Gardenias that Grace My Garden

At the bottom of our front stairs, planted in a little hedge around our timber retaining wall, are these gorgeous Gardenias. Their creamy white beauty and heady fragrance is sublime. I love to pause on our  bottom step and just breathe in their perfume!

I thought I'd share a little of their beauty with you on this ordinary, everyday Thursday. I'm not sure it can be an ordinary day though when one has flowers like Gardenias adding such grace to a garden. 

Perfection!

 The first petals unfold.

 Opening!

I hope you have some time today to stop and smell the roses  gardenias!

Meg xx

Divine Daylily

Coming into bloom in my garden now is a divine Daylily;  gently ruffled petals of the softest peachy-pink, and with a single white stripe, surround its yellow centre. I think it's exquisite!

Beautiful Daylily.

As its name alludes to, the Daylily's open blooms only last for one single day but their fleeting beauty reminds me to appreciate and enjoy them as they flower. 

The promise of a gorgeous flower. 

Tightly closed buds.

One beautiful bloom opens. 

I began with just one of these beautiful Daylilies; a gift from my mother-in-law from her garden to mine. I divided that clump when it was ready and now, through propogation, have even more of this particular Daylily, which I think might be Across the Galaxy, growing in my garden. All this beauty for free!

Daylilies are easy to grow and care for. They are hardy and drought tolerant too. You can even eat the flowers! Best of all though, they come in a huge variety of gorgeous colours. (The Mountain View Daylily Nursery website has some beautiful photos of different Daylilies in their online catalogue.)  I would love to grow a rainbow of them!

Hmm ... perhaps I will ask for a new Daylily variety in my Christmas stocking this year. 

Meg

p.s. I am not affiliated with The Mountain View Daylily Nursery in any way. It is a nursery not far from where I live, at Maleny in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. So, if I were to source a new Daylily, this is where I'd consider buying it from as it's the most local to me.

A Walk Along an Island Foreshore

Crossing the Bribie Island Bridge, that takes you from the mainland, across the protected waters of the Pumicestone Passage, to the island on the other side feels like a slow exhale to me.  A walk always awaits; a chance to breathe in the fresh air and see the sea.  My most recent walk here, on a windy day in February, took me along a section of foreshore that was calm and breezy and peaceful.

Bribie's  Bridge. 

A row of little red "tinnies" .

 Boats bobbing on the waves.

 Large, shady gums.

Pretty purple flowers. 

Gorgeous greens & greys. 

Mangroves on the shoreline.

Pigface tendrils in the sand.

Four feathery fellows. 

(I just love the antics of these birds!)

A peaceful view towards the mountains.

As I walked, the Glasshouse Mountain peaks filled my view, enveloped in a curtain of cloud. These iconic Sunshine Coast mountains stand tall on the distant horizon, connecting the waters of the passage with the land. The waves, for a windy day, were fairly calm and gently lapping the shore. Little boats bobbed up and down upon them like corks. 

Pelicans gathered in one spot, their black and white feathers ruffled by the wind. I love to see these birds for they seem such funny characters. Did you know a group of pelicans can be called a scoop? I think that's very apt considering the fish they scoop up into their bills and hold in their net-like pouches of such delicate pink. I'm not sure Bribie's fishing folk quite see them as endearingly as I do given they are always on the hunt for a free meal!

While the colours of my windy day walk were muted by the cloud above, this offered up its own beauty; a contrast to the strong light and blinding brightness of an Australian beach in Summer. 

Meg

Summer's Stormy Skies

Several scorching hot days here this Summer have finished with late afternoon storms rolling in over the ridge. We have watched the beautiful sky; the change from that high, clear blue of the earlier day to the ominous dark grey of swelling clouds as they gather. 

A brewing storm. 

Rain-laden storm clouds above the trees. 

A stormy sky above our place.

Rain falling off in the distance.

 The colours of a storm cloud.

These stormy skies have inevitably crackled with lightning as thunderous rain has fallen; at times so heavy we've heard its drumming before it's reached our place. Welcome storms that have cooled some late Summer afternoons and left behind a clearer air scented with rain.

How's the weather at your place?

Meg

A Little Bit of Beauty

Over the coming weekend, I hope you will find a little bit of beauty in the world. Something that brings a smile, that softens the harder edges, that slows your footsteps or turns your head, that gladdens your heart.

A little bit of beauty blooms in my garden.

Have a lovely weekend.

Meg