What’s That Stench? (Hint: it’s not carrion)

Exploring one of my favourite local patches of native vegetation, I noticed a pervasive smell on the air, which could be described as a proper pong along the lines of raw effluent. I looked around, but could see nothing obvious, so I carried on photographing small plants, including this one:

It’s a lovely little ground-hugging plant, with leaves like geranium and a subtle flower ball made up of dozens of tubular flowers, that grows in open woodland.

The penny only dropped much later, when I went to my favourite identification book of plants for this area, Birds and Plants of the Little Desert: a photographic guide by Ian Morgan, Graham Goods and Maree Goods (2014), and discovered that this plant’s common name says it all: Stinking Pennywort. I kid you not! 

As I continued to visit areas where this charming little plant (scientific name Hydrocotyle laxiflora) grew over the coming weeks, I realised that the smell was more like rotting vegetation in pond water, and grew accustomed to it, if not actually fond of it.

Olympus EPL7 with Panaleica 45mm macro.

Roadside Spider Orchids: how on earth would you see them?

Can you spot the spider orchids in the main photo? 

Wildflower season in southern Australia is often not as flash as it is in other places (I’m thinking particularly of you, Western Australia), as many of our local species are not very showy in the ways we might expect. 

Since I was a child, I highly prized the spider orchid, but never had so much opportunity to see them as I have in the West Wimmera, where there are many easily-accessible state parks full of beautiful plants. But how do you find them, when some species can be growing quite thickly yet be barely visible? You have to get out of your car (most of the ‘wildflowers’ you’re enjoying seeing from your car round here are either weed species or native shrubs, such as the very pretty, thickly-flowered Fringe-myrtle (Calytrix) in the main photo), and comb the ground, until you realise you nearly stood on one, and you step back and nearly stand on a cluster of them – suddenly, your eye is tuned in and you can see that they’re all around you! 

While showy, with their delicate markings and trailing arms, these spider orchids are also beautifully camouflaged – and they’re really not very big, as the photo with my post box key for reference shows. If I didn’t know where to find them at this spot, I would drive past them every day on my way to work none the wiser. (Thanks to my mum, who happened to find this place and share its location with me.)

Olympus EPL7 with Panasonic 14-140mm lens. 

The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring

It never really feels like springtime to me until the native wildflowers bloom en masse, which happens only briefly. I am so fortunate to have these amazing specimens growing only a scant mile from my home – some even nearer, in my own nature strip.

Clockwise from top left: Donkey orchid (Diuris pardina); Leptospermum sp.; Purple Beard-orchid (Calochilus robertsonii); One of the many varieties of bush pea; Maroonhood? (Pterostylis pedunculata); Goodenia sp.?; Coarse Twine-rush (Apodasmia brownii); lily species.

Hills Garage, Merino: vintage colour or black and white?

Which version do you prefer? 

Inside the Fog: cobweb

In Dire Straits (we got to move these colour TVs)

We got to install microwave ovens

Custom kitchen deliveries

We got to move these refrigerators

We got to move these colour TVs 

This is one of my favourite shots from our recent fog day out – as soon as I saw the TV, this Dire Straits song Money for Nothing flooded my brain. I was glad to have worn rubber boots, so I could wade into the river. 

Ahoy Land Lubbers! A tyre, a post and fog

Panasonic Lumix DMC GX7 with 14-140mm lens, in-camera dynamic monochrome filter. Edited with Snapseed app. 

On Pajero Road: cobwebs and dew drops

Sundays are great for drives in the country, even when one lives in the country! This morning a thick fog had cloaked the landscape, and stayed until after midday, so we meandered along gravel tracks, stopping many times for photos.

Panasonic Lumix DMC GX7 with 14-140mm lens. Edited with Snapseed app.