Three and one third by five

Or seeing the tiny up close. These are all plant parts, collected inland and pressed between glass in slide transparencies. The 'frame' is approximately 3 1/3 cm by 5 cm. 

  

From the top:

Pimelea flowers from the Hills

Red Velvet calyx near Sandstone

Ephemeral dancers near Paynes Find

Everlasting bracts near The Granites

Hair leaf in cross section near Paynes Find

Ptilotus flowers and granite sand near The Granites

Spinifex and dune sand near Virgin Springs

Lichen and everlasting bracts near Wiluna

Below are images of the type of country in which the above plants were collected.

Blue and yellow

Leschenaultia growing on road side

Here is a little bit of colour as we travelled up north, while still in cropping country. 

It reminds me of a story we heard from a fellow traveller. He was given instructions for where to go to see the wonderful wildflowers in the region, which he and his wife did. They took all day and they were thrilled with the colouful display in the bush. The same instructions were given to another couple. They were only gone for a couple of hours at the most. When asked what happened they said 'Oh we saw valleys full of beautiful yellow wildflowers, so we didn't need to go any further.They were stunning.' 

Canola fields

Those fields full of yellow were of course canola fields, not wild flowers. 

So long as they were happy

Jimmy Pike

On the evening before we took off on our holidays we saw the Jimmy Pike exhibition You call it desert, we used to live there at the Albany Museum. It was a set of about fifty artline drawings from the Berndt Museum of Anthropology collection chosen from about 250 drawings in total. The Berndt Museum, part of the University of Western Australia, holds collections of Aboriginal art and cultural materials as well as items from Melanesia, and South East Asia.

This exhibition was timely for us as we are heading up that way as I type this now.

Pike's works were extremely bold and colourful. I was particularly taken by his vibrant flower drawings.

Partiri (flowers)

Partiri (flowers)

Kakarra, Karla,Kayili, Kurlurla
Sunshine on one side, other side dark  

He also painted his traditional country. The image above is sand dune country showing the strong light and shadows that are present there.

Some of his drawings were of traditional cultural stories and he also drew stories from his own life.

Dreamtime story

Headband

Having an Xray

Wirl (Falling star)

Apparently Pike was hit and knocked out by a falling star as a young boy. A strong medicine man revived him. Because of this Pike often drew falling stars and stars as they were an important symbol to him. 

Pike, a member of the Walmajarri people, was born on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert in 1940. He lived a nomadic life with his family until they left the desert to settle on cattle stations in the early 1950's. He was introduced to Western style painting in 1981 and continued to paint until his death in 2002.

Link to a virtual tour of the exhibition here.

Woolly banksia

This lovely Banksia baueri is flowering in our garden at the moment. The flower heads are large - a good twelve centimetres in diameter and very soft and woolly. Unlike most banksias they are pollinated by little furry marsupials like honey possums and pygmy possums. So far I haven't seen any mature seed pods on the old flowers so I guess we haven't hit the jackpot in attracting them to our garden yet, but I live in hope.

Banksia coccinea, plate 3 in
 Illustrationes Florae novae Hollandiae
Ferdinand Bauer

Banksia baueri was named by botanist Robert Brown after the brothers Ferdinand and Francis Bauer. These brothers were fantastic natural history illustrators. Franz was botanical artist attached to Kew Gardens in England from 1790 to 1840. Ferdinand was employed as botanical draughtsman under the direction of Robert Brown as chief botanist aboard the Investigator, captained by Matthew Flinders. The English  expedition of discovery left Portsmouth in 1801, circumnavigated Australia, and was forced to stop at Port Jackson where the Investigator was condemned as unseaworthy.

Johnsonia lupulia, plate 1 in
Illustrationes Florae novae Hollandiae
Ferdinand Bauer

Brown and Bauer finally returned to England in the repaired Investigator in 1805. In the intervening time Bauer explored the Sydney region and spent eight months on Norfolk Island. Over the four year period Ferdinand made over 2000 drawings, mainly Australian plants. After their return Ferdinand  Bauer spent years working on three hundred watercolours from his Australian sketches, most of which are held in London, and a series of hand coloured etchings for his Illustrationes Florae novae Hollandiae which was published in 1813.

Brunonia australis, plate 10 in
Illustrationes Florae novae Hollandiae
Ferdinand Bauer

The first two illustrations by Bauer are of plants that grow in the Albany region. The third illustration is of one of my favourite inland plants. It is a magnificent sky blue which always looks startling when seen against the rich ochre red soil in which it commonly grows.



Ferdinand Bauer images from the National Gallery of Australia.

Red summer

This is the time of the year for the riot of colour brought to us by the red flowering gums, which grow naturally in limited coastal areas near here. Of course we grow them in our gardens, even though they can be a little touchy about conditions.

And the red winged wrens have returned after raising their young here in the garden some months ago. As soon as the babies were fledged and left the nest they disappeared into the bush. Just recently I have seen them flitting about the garden. The images below were taken on a particularly hot day. Nothing like a good splash to cool down and freshen up.

Mad dogs and winter flowers

This morning we were working out on the Nullaki Peninsular, slowly freezing in the slushy hail and wind. It is totally exposed to the elements having panaramic views to the ocean and inlet - pretty to look at but just plain cold on days like today. Unfortunately a shed had its back blown off in a previous storm so it needed to be fixed. Miske very wisely stayed in the car - no mad dogs going out, only a mad Englishman and his wife!

Eucalyptus sp

I thought a little colour would be in order to counter the dark skies. I have been meaning to share some more images from the Pilbara, so here are some of the flowers we saw in July. The pale pink Eucalypt was growing in a gully - one pink among a number of creamy ones.

Many of these images show the special adaptations plants have made to the arid environment - silvery, hairy, waxy, reduced, protective and reflective from the heat and drying winds. Sometimes the flowers are tiny like the hairy Ptilotus below.

Ptilotus sp

The flowers themselves are quite happy to be colourful, and the birds and the butterflies love them.

Cassia sp

Solanum sp

Grevillea wickhamii

Acacia sp

Alogyne sp

Lesser Wanderer butterfly