New camera - new photos!

I have a new camera - a Canon SLR and I'm having a wonderful time trying out using it. How wonderful that it is a digital camera and I can delete my "errors".

Iris

I've taken quite a few photos of Irises - because I have "found" them in the most amazing places.

There seemed to be quite a few flowering in China in spring, and also in South Korea, where I saw masses of them in flower making a magic scene.

Sadly I've not seen them in such numbers here in Australia, though I am sure that in New South Wales, or Victoria there are huge fields of them - I just haven't seen them.

I purchased a bunch (5 stems) today, some of them were partly opened like this one, but others were still in bud and surely will open over the next few days.

As I have a new Canon SLR Camera, I've been taking lots of photos - and thought this one was good. Enjoy.

Daisies

Simple, pretty daisies make a great picture in a garden. When I visit Adelaide, there are often gardens with many varieties and colours of daisies. I found these in a garden in one of my walks around Oalklands when I was there in July 2009. The roses, camellias and daisies made a great picture in the gardens in and around the city and suburbs.

Irises

I love to see irises, and they are in the flower shops at the moment. That' not the reason for posting this, but I've been going through and transferring my photos to my new program Memory Manager, and came across this photo.

I don't recall that I have posted it here before, and quite lazily I haven't checked either.

It was at a pond at the entrance to an amazing mountain in China at a place called Tonglu.


Along with a group of students we climbed up the inside of a mountain - there were stone steps and we kept going up in this amazing wonderland of stone, water (a huge waterfall was at the top of the mountain) so it was wet, slippery, and cold.

When we reached the part where the steps were surrounded by a cage and the steps went up vertically, my friend and I baulked. We were both over 60 years of age, and that surely would have punished our backs, and legs.

We were escorted back down another route. Luckily.

My sister's garden

My family have always loved gardens, plants, flowers etc, and my sister who lives in a small apartment has made good use of the small amount of space between the house and the footpath.

She has a wonderful array of plants under some large palm trees, with a fish pond (complete with fish) and a variety of plants in pots.

Despite the drought and lack of water in South Australia, she manages to keep them alive, though some like the magnificent tree fern has succumbed and while currently still with a little life, it is finding it hard going and I suspect it will not survive.

The fish find life difficult from time to time, and though they don't have a long life span, the heat of summer or the cold of winter can create havoc and new fish need to be purchased from time to time.

Above there are two triangular sails that do something to protect from the hot sun in summer, and the outdoor eating area is a delight and we have had many family events there.

It certainly is a haven - a delightful fresh, green oasis.

Freesias,

These are delightful flowers, but not seen as often as they should be. This bunch of freesias was given to my sister, and she put them in a glass vase and allowed them to "spill" in a very delicate way.

These are native to Africa, but have been popular in Australian gardens for years.

To read all about these flowers on Wikipedia here.

Camelias

Right near the front door of my parents little unit in Adelaide is a camelia plant that seems to bloom non-stop.

These pink "double" blooms just flower and flower and always make a great picture. Often my mother will pick some and carefully arrange them in a bowl.

It is often hard to get camelia's sitting pretty in a vase as they often are on the side of the stem.