lovely wild flowerts in spring, but not so much in summer, which has just arrived. I don't know how I'd handle living in a country that snows up over winter but in the heat of summer here, it sounds very enticing.

Carol said...

Thanks Anne, she is! A 'White Christmas' sounds lovely but I suppose the reality is rather bleak!

Anonymous said...

Flannel flowers are my favourite native flower. We used to look out for them when we drove down to bobbin head.
One of my boys has noticed 2 Christmas Bells in flower in our secret location... they are late to flower this year.
You must have a lovely view from your house Carol!
Margaret

Carol said...

I love the feel of the flannel flowers. There was a little drama at our usual walking spot. My d-in-law took the dog for a walk - we weren't there this time - and they met a red-bellied black. The dog accidentally crossed its path and the snake latched onto the dog's side. A bit of antivevene & she was ok but we were a little more cautious when we went there the other day.

Gently Mad said...

These are really wonderful photos. I love birds, The magpie does look a little scary but maybe because I know he's aggressive. The kookaburra is beautiful. I used to teach my students the Kookburra song.

In the Ollie Chandler "Deception" book I just read (and reviewed), each chapter begins with a quote from Holmes.

What's funny is I though you were quoting Christ: Having ears to hear, they do not hear, having eyes to see etc.. :)

Natilla said...

Lovely as always to read your blog. My little one has bad memories with magpies.

Carol said...

I've always been partial to books that begin their chapters with quotes :)

Carol said...

Thanks Nat. Poor little fella! Magpies can be scary during the breeding season. We don't have a lot of open ground around our place so maybe that's why we don't get dive bombed. One of my boys got harrassed when he was riding his bike on the road but he had a helmet on so avoided getting pecked. I felt more compassionate towards magpies after reading Colin Thiele's Magpie Island.