The Dragons are back - but no sign of the Gang-gangs

On Wednesday the garden was full of Gang-gang cockatoos Callocephalon fimbriatum - I could hear them everywhere and saw about 10 of them.  I even saw a pair doing a sort of mating dance, where they gave each other little pecks.  Of course, when I went back on Friday with my camera there wasn't one to be seen, so I still haven't got a picture of one for my blog!  They seemed to have been replaced by Crimson Rosellas - and love was in the air for these too.  The Pryor tree has a pair nesting in a hole, I got a very cute picture of one peeking out, I thought I saw a little one beside her too at one point, but I might have imagined it!

To make up for the lack of Gang-gangs I was pleased to find plenty of Water Dragons back in the gardens, the last time I saw one to take a picture of for this blog was for my second blog post, back in March! I saw a small one too - it looks like its a baby dragon. 

 After seeing so many Waratahs last weekend at Mount Tomah I remembered the picture I took earlier in the year (April) of a Braidwood Waratah seedpod (Telopea mongaensis).  I found the plant again and it was bursting into bloom, some seedpods are still clinging on though you can just see in the first picture. 

 I found a couple more pretty flowers I'd not seen before too, a beautiful Orchid Telychiton tarberi at the entrance to the Rainforest, which is an epiphyte (attaches itself to the trunk of trees).  This appears to be referred to commonly as 'king orchid' which I can see why, its quite spectacular. 

I also found this beautiful purple flower in the Grevillea/Hakea section, it looks more like a Hakea to me but I couldn't find a label on it. 

An adventure at magical Mount Tomah

Mount Tomah is Australia's Mountain Garden, located 1000m above sea level in the northern Blue Mountains.  We were over that way at the weekend so thought we should pay it a visit - it was a glorious sunny spring day (though the day before had been snow flurries!).  Well, it was simply magical.  A small wedding was taking place there that day (you can just make out the bridal party in one of the landscape pictures below) and the whole place was just alive with millions of spring flowers: Waratahs, Rhododendrons and even bluebells! There were some exotic plants there too, such as the beautiful 'magic flower' or 'sacred-flower-of-the-incas'.  All around was the distinctive sound of the Whip-bird and Kookaburra in the trees as the odd lizard scuttled amongst the rocks.  The air was fresh but the sun was warm.  From a viewpoint in the Gondwana woodland we could see Sydney in the distance, a world away. 

Butterfly flutter by

I explored the rock garden on Friday, once again glorious Autumn weather.  Having experienced all four seasons in Canberra now (I arrived here from the UK at the end of winter last August) I can say that this is definitely my favourite time of year. Beautifully cloudless sunny days, warm but not hot, gentle breezes, flowers blooming, plenty of birds and butterflies, glorious.  My least favourite season had to be spring, in the UK I would love spring, but here there is so much pollen in the air at that time of year I got chronic hayfever and nosebleeds!!  In any season though, getting out into the gardens is likely to be the highlight of my day, whatever the weather. 

Walking up the path to the upper level of the rock garden I came across a stunning Grevillea at the side of the path, absolutely teeming with bees.  I couldn't find a label, so unfortunately can't say which variety it is, but if you are in the rock garden you will easily find it as it is a very large bush. 

At the top there was a fairly bare sunny area, with lots of strawflowers or everlasting daisies, Bracteantha bracteata where dozens of Australian painted ladies Vanessa kershawi were fluttering from plant to plant.  My camera seems to do quite well taking pictures of butterflies and I love butterflies, so here are some of the many photos I took:

Another interesting thing I saw today was this seedpod on the Braidwood Waratah Telopea mongaensis.  The waratah is another iconic Australian flower, blooming spectacularly in spring.