Back to Ballina

I have been thinking that my brother Tony should have his own garden blog. The posts featuring his garden are always among my most popular, but at least now that I have study and my overseas work behind me, I am able to visit more often and bring back lots of photos from his garden to share.

One of the tiniest flowers in his garden is a favourite of mine. I love the Native Violet Viola hederacea, despite it having escaped from the garden bed to run rampant through Tony's lawn.

Another plant in Tony's garden that can quickly become a weed is the ginger or kahili lily Hedychium gardnerianum.  Originally from India, it grows to about 8 foot tall and has become a serious weed in New Zealand. In my state (Queensland), the authorities are trying to prevent it getting a foothold in the wild.

Ginger lily

In contrast, the Eucaris lily Eucharis grandiflora is in my mind a rare and special presence in the sub-tropical garden. It is a perennial with sweetly scented white flowers very reminiscent of a daffodil. I have been meaning to find a spot for this in my garden for a very long time, but don't often see them for sale.

Rose flowered Bignonia Podranea ricasoliana

Crinum - love how these white blooms age to a deep pink

A heliconia 

Apart from a sole representative inside the house, for once Tony's garden had no orchids in bloom, but they are far from forgotten. He is building a second orchid house for them.

A Miltonia orchid, I think

No avocados this visit, but I grabbed some cherry tomatoes, sampled the tomatillos and blueberries, and eyed off the figs for next time!

Although the orchids are starting to be serious competition, the stars at Tony's are usually his extensive collection of bromeliads. There are always some in bloom.

An alcantarea

I'm loving this soft velvety pink one. The tips of the leaves flush red when it's flowering. Tony said he has a pup with my name on it.

This is the one he was most proud of this visit - a tillandsia. Gorgeous grey-blue foliage with a purple flower emerging from coppery pink bracts.

Achmea blanchetiana - the same sunloving bronze-foliaged bromeliad that I have in my front garden

Guzmania conifera

I thought this was the same blue-flowered brom that I admired in my Christmas post , but I am assured it is different.

Finally, I thought you might be interested in seeing a little more of Ballina itself.  Here are some scenes along the river, and in my next post, I will share the lovely beach walk we enjoyed this morning.

The wonderful stainless steel fish sculptures along the river are by Ballina Public Artist Joe Stark.

Discovering Lombok

If you enjoy exotic locations, stunning landscapes, beautiful beaches, and glorious tropical blooms, you have a treat ahead in my next few posts. Mind you, there's lots to see, so you might need to make yourself a 'cuppa' (or pour yourself a glass of chardonnay for that matter) and put your feet up.

I was only back at work for a short time in Jakarta before I was needed to attend a conference to be held in Senggigi in Lombok. The conference concluded on a Friday, which gave me the opportunity to stay on for a couple of days and have a look around the nearby Gili Islands.

For those who haven't heard of it, Lombok is the next island to the east after Bali. (Jakarta where I work is on Java, the much larger island to the west of Bali.) I flew into the new international airport at Mataram quite late and then had a long drive to the Jayakarta Hotel at Sengiggi where our conference was to be held, so it was not until the next morning that I had much idea of the terrain. Needless to say first impressions were very favourable. However it wasn't long before I realised to my horror that I had left my camera battery recharging on my desk back in Jakarta.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and it wasn't till day two that I was able to duck out and buy a new little camera and start clicking, although I didn't master the macro settings in time to be able to share any good close ups of the local blooms.

I'm not normally a big fan of kitsch in the garden, but I fell in love with this quizzical monkey.

Garden bed including rhoeo, canna, iris and gokarna jasmine (not sure of the name of the variegated plant though I have seen it often, a type of euphorbia, perhaps?)

 The splashes of lime foliage in the garden beds come courtesy of the Gokarna jasmine Pseuderantermum reticulatum, (also known as the Gold Net bush and the Gold Vein eranthemum) which I featured in an earlier post on Bali. You can see the pretty two-toned flowers at this link. 

Another example of the orchid-coconut shell combo (especially for African Aussie)

Crinum

I love the large-flowered, marblised flowers of this euphorbia

An out of focus Bleeding Heart Vine Clerodendrum thomsoniae

This yellow iris is used widely throughout much of south-east Asia, including Jakarta, as a bedding plant.

Pandanus marked the division between hotel grounds and the beach.

Looking north from the hotel towards Senggigi

Once formalities were concluded on Friday, like many other conference participants my colleague Nantyo and I jumped in a taxi and headed north, past the town of Senggigi about 8 km north of our hotel, and along the Coast towards Bangsal to take a ferry across to the Gili Islands. Luckily, we had a very cooperative driver who was happy to go along with regular photo stops.

Looking back towards Senggigi

Our destination shimmering on the horizon - the Gili islands

I'll share my impressions of the Gilis in my next post. I spent a great two days there before Nantyo, one of the other conference members, and I headed back to Lombok and the airport at Mataram. They had a flight mid-afternoon on Sunday, while mine was mid-evening, so after dropping them off I decided to make the most of my time and continued on to have a look at Kuta in the south of Lombok, as opposed to Kuta in Bali.

To those who know the latter, the two Kutas are a world apart. One brash, commercial, chaotic and tourist-infested to within an inch of its life, whereas I think the images of Lombok's Kuta speak for themselves.

Seger Beach

I just loved the sarongs on these ladies at nearby Seger Beach and bought a beautiful pink, mustard, and turquoise one from them.

Detail of the artwork on a lovely wooden bowl I bought at an artists' market called Sayang Sayang in Mataram on the way to the airport. The diamonds and triangles are inlaid pearl shell.  I gave this one to my friend Adri but have two more that I think will be coming to live at Casa Bella.

In case you doubted the work connection and thought I was one of the idle rich!

I have become quite nostalgic looking back over these photos, although they are only a couple of weeks' old. The beauty of Lombok is that it is so peaceful and undeveloped, but it is tipped as the next big thing due to its proximity to Bali. There are now regular fast boats between the islands. I am so glad that I got to see a little of Lombok as it is now, and I hope that whatever development plans lie ahead, they are sympathetic to the island's natural beauty.