The favourite photos of 2014 - the garden, flower and insect edition

Continuing my 'favourite photos of 2014' series, this is the garden and insect edition.  I love taking photos of pretty flowers, and bees and insects. Our garden changes so much throughout the year and it never looks the same month to month or even year to year.  I post some garden pictures from time to time but I tend to forget them and leave them sitting on the hard drive.

Before I had kids to chase around and take pictures of I spent most of my time practicing my photography on things in the garden. It was what made me love both photography and my macro lens (which I've since upgraded for a much better macro lens).

I've broken the pictures down into seasons. Looking at what I have taken photos of reminds me all the things I haven't captured in the garden - the fruit trees, vegie garden and interesting foliage have been largely ignored for the past year. So I might try and get some of extra pictures of those this year. I hope you enjoy this colourful look at the changing seasons in our garden.

Summer

Summer in our garden is full of bright colours. It gets very hot but the waterlilies do well as do the agapanthus, oriental lilies, flowering grasses and bottle brush. We always have an abundance of purples and pinks and all the grasses and flowers around the ponds do well.

Autumn

Autumn is amazing in Canberra. We have lots of deciduous trees and they always put on a show. The start of Autumn also has the tail end of the flowering plants, like my amazing dahlias. These are followed on by the beautiful Autumn colours. The garden is always full of red, yellows and oranges in Autumn.

Winter

Nothing much happens in the garden for the first half of Winter. Our deciduous trees gradually drop their leaves during April and May but by the start of June it's pretty bare (and cold). As Winter progresses the deciduous trees start budding and the Magnolias burst into bloom. Despite July and August being the coldest months, the second half of July is when some of the bulbs start putting their heads up. First the crocus, daffodils, and jonquils and then the tulips in very late Winter. The fruit trees and flowering deciduous trees burst into bud in August and by late August the garden looks and smells like Spring (even if it is still freezing).

Spring

It's all about the flowering trees and the bulbs.  September is daffodils, blossoms, hellebore's, spring stars and hyacinth. By October and November it's starting to warm up and it's the freesias and lilies taking centre stage. There is always lots of colour, and something different in flower every week.

Insects

If I see a bee, butterfly or interesting insect buzzing around the garden, out comes my macro lens and I try to grab a good shot. They move fast and you have to be quick to even get something in focus, but it's fun and they look so different up close.

The favourite photos of 2014 - the pet edition

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm putting together a few categories of  favourite pictures from 2014.  Today it's our household pets.  Prior to the arrival of the mini-humans, our pets were very well photographed! These days, not so much. I do take a few pics of them here and there, but hardly the volume they used to demand.  I do still think they are pretty cute though, and try to get some nice shots every now and then.

We don't have the typical household pets.  The two house cats, are hardly unusual as far as pets go, but some backyard alpacas and a resident (free range) pigeon are a little less standard.  We also have quite a number of fish - a 6 foot marine tank and our pond goldfish.  I didn't find a single photo of our lovely marine fish and corals, so next time it gets a clean I'm going to try and get some good ones.

The Cats

Mulder and Scully are getting on in years, they are 14 years old now, and lazier than ever.  Days are best spent lazing in the sun and trying desperately to avoid the small children (who love them but aren't all that gentle).

The Alpacas

Not everyone has resident alpacas in their yard.  Ours have been with us 7 years now and are a big part of the family. Astrid and Soren love their furry camelids, and walking them is a part of our daily routine.

It's normal for us to have big fluffy alpacas peering in the door as we eat or watch TV, and to have mobile compost units, that love to help us garden. Look out the window on a hot Summers day and you might see them cooling off in their water sprayers. On a sunny morning they will be laying down on the ground 'sunning' (and looking dead, trust me it freaks people out)!  In Winter they wake up covered in frost, and the rest of the time they hang out guarding the door or the washing.

We love taking them out walking, and they are pretty well known around our area.  Inti is extremely friendly, and likes to give everyone cuddles. Chimu, gets a lot of attention for his big blue eyes!

The Pigeon

A year or two after we moved into our house, we inherited a pigeon. He just turned up and made himself at home.  After awhile we started feeding him, mostly because he was hanging around the door, tapping on it to be fed, and eating the alpacas food.  He is just a common pigeon, but quite a pretty colour.  We weren't planning on him hanging around and named him the very boring 'brown pigeon' or BP as he is commonly referred to. BP loves to sit on the North side of our house, cooing and generally poo-ing everywhere.  About twice a day he does a figure 8 loop over our house just for some exercise.  The rest of the time he is poo-ing our garden and entertaining area and hanging around sitting in random places. I must try and get a photo of him sitting on the umbrella or the wall art. He also likes to 'ski' down the deck balustrade to get his seed.