Full bloom (in a difficult year)

Continued removing Geraldton Carnation weed and Freesia. Some of the freesia appears to have been sprayed, but a lot hasn't, so we are trying to remove it before it goes into flower.
Went for a walk around the bushland looking at what is going to be in flower for the Bush to Beach walk on the 12th Sept.

 The hardenbergia is still out - though will finish soon if we don't get more rain.

The Sowerbia laxiflora (Vanilla Lilly) is not as prolific as most years, but still quite abundant.

 I believe this is a greenhood orchid - but no idea which one.

This Thelymitra macrocarpa (Scented Sun Orchid) has been coming up in the same spot beside the path for years. I have never seen another one anywhere else in the bushland. It is just putting up its flowering spike now - not sure whether it will be in flower in time for the walk.

We usually have lots of these cowslip orchids ... only a few around this year. They are always a welcome sight.

Joe Tonga has been installing bat boxes in the bushland. Go to his website for some interesting video clips about how successful they are!

We don't see many of the cat's paws. There is only one Kangaroo Paw in the bushland that I know of. Not sure why.

There are lots of conostylis - of various varieties.

This year the number of donkey orchids seems much lower than usual.

These Running Postmen are relatively inconspicuous, but seem well represented this year.

Last year we had carpets of these everlastings (Podolepis gracilis). This year there are relatively few of them. This patch is occupying a patch where we removed a mound of rubble from the bushland, so it is nice to see it being colonised by local plants.

This shrub is a wattle that was brought into the bushland with gravel from the hills to make the road that this path follows. We are watching it to make sure it doesn't become a weed.

These blue lechanaultia are not flowering yet, and well worth a visit when they do flower. They are another import to the bushland - probably brought in when the Army built a Prisoner of War Camp here during the second world war and used gravel from the hills to make their parade ground. There are few remains left of the POW Camp, but these plants remain.

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August activities as usual

August is always a time of keeping up with the weeds - this weekend I was mainly following up on Geraldton Carnation Weed and a few freesias.

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This is the best time of the year!

The bushland is stirring back to life after a long dry autumn and brief wet winter ... suddenly wave after wave of plants comes into flower to greet us as we arrive in the bushland. This week hoveas and hardenbergia were in flower. Also a few weeds such as Lachenalia ...
John, Vicki, and I did an hour or so of weeding Geraldton Carnation Weed before our committee meeting.
The main substantive issues addressed in the committee meeting were:
* recommencing negotiations with the Health Department on managing their bushland
* doing separate spraying for Freesias and Lachenalias
* getting a botanist to help us do a monitoring survey
* removing mounds

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