Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day March 2013

March 1 marks the first day of Autumn here in Brisbane. The last of the summer flowers are almost finished, but it is little early for autumn beauties like the dahlias, so I expected slim pickings for this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. I haven't been out in the garden so much lately because it has been so wet, but when I sallied forth, camera in hand, I was pleasantly surprised.

The first bloom is in fact the last photo I took. Just as I was finalising my post, I remembered that the brugmansia was in bud yesterday. I peeked outside my back door and sure enough. How I could have missed the wonderful perfume when I came home from work, I don't know. I intended to duck out in the morning to capture a photo, but couldn't resist seeing how they would photograph at night. 

Bees and other insects have visited the  'Little Gem' magnolia, knocking off the anthers in their race for pollen.

A little, self-seeded zinnia

The daylilies are slowly spluttering to a finish, but each time I think I have seen the last of them for the season, they manage to produce one more flush.

Daylily 'Fetish'

Daylily 'All American Tiger'

It seems as if there is always a Leopard Lily in flower for Bloom Day.

Globba capicola 'Golden Dragon', a member of the ginger family 

'Golden Dragon'

Another Globba. This one is 'Redback'

Aechmea 'Burning Bush' 

Cestrum nocturnum, the night-scented jessamine or jasmine.

Once it has finished flowering, I'll give the Cestrum a light prune to tidy up those errant branches.

'Black Beauty', my first dahlia of the season

An unexpected repeat bloom from the Zygopetalum orchid.

Rejoicing in the rain, the rain lily Zephyranthes candida.

My goldfish continue to vanish. The population had been constant for a long time, but now the secret is out that they are a convenient snack. I am still not 100% sure which of the local birds to blame: kookaburras and butcher birds are the Number One suspects. The sole inhabitant has managed to escape suffering the same fate as his companions so far, but I think a net or wire cover might be needed before I expose any more fish to an untimely demise. In comparison, the miniature waterlily Nymphaea helvola is thriving with not one, but two blooms out.

The water feature has developed a tilt in the soggy ground. 

If we get much more rain, I'll be able to plant the waterlilies directly into the back garden!

Finally, not one of my blooms, but the golden penda have been so wonderful this year, probably as a result of all our rain, that I had to share one more photo of them. (Lots more here).

Thanks again to Carol at May Dreams Gardens, who hosts Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day on the 15th of each month and provides the opportunity for gardeners around the world to share what is blooming in their corner of the globe.

Playing house

The wet weather we have been experiencing in Brisbane for the past few months has been almost unrelenting, and as a result, there has been minimal activity in the garden. Instead I turned my mind to consider the interior here at Casa Bella. A few big changes are afoot, and I thought you might be interested to see how some of the purchases I made while I was working in Indonesia have settled into their new home.

This is painting I picked up in Bali after a conference in June. I blogged about the gardens here

She looked right at home with the other artwork along the staircase.

One of the table runners I bought at the antique markets in Jakarta looks great on my dining table.

I love the painted wooden couple that I bought at Pasaraya in Jakarta

In front of them are these two mother-of-pearl inlaid painted bowls from  Lombok.  I so wish I had bought  more/bigger ones of these...(maybe next time!)

Detail of the painting

This handsome pair of puppets in antique batik fabrik are from an earlier trip to Bali.

I was a bit obsessed with cushions during my travels as I had already chosen a brightly striped fabric to recover my sofa. It had previously been covered with the cream and taupe buffalo check in the side table cloths.  Finding something to coordinate with it, without opting for too safe an option was going to be a challenge. I thought about using wider versions of the same Timorese weavings as the table runner.

I toyed with a few cushion covers I had bought in Hua Hin in Thailand.

But my favorite, also from Thailand, was this - one of a pair I had been given as a given as gift before I ever contemplated a pink sofa. (Note to self - must buy insert for its partner!)

It tied in with a couple of local Brisbane purchases - well, maybe not all on the sofa at the same time - but within the general vicinity.

So this is what the almost 'done' lounge room was starting to look like.

However, just like the garden, the inside of the house is in a state of perpetual change.

Of course, there are those who like to continually modify their surroundings to suit themselves.

Last week there were big changes with the arrival of the painters. As much as I enjoyed the pink wall, it was to remedy water stains from a leaking roof in last year's rainy season. It didn't work leaving the bottom half of the wall on the other side of the staircase out of the equation although that's all that was covered by insurance. 

But that was all so last year! Now I'm starting with a clean slate.

We are going for a lighter, brighter look here at Casa Bella. I'll keep you posted with developments!

Every cloud has a golden lining

This post has strayed off its initial path. The aim was to take up the challenge thrown down by Les at A Tidewater Gardener in his Winter Walk-Off 2013 to share what can be seen within walking distance of my home. (I might add despite the very best of intentions, I failed previously to follow in Les's footsteps by organising and posting my best photos for  2012).

Here in Brisbane, it is not winter, but it is incredibly wet lately. In fact, if you hear of Ikea selling DYI Ark kits, I may be interested. 

I set off optimistically yesterday, but I hadn't even made it to the end of the block before it started raining again, so I knew it was going to be a short walk. However, even in that short distance, I can across this native beauty and have been been keeping an eye out for them since then.

This is the Xanthostemon chrysanthus known as the Golden Penda, a member of the myrtle family and endemic to North Queensland. While I was driving around today I noticed they are just coming into flower all through the neighbouring suburbs.

The young Golden Penda was planted next to a pink frangipani

This is the hill opposite mine, with bigger, more modern and more colourful houses; there's a  great purple one over there somewhere that has a coordinated jacaranda planted beside it.

The Golden Penda lives at the house on the corner where the street signs are. 

This guava was growing with the yellow allamanda on the opposite street corner.

Spotted this Duranta 'Geisha Girl' on my way back.

I spent the rest of what was a very dark and gloomy day a little preoccupied by Golden Pendas and was hoping to find a larger tree to share with you. This afternoon I was very pleasantly surprised to spot this one in a cul de sac only a block from home (in the opposite direction). The lime yellow blooms look wonderful beside the burgundy foliage of the nearby plant.

It came with an added bonus: some rainbow lorikeets were feeding on the nectar - a sight guaranteed to add colour to the gloomiest of wet weekends.