Jacaranda Park, Yeronga

I am still here!

 Recently I bought a couple of toy lenses for my camera phone - $35 for a macro AND a fisheye. This is taken with the macro although you'd be forgiven for thinking it was the fisheye. I think the difference is the direction of the curve in the lens - one is concave and one convex.

 You don't realise just how many jacaranda trees there are in Brisbane until October when they suddenly explode into blossoms and then are blown into carpets of purple all along the streets. I love it!

For more jacaranda posts, click on the label below.

1000 images today!

The jacarandas are in bloom everywhere in Brisbane at the moment. The evenings are warming up nicely and the weather radar has started to get a bit more interesting with storms starting to come through. Yesterday (while I was at work and couldn't get out with my camera) there was a huge hail storm on the south side of Brisbane blanketing a huge area with piles of hail stones. It looked like snow it was amazing.

So today is my 1000th post - HURRAY!! I'm going to use the occasion as an excuse to take a break for a while and have a bit of a blogging holiday. As those of you who do a daily photo blog know, it can be very time-consuming and hard work. So unless I have a little gem on my memory card that I can't wait to share with you, I'll be off until the December 1st theme day... when, if I may mix my animal-related metaphors for a second, I shall be back roaring like a Bengal tiger and ready to get the bit between my teeth. So until then, enjoy your Spring or Autumn depending on where you are and I'll see you on Brisbane's first day of summer.

Yeehaah!

The iconic pub The Regatta Hotel sits on Coronation Drive in Toowong. It's been 9 months since the floods and the ground floor still remains closed while they rebuild. You can pop in for a drink or something to eat, though, as the first floor is open.

By the way - you can't see it very well in this shot but the jacarandas are in bloom again. Expect some purple here soon!

 

Through The Window

through the window
through the passionfruit vine curtain
the early morning eastern sun
peeps over our building
warming the tops of the trees
green with a hint of orange

through the boughs of the scant jacaranda
the african tulip is exploding with flowers
crows find something to shout about
then lose interest and mutter under their breath instead
rainbow lorikeets chatter excitedly like kids in a playground
except noisier

time to wake up
the distant sound of the Citycat on the river
and the buses at the terminus
purring and chugging
in readiness for the day
and those other, more muted, early birds

Spring Swan Song

One last Jacaranda post for the year. Exams are over and the blossoms are disappearing as fast as summer is approaching.

Purple Rain

I had to get you a shot of the purple jacaranda blossoms that are all over Brisbane right now, falling from the trees in flurries covering pavements, cars, gardens and everything else in the surrounding area.

Blues and Blooms Skywatch

Followers of this blog might notice I've got a thing for Jacaranda trees. Every October Brisbane is spray-painted with these purple splodges everywhere.

Enjoy your weekend!

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Kangaroo Point Jacarandas

I make no apology for milking the Jacarandas In Bloom thing. There will be more purple on this page before the season's out if I have anything to do with it.

Getting some colour at New Farm Park

Laying Carpet

The beginnings of a thick mauve carpet that is about to be laid all over Brisbane thanks to October's blooming Jacaranda trees. If you are a university student here, the saying goes that if you haven't started revising for the end of the year exams by the time the Jacaranda trees are in bloom.... you're in trouble!
When I was in Crete a couple of years ago, I noticed blooming Jacarandas in late May. Do you have them where you are? If so... when do they bloom?

Here's a proper photo of a blossoming Jacaranda tree taken last year.

Jacaranda Tree Skywatch

Brisbane's many beautiful jacaranda trees are in full blossom right now and every year I have been here I have been surprised at just how many of them are around. For most of the year they just seem to blend in. Now (and for the next month), everywhere you look there are little splodges of colour.

The white dusty skies of earlier in the week have finally given way to the trademark blue ones although there is still the ominous smell of smoke in the air and haze on the horizon from bushfires around Brisbane. Had this tree been shot against one of those white skies, the colour of the blossom would be much paler - something like this text. In this pic, the early evening light adds a red tint which I also quite like!


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