My last Spring-themed post!

I'm not sure if these delightful flowers are roses or crabapple blossoms. I rather thought they were roses, and that the flowers in my very first October Spring-theme post were crabapple blossoms.

The Allure of Azaleas

These Azaleas look as if they're having a deliciously gossipy conversation!

Queenly Camellia

Queenly, gracious and zen-like in its perfection.



ReeDaBee

Luscious Petals in Palest Pink

You can never enough rhodos - rhododendrons - in the spring!

It's not the nicest name for the such a pretty, delicate and sweet looking flower, but they own it rather well.

Breezy Little Beauties

I've got no idea what tree this is, but it produces the tiniest little white flowers.

Rosy Sun Climber

These climbing roses of butter-yellow glow in the sunshine.

They might hang around during the rest of year, thorny and quietly belligerent and just generally getting in the way.

Jacaranda Flourish

Spring in Sydney is when Jacarandas light up. Brilliant lilac flowers light up the suburban landscape with rich abandon.

Blaze in Blue VIII: Venturing Out

Venturing beyond home for the first time in a few days, it is surprising to see how deceptively serene and calm and seemingly untouched much of the farming land is - land that has been in the shadows of fire threats for so many days.

Blaze in Blue VII: Winds, Waiting and the Small Things

Today was predicted to have potentially catastrophic weather conditions for the Blue Mountains.

With all schools closed in the entire Mountains and Hawkesbury regions, community briefings about the fires attracting thousands of locals, with thousands of Fireys all based at various strategic locations across the Mountains (between Penrith and Lithgow) ready to be deployed at a moment's notice in response to

Blaze in Blue VI: Rain and Reflections

The skies are grey today because of rain clouds rather than smoke haze.

Blaze in Blue V: Them There Hills

You can see the scorched, blackened ground. Where trees would be flush with spring growth, they have now been abruptly calcified - brittle, thin skeletons in the aftermath of the fire line of Friday night.

Blaze of Blue IV: Everywhere you look

This is the same ridge which, three evenings ago was waterbombed in convoy, and two nights ago had fire flare along the crest, with embers sailing down into our basin and starting spotfires.

Blaze in Blue III: Smoking Sun

The sunlight is clear and normal early in the day, but by mid-morning, it has returned to that nervewracking shade of apocalyptic orange which indicates just how much the world is off-kilter here.

It remains unpleasant to breathe, and we are quite removed from the thick of the action. How much worse would it have to be closer to the epicentres?

Blaze in Blue II: Apricot Haze, Angry Orange

The devastation caused by the spring bushfires in the Blue Mountains and beyond has become distressingly evident today.

Blaze in Blue

This post comes to you later in the day than usual.

In the Blue Mountains, Sydney, it has been a day of warm temperatures, terrifying bushfires and billowing smoke, all whipped into a merciless, random and cruel fury by strong, gusty winds.

Fully Fuschia

October theme

A Rhododendron in full bloom. Vibrant and full of brilliant life against its emerald/peridot backdrop..

High Noon: Reach for the Sky

October theme

Frangipani plants hunker down for winter, losing their leaves and stripping down to the bare essentials, so that only the woody stalks have to face the cold temperatures and bitter winds.

Threads of Gold

October theme

The beautiful glowing golden threads of an Aussie native flower, lending its own earthy delights to the brilliance of spring.

A Special Holly-Day

October theme

In honour of a Special Day for a Very Special Someone, I am very pleased to present a very special discovery.

Here is the little holly plant that I haven't seen since my childhood, a looong time ago. Growing cheerfully in their secluded little corner, dotted with those little red berries that I haven't seen in so long.

Contemplation

October theme

A lovely spot for a cuppa, a favourite book, dappled sunlight and a wall of azelea blossoms perfectly poised to read over one's shoulder.

Uncharacteristically Shy

October theme

One of the first roses of spring peeking out from the depths of the newly-verdant leaves.

Wisteria in Spring Snow

October theme

 The wisteria this time last year in 2012, greeting - no, being greeted by - the unexpected spring snow.

This almost looks like a black-and-white photo... It isn't!



ReeDaBee

Cascades of Lilac

October theme

Beautiful cascading wisteria, wide awake for spring.

Look Closely

October theme

 

It's amazing what you notice going on in the world around you - especially when you look really closely. The little splashes of colour on these guys are what caught my eye as I wandered by.

White Petals with a Blush

October theme

These are some of the prettiest flowers I've ever seen in spring-time.

I spent a lot of time taking in and photographing these flowers, mostly with awe.

Garnet Scatterings

October theme

Continuing with my theme of general ignorance to do with all botanical matters, I again have no idea what this beautiful tree is. It loses its leaves in winter, and the initial leaf growth in spring is lusciously garnet in colour.

Pretty in Pink

October theme

I've no idea what these are flowers are, but they're very purty. They're from a tree (as opposed to a shrub or bush) and it's not clear from the photo, but the flowers have a bit of

Cherry Blossoms

October theme

You can't have a spring theme and not have cherry blossoms.

Azaleas in Ruby

October theme

I really should be checking these things, but I'm pretty sure this is an azalea.

Make that two azaleas:

ReeDaBee

See the Liquid Amber bud-ding

October theme

The title for this post is inspired by an old movie that I stumbled across a few years ago on community TV. It was called The Perils of Pauline, from 1947. There's a delightfully funny scene where the hero's best friend teaches the heroine how to enunciate her words properly.

'Round, like an orange', he forms his words with exaggerated precision.

And then he follows it up with the equally well-articulated, 'see the chrysanthemums budding'.

Hilarious non-sequiteur sentences that

Spring Blossoms I

October theme

Starting with my very pretty background pic. I should have checked, but I think these are Crabapple blossoms.

They're riotously beautiful in Springtime and are usually served with the generous humming of bees.


ReeDaBee

Starting with Spring

Welcome to Montage: A Month in a Minute.

The idea for this blog is pretty simple: one theme per month, explored mainly through photos.

That's it. Nice and simple. A nice, easy entry into Blogging-dom.

Unless you're the type who likes to over-think things.

Which I am. 

So I did.

And then I came up with a few rules that I want to stick to: