As the title says, here are a few little bits of beauty I have noticed and photographed in the last few weeks. Sometimes we can get so much from just stopping and enjoying the beautiful things around us instead of always rushing past to wherever we are going. 

Of course I write this to myself just as much as anyone. This though is one good thing about photography, you have to stop and look around and sometimes even seek out the beautiful things God has here for us to enjoy. Look around and make sure you don't miss out the beautiful things he sends you each day, because you forget to look and really see.

 What lovely things have happened in your life recently?

When did you last notice and thank God for the flowers he sends you?

Lately I have been very busy, mostly with photos. I have mentioned Austockphoto before, but in case you don't know, it is a stock photography site that is set to launch August the 1st, I am a contributor (photographer) to it. So I have been taking photos, editing them, and adding keywords to them. And I did such a good job of the keywording part that I now have a job with Austockphoto editing the keywords, categories, titles and such of the other photographers. It just happen quite out of the blue but it is just amazing to be part of that, everyone else on the team is so friendly and it is just pretty cool. 

I thought I'd give you a glimpse of some of the hundreds of photo I have been taking recently. Because they are all just so pretty, if I do say so myself. These are just a few of the beautiful plants and flowers I have come across recently. 

Do you have a favourite?

Have you had any nice surprises recently?

Over the last few years I have seen more of these flowers appearing. I am not sure what they are but they grow in many places in the paddock next door. 

A photo post! I don't seem to often do posts that are just photos nowadays, but this one shall be. Saying that, if you don't like bugs or at least photos of them then there is not much point in looking further because that is all there is here. I took these photos while observing flowers and pollinators for the Wild Pollinator count. I don't own a macro lens, so these are taken with an everyday kit lens with a filter which is kinda like a magnifying glass screwed onto it.

I also saw a cool looking leaf cutter bee, but I just could not get a clear photo of it..... or any for that matter she just flew to fast. All of these critters are quite small.

  

I have only read three books from this series -Tales of Goldstone Wood by Anne Elisabeth Stengl- but they are all really good and I want to read the rest of the books too. Heartless is the first book in the series, Starflower is the fourth and Draven's Light is number seven and a half. They are fantasy books, in which lurk dragons and other evil powers, which are trying destroy the world or capture peoples hearts, but also there are brave men and women of courage. It made me think of this quote by C. S. Lewis;

“Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.”

I have not done one of these post for a while, simply because I could not find enough wildflowers to be post worthy. But I have found more now that spring has sprung. I only know the names of one kind though.

I bought a new lens for my camera the other week and I am so happy with it. To be exact it is a "Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS USM Lens" It rained the first few days after I got it, but finally the sun came out, as did all the spring flowers. I took Ann for a walk up the road.... and did a photo shoot of a kind, and got some smiles. (even though she was not in the best mood)

That title.... well maybe I should have stuck with "Of Photos of flowers" or "Of Flower Photos"... Something does not sound right with it, oh well. I can't be bothered with changing the photo, so concerning photos of flowers.... This is another post where you can see how different my photos are now, to what they were years ago, and read my critiquing of my past self (or past photographs anyway). Although back then I did occasionally fluke onto a photo I still like now. As with the photo heading this post, I took that back in 2007. 

A few days after taking all those photos of books, glasses and keys, (can be found in previous post) I was able to borrow an old pocket watch from a friend. Naturally that entitled another photo shoot of my books and the watch and pieces of the insides, pieces of time....

When winter was forgotten

Autumn spun straight to spring

The drying leaves had not yet dropped

Yet out, burst a flowery thing

Rosy leaves remain on branches

On trees to which leaves should not cling

Not in the winter season anyway but

Already to them have come, the blossoms of spring

Most mornings and many afternoons this month and the end of last, a flock of screeching birds fly over our house and land in one of the tall gum trees next to it. I counted over twenty birds most days. Bright colours flashing they settle into the branches of a gum and almost disappear, except that they screech to one another continually and when they move there is a flash of vibrant colour before they meld back in to the green leaves and blue sky. Then there is the click, click, click of their beaks as they snip at the pink or pale yellow gum blossoms. 

We went wandering in the paddock next door again as we often do whenever we have a visitor. Looking out over the river and low lands at the bottom of the cliff is beautiful. I took photos of all the flowers I saw while walking. I quite like these fluffy yellow ones, even the plants are an unusual colour. They are almost blue rather than green. You can see the size of the actual plant in the photo below.

The following photos are all the wild flowers I could currently find flowering. 

Dandelion

These two though similar are different flowers, you can tell by the plant leaves, though if I hadn't been looking specifically for different types I probably would not have noticed.

These turn into horrible balls of prickles when they seed and are a great trouble to get out of shoes and clothing.

Fire-weed

I should really call this post "weeds" or something of the like, because I think every one of these plants that are flowering at the moment are weeds.

Box-thorn bush

We call these carpet plants, because they spread allover the ground.. and are really hard to pull out.

Farmers Friends otherwise known as stickybeaks