There’s still a couple of weeks of winter left but seeing things like blossoms on trees make me think of the warmer weather around the corner.
I’m glad I live in a place that has distinctive seasons.
Below are some more reminders of spring.
This is for Trish’s ‘Wordless Wednesday’ as she undergoes chemotherapy. Hi Trish xx.
We went to the Royal Adelaide Show on Wednesday. It’s the first time I’ve been in a long time and JJ’s first time ever. The thing that was on the top of my list to do was to see Jenny Gillies wearable blooms fashion parade.
We got there 20 minutes before it was due to start and it was standing room only. JJ deserted me straight away to go and get a better spot at the front. It was really warm in the Goyder Pavilion and I hoped I could hack it. Hack it I did, and JJ didn’t even get bored which is saying something.
Unfortunately nobody was allowed to photograph the parade which is a pity as it would be even better publicity for them, but there were displays of the art around the place so I was able to snap that.
The parade was quite entertaining. I was expecting more of a walk down the runway to music kind of thing, but there was more to it than that. Think of bees and flowers and the attraction there.
The costumes were brilliant and many many hours of work must have gone into them.
When I moved into my house I had to clear a lot of junk from the yard as a hoarder used to live here. Consequently there wasn’t much of a garden. All I really had was a grapevine and an orange tree. A lot’s happened in the ten years I’ve been living here and at this time of the year the fruits of my efforts come to the fore.
Part of the garden makeover involved planting two native frangipani trees which look glorious this time of the year with their small yellow flowers.
I have numerous bulbs too but they don’t always flower and this year everything has.
My bearded irises had taken a break for a couple of years.
And so had this plant, a red Hippeastrum.
While I was walking around my garden taking photos I noticed one lone hibiscus flower on one of the bushes.
Last but not least this cactus is having its first year flowering. A friend bought it for me quite a few years ago and I’ve never seen it flower before.
During our Perth holiday my camera went with us and I took a few snaps – as you may have realised. One day we visited King’s Park and I took some photos of flowers. I love getting in close and taking photos of flowers but have always had trouble focusing on exactly what I want.
In a moment of inspiration I moved the focus setting from auto to manual and it made the world of difference.
I think this Kangaroo Paw shows some of my results perfectly and I’m really pleased with the way it turned out.
I used to use manual focus a bit back when I used a film SLR but I’d gotten so lazy with auto focus that I completely forgotten that my camera does have a manual focus setting. I’ll now be using manual focus a lot more. I can’t believe it took this long for some common sense to sink in.
Of course, sometimes there’s no time to line up the shot so auto focus is perfect, but for still life, manual focus is the go. If you can bear it, there’s some more photos below that I managed to take inbetween rain showers.
