Sunday Selections # 300
Do you see that title? 300 Sunday Selections posts! That's a bit more than five and a half years.
in the front section of the gardens here, fronting the main road is this stand of Acanthus, also known as Oyster Plant or Bear Claw, depending on who you asked.
these are the flower spikes, let's get a closer look shall we?
the flowers are a delicate pinky purple. I don't see any resemblance to oysters or bear claws, do you?
This is one of our double decker buses, I think we have two or three, this is the J1X, as you can see it is an express to the Airport bus, coming into the city from the hills suburbs several times a day with limited pick-up and set-down stops.
one section of the bus decoration, this is the Australian Aboriginal Dot Painting style.
the back end of the bus. There is another bus with a similar decoration done in shades of green and grey. Every painting tells a story, or has some other meaning, but I don't know the stories.
The bottle brush tree beside my suburban bus stop. Most people stand well back from this as it is usually buzzing with hundreds of bees.
look at this beautiful colour,
with every red spike having a golden tip.
Back in the city, here's a view down the alley opposite the stop I wait at when on my way to visit K. The car you see one that building is in a roof top carpark.
sometimes I like this glass roof, other times I think how hard it would be to keep clean.
these next few photos are reflections in the windows around me as I waited for my bus.
this image is a reflection of the actual building across the street. I was standing right under the window here.
Here's that building with its own reflections of the buildings on my side of the street. And a small piece of the dot painted bus.
How often do you notice the reflections in windows?
more buildings within buildings, almost like framed photos.
this one is reflection overshadowed by the lights inside the building.
Finally, a sight I wish I never had to see,
a gum-spotted footpath. People who spit out their chewing gum should be made to clean these areas, but first you'd have to catch them at it I suppose. Did you know there is a hefty fine in China for spitting gum onto the streets and footpaths? I wonder how they police that and couldn't we copy it here?
Welcome back to Sunday
Selections!
This once-a- week-meme
was originally begun by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock, as a way to showcase some of
the many photos we all take, but don't get around to showing on our blogs.
The rules are very
simple:-
1. post photos of your
choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to me,
River, somewhere in your post
3. leave me a comment so
that I know you've joined in and can come over and see what you've posted.
4. hop on over to
Elephant’s Child to see more of her wonderful photos.
I usually go with a
theme for my Sunday Selections and this week I have another random selection.
Finally, a sight I wish I never had to see,
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Lots of lines and reflections there.
ReplyDeleteLove bottle brush. Sad face...ours died
Author R. Mac Wheeler; yours died? Too much eater perhaps? Or was it just old? Plant another one :)
DeleteLove the bottle brush tree - never saw them before until your blog. I do like your garden/plant photos.
ReplyDeleteGrace; Australia is filled with bottlebrush, along with many other trees and shrubs hardy enough to withstand our climate.
DeleteAround here, that Acanthus plant is called Bear's Breeches. So if you're having trouble imagining those claws, think about pants instead. (It doesn't help much.)
ReplyDeleteMurr Brewster; welcome to drifting, it's so nice to see you here. I'd forgotten the name Bear's Breeches, there's no resemblance to pants either, so I'm wondering now how all these names came about. I have an idea about the oyster name, the top section of the flower does resemble an oyster shell somewhat.
DeleteThe bus paintings are fabulous. It took my eyes a while to see that it was a double decker bus.
ReplyDeleteWe have a small plant called chenille plant. It grows flowers similar to your bottle brush.
Joanne; I'll have to google for images of the chenille plant, it may be something we also have here under a different name. I'll have to see if I can get photos of the other double decker buses. It may require a whole day in the city just sitting and waiting.
DeleteJoanne, your chenille plant is our cats tails, also called red hot cats tails.
DeleteI love buildings that are different!!
ReplyDeletefishducky; I think you'd love Adelaide then, with so many older buildings set among newer ones.
DeleteLove the bottle brush. None of ours are open yet. We always called them oyster plants - and I wondered why.
ReplyDeleteI do look at reflections in windows. Something I think I learned from bloggers.
Another lovely selection.
Elephant's Child; there are lots of bottlebrush trees around here and the bees are loving them. Last week our local white cedar tree burst into bloom and sometimes the buzzing of bees is so loud I can hear it from my back porch. Of course my nose isn't happy about it, but what can one do?
DeleteI love seeing things reflected in windows, they look different, more magical.
I've never heard of acanthus being called anything else. We once had quite a few in our garden. They would flop on hot days, then stand up again at night. The bus looks great from the outside but fortunately it is not a normal bus as it would be so hard to see out of the windows. Yes, a spectacular bottle brush. Importing chewing gum into Singapore is banned, unless it has therapeutic value, such as nicotine gum. I rather wish it was banned here.
ReplyDeleteAndrew; I don't know anyone who calls the shrub acanthus, almost everyone I've met calls it oyster plant and they are surprised when I tell them I know it as bears claws.
DeleteI wish gum could be banned everywhere, I really dislike seeing people in the street constantly chewing and these days they seem to do it with mouths open far more than when we were kids.
Quite so about gum. I don't care how nice looking a person is, if the are chomping away with their mouth open, yuk.
DeleteCongratulations on your grand achievement, River! :)
ReplyDeleteJust across from my cabin a callistemon/bottlebrush has been in full bloom for the past few weeks or so...it's a beautiful rich red.
I wasn't aware of the China fine, but I know in Singapore the fines for littering are high...and it applies to the careless discarding of chewing gum, too; and it's been that way for years. The legendary late Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first prime minister brought in those laws, much to the benefit of Singapore. It's a pity we don't have similar here! It would be more difficult to police here, of course. I hate litter and litterers equally!
I hope you have a good week ahead, River. Cuddles to Angel. :)
Lee; thank you. It's possible Singapore was what I meant when I wrote China, because China was all I could think of at the time. I knew it was someplace Asian.
DeleteI love the rich red of bottlebrush, it's a very Christmassy tree with the green and red and the gold tips on each red spike.
As usual with your selections River we get to see what your eyes have seen. Lovely selection.
ReplyDeleteCathy
Cathy @ Still Waters
Cathy; thank you; I enjoy seeing what others eyes have seen also.
DeleteLee. Lee Kuan YEW had a secure political seat, little opposition made him a bully boy. Admitting most of his reforms were for the better, in the beginning with Malaysia, But Malaysia refused to be pushed around and in the Sixties turned off the twin 54 inch water pipe lines supplying Singapore across the Causeway. Which effectively separated the Union. LAWS. Their drug laws should be implemented here in AQUS.
ReplyDeleteMy English Rose and I were Wed in St Christopher's Church Johore Baru. 20 -june 1953. lived there a few years
River, The glass roof appears to look like fitted Solar Panels.
ReplyDeleteLee. The typo AQUS should read AUS.
ReplyDeleteVest; the roof does look like solar panels, it would be an interesting way of installing them on office buildings and cafes.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of post. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteLove bottle brushes, so vibrant amid our different colours of golds and greens
Margaret-whiteangel; thank you. I think bottlebrushes look Christmassy with their red and green. I've seen pink varieties too, but the red is the best.
DeleteWow you took us on quite a tour acceptable to the town mouse and the country mouse:-)
ReplyDeleteGranny Annie; just a little tour, photos taken as I waited for buses.
DeleteI love all your pictures. The bottle bush tree is quite pretty but it's a shame that bees love it as well.
ReplyDeleteI am in favor of there being a law against gum chewers just spitting out their gum. Probably hard to enforce it but stepping in gum is a nuisance. It's really quite rude for people to do that.
I've often wondered about those plants but now I know they are Acanthus...thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteLove the bus and all those building with their different reflections.
Our King Park Special is in full flour and the C. citrinus is coming into flower. The first one is bright red but the second a different dark pink with those yellow tips on the spikes. They are a delight to see.