It was intermittently drizzling and the weather was quite cool (not compared to the northern hemisphere, but to the high temperatures we have had recently).
We headed up to the Dandenongs, a range of mountains on Melbourne’s eastern outskirts. It is a beautiful spot with fantastic views. On Saturday though, the cloud cover was too low to give us the chance to see the vista. My fall back position was to photo Mountain Ash trees standing in the mist. That didn’t eventuate either.
The day wasn’t a complete washout, Deb and I stopped for a coffee and went for a stroll in some gardens in between some showers of rain.
There were a number of native flowers in bloom including these Banksias.
Banksias were named for Sir Joseph Banks who explored the east coast of Australia with Captain Cook in 1770. Banks was the most famous naturalist of his period. He collected many specimens including Banksia around Botany Bay when the Endeavour stopped there on Cook's First Voyage.Another variety of Banksia in the same area.
This piccie shows an un-opened bud, an open blossom and a withering flower.
Foraging around the flowers for nectar was this New Holland Honey Eater. Normally these little fellows are extremely active. They can be quite hard to photograph, which is why I was happy to post about one before.
This fellow was fluffed up against the rain and just sat and watched me as I moved around for another shot.
If you click on either of the photos to enlarge it you can see the rain splashing down and spots of wet on his tail feathers.
