Backyard lorikeets

Trichoglossus haematodus (Rainbow Lorikeet)

An unseemly cacophony heralded the arrival of a small neighbourhood flock of Rainbow lorikeets on this unseasonably hot spring morning. My camera and I were of course bound to follow. Here are some of the results.

Australian Reptile Park

Alligator mississippiensis (American alligator)

I visited the Australian Reptile Park (Pacific Highway, Somersby NSW 2250) with some friends yesterday, and these photos happened.

Pseudechis porphyriacus (Red-bellied black snake)

Nepenthes near-disaster

Nepenthes ventricosa in flower

I had a near-disaster with the Nepenthes. It all started with two plants living on the bathroom window sill and growing like nobody’s business. This would normally have been a good thing, except that N. ventricosa was now trying to drill through the top of the window area, its leaves taking up weird and ugly configurations in the process.

When the problem became too serious to ignore (i.e. the flower stalk snapped nearly in half) I installed a large recyling tub outside the house, added dried and live sphagnum moss, filled it with water and moved both plants into it.

Almost immediately the weather turned hot, with a dry wind blowing in from the west. All the lower leaves on N. ventricosa and most of N. maxima x fusca promptly dried up, and in the days that followed I had the dubious pleasure of watching the upper leaves of both plants go the same way (glabrous-leafed N. ventricosa fared better than hairy-leafed N. m. x f.).

A few things

A cluster of hazelnuts

Someone nearby has planted a hazelnut tree of flowering age, because for the first time in four or five years I have many clusters of hazelnuts. Then again, this fruiting may be a response to the very aggressive pruning I did last winter. I’ll have to do some research to find out why.

I did prune the apple tree as well, and this happened:

Apples on the tree

Bee and leek flower