Winter mini-landscapes

I have to say I love the macro setting on my camera. You can probably tell! Since it's winter in the bush right now, there are mainly lichens and mosses growing, some fungi and some heaths.

June fungi

 Having had a fair amount of rain and then sunny days that have warmed pockets around and through the canopy means I'm starting to see mushrooms, toadstools and all sorts of fungi popping up. A few explosive ones (which as kids we used to call puffballs, but these are a bloody brown inside) and hundreds of tiny ones like dots in the leaf litter.

 The occasional bigger bright orange specimens.

And this one determined to rise above everything else!

A very quiet summer

I haven't posted anything much here for a while because there has been nothing new or different to report. The summer has been average, some rain but not much, we've had lots of butterflies but few low-growing flowers, and plenty of bracken, as always.

Birds have been more active, as have the roos and wombat, but really, all has been pretty quiet. I'm just grateful we haven't had a lot of bushfire risk. We've been clearing around the house and tidying up, as you do in summer, and now autumn is settling in. So only three photos to offer today, and one is of my favourite rocks!

A Little Wildlife

 I was collecting weeds and paper to add to the worm farm toilet (for a bit of variety) and this popped out of the bucket, looking most annoyed.

I assume this is some kind of trapdoor spider (not a funnelweb here in Victoria) but I wasn't about to poke around and find out!

Early summer lilies

 Pale Vanilla-lily - Arthropodium milleflorum. These hang from their stems and tremble in the breeze.

My all-time favourites are the Fringe-lilies - Thysanotus tuberosus. This year, probably due to the amount of rain we've had, these are out everywhere.
In the open area in front of the house, we've been getting rid of dandelions and bracken on a regular basis and it's great to see now that we have a native lawn/garden instead. As well as native grasses, there are fringe-lilies, violets, rice flowers, groundsel, bears ears and fireweed. I'm watching as the previously bare bank right in front is gradually covered in all sorts as things self-seed. My kind of "gardening"!

Spring flowers November 2012

 With all the rain we've had over the past two years, the plant that has grown the most (in terms of spreading into beds in all kinds of places) is the violet. Mostly they are very small, but this is a larger plant near the house. (viola hederacea).

 The milkmaids are also out now (burchardia umbellata) and if it gets hot and dry, no doubt we'll see more orchids and lilies.

Along the north side the bossiaea has been out, but also now these common rice-flowers (pimelea linifolia). Yes, I'm adding the botanical names for a change!

Moss and Lichen

While the rain hasn't done much for the fungi, it has created some bright patches of moss here and there. If you click on some of these to enlarge, you'll see all sorts of tiny extras!