Australian Fungi, Flora and Fauna

Today's entry is about illusion and nature and it's a tough old world - all of that somehow combined.



The photo was taken this morning after a couple of days of rainfall, not quite heavy enough to have filled our dams but the water tanks for the house are filled and overflowing. Amongst the baked dry clay on the overflow to one of the dams a toadstool is making its way into the world. It's had to push and shove to make it this far, and I have no doubt that by tomorrow morning it will be completely through and ready for the next phase of its life. Persistence will win out.






The next photo is of a small moth which caught my attention as it fluttered about quite close to the ground. Every time it touched the ground it became quite invisible until I forced it to move again by going too close. It was keeping a very wary eye on my movements. As it flew it flashed orange and yellow at me, just showing enough colour for me to want to see that side of its wings, not quite the intention it had in mind I'm sure.

I didn't manage to do that, I just wasn't quick enough; just as I would locate it and try to press camera buttons it would settle to the ground again. Very frustrating.






Lastly is my discovery of a new flower. New to me that is and I bet most of you too. There is an area on my property which was once cleared of the rainforest trees and has been kept relatively free by us as well. We mow it and keep out the weeds wondering how we can incorporate it into our overall garden plan. We don't really want to just let it go back to bush because it is a good place to start our bush walks. It leads to an interesting gully and through various types of forest and so back around to the other side of our land.

Lately I have been looking very closely at the plants in that area and finding some very tiny surprises. Today I saw specks of pink amongst the grass and looked more carefully. There were tiny little pink flowers all over the place - they obviously enjoyed the rain showers too. And when I say tiny I mean really, really tiny. Once I looked at my photos on the computer monitor I could see little seed pods and a distinct pea shape to the flower so I knew to look for my little treasures amongst the Fabaceae family.

I found them in my reference book and they are called Desmodium varians.

If it's not raining tomorrow I will go out again to see what else nature has in store for me.