Garden delights

I'm home feeling sorry for myself with some sort of chest infection/cold/flu :( And annoyed because I can't get out to explore? So I'm exploring my photo collection instead. Having fun finding photos I'd forgotten I had, revisiting places we've been and people we know.

But these are some that I took yesterday in my own garden. Banksia 'Birthday Candles' is low-growing and colourful, a gift from a friend. Hakea orthorrhyncha Bird's Beak Hakea is a plant from Western Australia that seems to like the spot I put it in. (Not all WA plants like it here in the east). But it hides it light under a bushel - all the flowers are hidden inside the shrub. I just looked up 'bushel' in the dictionary and found out it's a Celtic word that means 'in the hollow of the hand'. And the last one is a Bell-fruited Mallee Eucalyptus preissiana. You can see how big the flowers are by comparing the size of the ants inside. When it's fully in flower, as it will be in a few weeks, it's a stunning shrub.