TEA, ANYONE?

T2 is a chain of stores offering Australia’s biggest range of teas from all around the world. It has 38 stores nationwide, making it Australia’s leading tea retailer, offering the country’s largest range of premium, fragrant tea and tea wares from all around the globe. T2 has grown over the last 16 years, and now sells enough tea per month to make 8 million cups! These photos of their beautiful window display at their Little Collins St shop in Melbourne was taken early in the morning.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme.

MORNING SHADOWS

Morning on the Yarra River, just after sunrise.

This post is part of the Shadow Shot Sunday meme.

WINTRY DAY

We have had some good rain in Melbourne as Autumn turned to Winter. This is a favourite vantage point of me when taking photographs, the corner of Elizabeth and Bourke Sts, looking towards the Southeast, across to the Mall.

This post is part of the Weekend in Black and White meme,
and also part of the Weekly TopShot meme.

AIRBORNE

From a recent flight to Sydney.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

IMPATIENS

Amongst the annuals that can grow and flower well in the shade, there are few that provide the range and intensity of colour of Impatiens, an important genus in the family Balsaminaceae. Impatiens are one of the most popular bedding plants because of their beauty and ease of growth. New Guinea Impatiens (Impatiens x hawkeri) have only recently become popular bedding plants since their introduction in 1972. Most are grown in hanging baskets or as potted plants for transplanting into the landscape or as container plants for the patio or window boxes.

The majority of cultivars are currently propagated vegetatively, although seed-propagated cultivars have recently come to the market. Several plants were brought back form New Guinea and were initially given separate species names. However, cytogenetic work has shown that they belong to one species (Impatiens hawkeri) but a lot of variation exists within the species. Crosses with additional species form Java and the Celebes islands has led to the plants in production today. Recent breeding have concentrated on shorter plants, shorted production times, heat and water stress tolerance, and variation in flower and foliage size and colour.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

FLYING TO SYDNEY

I am in Sydney for work and enjoying some slightly better weather (expecting 21˚C maximum and sunny, compared to 16˚C and cloudy/showery for Melbourne). Not that I am enjoying much of the great outdoors as I am confined to buildings and meetings… Nevertheless, it’s good to be able to go from one place to another without getting wet or being cold. I always enjoy visiting Sydney, but at the same time I always enjoy leaving it. It would be a difficult city to live in, but always a lovely place to visit. These are some photos I took from my window seat on the plane, when flying in to Sydney.

This post is part of the Waterworld Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme.

ZINNIA AND BEE

Zinnia is a genus of 20 species of annual and perennial plants of the family Asteraceae. They are native to scrub and dry grassland in an area stretching from the Southwestern United States to South America, with a centre of diversity in Mexico. Members of the genus are notable for their solitary long-stemmed flowers that come in a variety of bright colours. The name honours genus German botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn (1727–59).

This post is part of the Nature Footsteps Floral Macros meme,

And also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme.

GINKGO IN AUTUMN

Ginkgo is a genus of highly unusual non-flowering plants, commonly called ginkgo, with one living species, G. biloba. The ginkgo is a living fossil, with fossils recognisably related to modern ginkgo from the Permian, dating back 270 million years. The most plausible ancestral group for the order Ginkgoales is the Pteridospermatophyta, also known as the "seed ferns". This is a ginkgo tree that I grew in our garden from seed that I got from Melbourne University when I was a student (a long time ago...).

The yellow colour scheme is the natural colour, while the orange tones are my colour manipulation, to heighten even more the autumnal effect!

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,

and also part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,

and also part of the Nature Footsteps Inspiring Photography meme.

AFTERNOON SUN

Long shadows of a rapidly advancing afternoon in Autumn...

This post is part of the Shadow Shot Sunday meme.

DENUDED

Bare branches, bare trees;
Cold felt by denuded twigs.
It's autumn again.

This post is part of the Weekend in Black and White meme.