Little Creatures

Not creepy crawlies – Little Creatures the very successful brewery in Fremantle. A lunch with Marshall and Cam, and also a catch up with Ron and Gaye who I’ve caught up with in France a few times as they have a place in Lodeve. I’d forgotten how popular this place was, and being a Saturday it was full and buzzing, even the outside tables and there was a cold wind blowing off the water. Great beer and food and atmosphere. It’s a huge building and all the brewing equipment is right there on site. The building itself used to house a crocodile farm which thankfully was only short-lived, about 12 years ago. It’s certainly being put to good use now.

Family

One of the nice things about being back is catching up with rellies.! And Aunty Joan is a wiz when it comes to sponge cakes, so morning tea at her place is never a low calorie affair. She certainly hasn’t lost the touch – she’s also a fearsome opponent to take on with Wordfeud on her iPad.

Wildflower Festival, Kings Park

The annual Wildflower Festival in Kings Park runs for the whole month of September. Kings Park is 400 hectares and nearly ‘inner-city’, bring only 1.5 km from the centre of Perth.

There are fabulous views over the city and the Swan River. Coolish weather yesterday kept the visitor numbers down a bit so I went with a couple of friends and had a very leisurely couple of hours taking in the gorgeous flowers and a sandwich lunch on the lawns.

Because most of the plants were named, I’ve managed to give labels to most of the flowers. My favourite was the brown boronia, because it grows down near Albany and while it doesn’t look much, the scent is amazing. And we picked it in the wild as kids. Now it’s quite rare and like most wildflowers, it’s illegal to pick it.

Mangles Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthos manglesii)

Egg and Bacon plant

Mangles Kangaroo Paw - the Floral Emblem of Western Australia

Scholtzia parviflora (Myrtaceae)

Scarlet Honey Myrtle (Melaleuca fulgens)

Silky Eremophila (Eremophila nivea)

keraudrenia velutina

Large Fruited Mallee (eucalyptus youngiana)

Sturt's Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa)

Yellow Featherflower (verticordia chrysantha)

Plumed featherflower (verticordia plumosa)

Boab (Adonsonia gregorii)

Scented Boronia (boronia megastigma)

banksia praemorsa

View over Perth city, the Swan River and the Narrows Bridge and South Perth

Mangles kangaroo paw

Grass Trees (Xanthorrhoea)

Above-ground walkway through the trees

Grevillea synapheae

Grevillea

Shark Bay Mallee (eucalyptus roycei)

Grevillea

Blue Lechenaultia (Lechenaultia biloba)

Kangaroo paw

Rose Banksia (banksia laricina)

Firewood Banksia dwarf form (banksia menziesii) - grows directly out of the ground.

Scarlet Banksia (banksia coccinia)

Banksia praemorsa

Everlastings

Pink Everlastings (Rhodanthe chlorocephala)

BBQ

I had some friends around last night for my first Australian BBQ in years. It’s so nice to be able to do this again, in my ‘home away from home’. The butterflied leg of lamb was delicious and a damn fine time was had by all. Towards the end of the night, it became quite cold. Thank goodness for the many airline blankets to be found scattered around this house!

Araluen

Gorgeous weather yesterday, and a trip with friends to Araluen – botanic gardens in Roleystone on the outskirts of Perth. It’s a micro-climate in a cool valley and the gardens are just spectacular, especially at this time of the year. They’re particularly known for mass plantings of tulips and they were certainly at their best yesterday.