Flowers (Read 5419 times)

littletune · «Reply #2 on: June 18, 2011, 06:14:53 PM »

That's really cool and beautiful Mayla!

I hope I can find and make some pictures of flowers too!

amie_de_chopin · «Reply #3 on: June 18, 2011, 11:58:53 PM »

These flowers just had an argument and are not talking to each other...

ted · «Reply #4 on: June 19, 2011, 01:33:03 AM »

I don't know what sort of flower this is. The plant resembles a flat cactus and it has produced one flower every year since 1981, when we moved in. Ants are very attracted to it.

The common pumpkin flower has an intriguing texture and shape.

One of my wife's cleanest roses.

elspeth · «Reply #5 on: June 19, 2011, 08:25:59 AM »

ted · «Reply #6 on: July 01, 2011, 07:14:50 AM »

Not a flower, but monarchs in midwinter are very unusual here. It was sitting on the orange tree when we arrived home and I had to move quickly, so the focus wasn't the best.

remy · «Reply #7 on: July 04, 2011, 11:00:31 PM »

Quote from: ted on June 19, 2011, 01:33:03 AM

I don't know what sort of flower this is. The plant resembles a flat cactus and it has produced one flower every year since 1981, when we moved in. Ants are very attracted to it.

Ted,

That's an orchid cactus, an epiphyte from the jungles of South America. Hence it likes moisture and high humidity, with less moisture when it's dormant during the winter.

Yours appears to be Epiphyllum Ackermanii.

remy

ted · «Reply #8 on: July 10, 2011, 02:16:59 AM »

Thanks Remy, I hadn't noticed you had posted. It must exude something very sweet to attract hordes of ants like it does.

Mayla · «Reply #9 on: November 07, 2011, 09:11:18 PM »

littletune · «Reply #10 on: November 10, 2011, 10:12:11 PM »

Oh but Mayla spiders are supposed to bring you luck! Maybe this spider just wants to bring you luck. Or that one from the tree... that you once almost bumped into. But it doesn't really make me all that happy either if there are spiders in our aparment... specially if they're bigger, it kinda gives me chilles a little.

But I'm not angry at them!

ted · «Reply #11 on: November 11, 2011, 04:47:06 AM »

This peculiar plant produces a central "flower" of bright red leaves each spring. After a while they turn green.

My garden is like my music. No ordered, tended, manicured beds here with everything regimented into the interminable twos, threes, bars and meddlesome notation of classical music. I like weeds, I like wild plants, I like the verdant chaos, teeming with spiders, grubs, bees and birds; somewhere to lie and meditate, and to catch the mingled scents of the roses and the cat turds under the calamansi tree. Just like my improvisation.

Mayla · «Reply #12 on: November 12, 2011, 06:28:56 PM »

ted · «Reply #13 on: November 12, 2011, 07:53:53 PM »

In some parts of the world you would really need to worry about certain spiders. By comparison New Zealand has only one or two mildly poisonous ones. More than fifty years ago, the South Australian triantelope was accidentally imported into Auckland in the timber used to build the Avondale racecourse grandstand. These huge, hairy spiders have since become very common here, but only in the surrounding Auckland suburbs. They have never spread, which fact is something of a puzzle.

Hundreds of them were collected a few years ago and exported for the film "Arachnophobia". The thought of people screaming in terror at these harmless, delightful creatures scuttling over the walls is too ridiculous for words.

Bob · «Reply #14 on: November 12, 2011, 07:58:35 PM »

*Bob has a numb spot from a spider bite from years ago.* Bastards. Normal day. Just found the bite, lost sensation in that area.

Mayla · «Reply #15 on: November 15, 2011, 12:13:29 AM »

elspeth · «Reply #16 on: November 19, 2011, 09:53:46 AM »

I'm jealous of the wolf! Send him to live near me... I've only seen wolves in the wild once, on the Finland/Russian border, they're breathtaking.

I worry about myself sometimes, I'm clearly not normal... I like spiders too...

ted · «Reply #17 on: November 20, 2011, 10:32:55 AM »

My son's cat with weeds and flowers.

littletune · «Reply #18 on: November 20, 2011, 07:39:29 PM »

What a cool cat!

And those flowers are really beautiful colour! That is exactly my favourite color!!

Oh I wanted to say something about spiders. Some time ago (before it got this cold!!) I was watching a spider web outside and there was this bug flying around (kinda like a small butterfly just the ones that are flying around when it's dark)... and it was flying exactly around the spider web and I was like OH nooo and then it got stuck on the spider web!... and then the spider came out and I didn't even want to watch anymore but then the spider started to jump or something so the spider web started moving really quickly like kinda jumping or something like it was shaking the spider web and the bug fell out and then when the spider saw (or felt or whatever) that the bug fell out it stopped and it went away again! I couldn't believe it! It was really strange! I don't know maybe the spider wasn't hungry or it didn't want to eat that bug but I was really happy and surprised.

Mayla · «Reply #19 on: November 21, 2011, 04:01:04 AM »

ted · «Reply #20 on: December 12, 2011, 05:13:38 AM »

My wife's flowers, in particular her roses, came out a treat this year. Too bad she is overseas and missed them.

williampiano · «Reply #21 on: December 13, 2011, 01:19:35 AM »

To upload photos, do I need to have them uploaded to photobucket or something?

I'm sure the answer is staring me in the face somewhere, I'm just not too good with technology if you know what I mean.

ted · «Reply #22 on: December 13, 2011, 01:58:50 AM »

Yes, that is what I do. Upload the picture to photobucket. Click on it and this box will appear:

Clicking on the one called "Direct link" copies it to your buffer, which you then paste into the picture option in your post.

You have to make public any pictures you want to post of course.That is in the "Privacy" options on photobucket.

countrymath · «Reply #23 on: December 13, 2011, 10:14:06 AM »

What camera are you using, Mayla?

Mayla · «Reply #24 on: December 30, 2011, 06:22:03 AM »

ted · «Reply #25 on: February 09, 2012, 03:51:43 AM »

This plump little fellow did not take kindly to having his picture taken.

I realised after posting that it isn't actually a "fellow" at all. The big, bright ones are females and workers. Drones are tiny, totally black bees about the size of small baked beans. You never see them unless you disturb the nest. We have a nest of a couple of dozen residents in a weed patch this year. They are very useful, harmless insects, what with the honeybee population only just starting to recover.

thalbergmad · «Reply #26 on: February 09, 2012, 08:22:37 AM »

That is one bigass bee.

costicina · «Reply #27 on: February 09, 2012, 08:32:01 AM »

With that cute, fluffy insect inside, it’s one of the most charming and unconventional flower I’ve ever seen..

candlelightpiano · «Reply #28 on: February 09, 2012, 04:32:28 PM »

I absolutely LOVE wildflowers and have photos of some. I just need to find them and post them here. Thanks for the great topic!

candlelightpiano · «Reply #29 on: February 10, 2012, 12:54:23 PM »

The common cinquefoil

ted · «Reply #30 on: February 11, 2012, 01:59:07 AM »

Insects in general are going berserk in Auckland at present, something to do with the unusual summer weather I suppose.