A Wonderful Week

 

Ink pen on sketch paper

 

 

 Ellenbrook, an old pioneer homestead near Margaret River/Yallingup.

 

 

What a thoroughly fabulous time I had last week! The sketch above was done while I was holidaying in the South West for a couple of days with a friend.

 

But the day before embarking on our trip to Yallingup, this same friend and I drove to our friend Sally's property near the town of Gingin. Sally is an expert when it comes to our native flora, both in knowledge and the ability to propagate from cuttings and seed (no mean feat let me tell you!). I have yet to point to a flower that she doesn't know the name of in Latin. We were gobsmacked at the extent and variety of wildflowers that she has growing in the beautiful gardens she has created from bare sand and gravel. She also grows them to sell and specialises in Verticordias, so if anyone is interested in knowing more details, please send me an email.

 

 

Sally in her garden.

We are still in the prime of our spring wildflower season  - as you can see!

 

We had such a nice morning with Sally!

 

A couple of days later near Yallingup, my friend and I were walking a very small section of the 135km Cape to Cape Track. Our little snippet of the track was a six kilometre round trip along the cliff tops on a very sandy and, at times, rocky path.

We had two close encounters with snakes, one a large dugite (My friend saw it first and I just saw the tail as it slithered into the bush) and the other a baby "something" (I was the only one that saw this one and I'm not very good at identifying snakes, because, thankfully, I rarely see them!).

 

The photos below don't do justice to the colours of the wildflowers growing in the coastal vegetation - lots of pimelia, scaevola and smatterings of hibbertia - or to the depth and perspective of the ocean scenes. We had the most perfect weather for it - a tad chilly so we didn't overheat from all the walking in the crisp sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 The ocean in the photo above is actually a long way down. unfortunately my camera didn't seem to capture any depth in the landscape. It probably would if I actually learnt how to use it and didn't just rely on the auto option!

 

Oh yes, my book had accompanied us on the trip and it looked rather fetching I thought with the ocean as a back-drop!

 

 

And now back to Perth - from today, Dymocks in Karrinyup have stocks of my book! Yay!

 

 

And to my own garden. I took this photo today of my violas - they continue to flower prolifically. I have never had such a prolific and extended flowering period with these favourites. It's been months of solid flowering. 

 

 

Below is my beloved purple melaleuca also flowering prolifically. The pompom flowers remind me of my childhood growing up in the bush. We didn't have that exact variety but something very similar. 

 

I hope you are all having a great week!