gemfyre | You don't bring me flowers... Oh but I DO!

First off I'll talk about the property we visited yesterday. Everyone got lost initially because the signage was put up late, but at least we all got lost at the same spot so we were all together at least.

The property is owned by a couple named Eggy (yes Eggy, no idea what it's short for) and Rob Boggs. The place is called "Gravelotte" and it's ALL bushland bar two cleared areas at the bottom of the hill that were obviously once farmland. One of these paddocks has a few passionfruit trees and dam, the rest is just bush. They're also planting a lot more natives around the place to create corridors for birds and possums.

This is one of those places I'd dream about living in. The house itself was rather small and simple but still nice. Kitchen/dining/lounge all as one big room. A passage way leading to a laundry/bathroom/toilet and guest bedroom, then a master bedroom and ensuite. The views, even from the toilet were stunning. The outside balcony had a campfire which they cooked their lunch over. You can just sit back there and look out over bushland and farmland and rolling hills. You don't have to worry about gardening because the garden is just bushland. Awesome. I wanted to move in.

We went there for the birding. But being late winter it's coming into wildflower time so the trip turned into a botanical expedition as well. Lots of orchids were flowering. And I got rather snap happy with the camera. I decided to not crop the orchid and small flower photos. I think the lone flowers among leaf litter look really good.

First thing I took a photo of was a very funky looking lichen growing on the granite outcrops. It looked almost like coral.

Then I promptly became obsessed with the different kinds of drosera (sundews) growing about the place. We had...

Another photo here.

And

Some of these ones were flowering

This pretty white flower also grew on the granite outcrops. The petals were kind of fuzzy.

Then I started to photograph the orchids. For a while there I was looking down for flowers instead of up for birds. What kinds of orchids did we find?
Well Donkey orchids were the most prolific. In some areas there were large patches of them.

Another
Another
And ANOTHER!
Big patch of donkey orchids.

Another.
A patch growing among Hibbertia (yellow flowers).

I didn't think this blue flower was an orchid, but I've just done some research and it is a sun orchid. The photo turned out stunningly.

Yay,

thysanotus knows all, these are Cowslip orchids.

Another.

The other pretty flowers of the day were the peas. I'm not good with my pea species. I know there's gastrolobium and gonpholobium and oxylobium but I don't know which one's which. The only one I've ID'd here is the Hovea.

Another
and a whole bush of them!

And another one (of course).

I also took a photo of a wandoo tree. Thinking back I really should have photographed more. These trees are interesting in the fact that half of them can be dead and grey but the other half is alive and white and flourishing. Some of them look like there is a skin of living tree over a dead, grey centre. This one inspired me to photograph it due to the spiral pattern of the living bark.

And lastly I took photos of the sheep in the next property over. Sheep are usually pretty boring. But these ones were like no sheep I had seen before. I had to do a double take because I thought they were cows, but they were too small to be cows. Yes, these sheep had black and white patches like fresian cows! Some were all black, some were all white, most were a random combination of the two. And in the paddock was also a pair of... well I think they were llamas because they were pretty large, but some people insisted they were alpacas while others agreed they were llamas. The brown one stands out and the white one is just behind him.

kowren, you will love these! I thought of you when I took the photos. :)