365 Days in Nature - Days 25 - 32

Day 32 - also February 1 - I have decided that I will have my own little theme for this month, so every day is going to bloom! A red, velvety old-fashioned rose, which has the most amazing rosy rose perfume!

Day 31 - my most favourite tree is the Jacaranda. Not far from our place, 2.5kms as the crow flies, is a farm that has this amazing driveway. It is so impressive, we can see the purple haze from our place when the trees are in bloom.

Day 30 - a beautiful large moth - would love to identify it but haven't been able to do so.

Day 29 - the cloud formations over the Manning Valley at our place (Artisans On The Hill) are so varied and you'll work out if you check this blog out regularly, that I love clouds!

Day 28 - a beautiful purple Petunia

Day 27 - Another one of our wildlife visitors. This fellow is a Brush-tailed Possum. He is quite common throughout the Eastern third of Australia. However, we have rarely seen them around our property - not sure why.

Day 26 - I love our Rainbow Lorikeets - this one is looking very querulous. He was trying to encourage me to feed him. He will come down and sit on my hand to do this even though he is a wild bird.

Day 25 - I love this shot of one of our large Green Tree Frogs. It was taken on our side glass door so I was able to get the multiple reflections. The frogs come out and sit on our windows in the evening as the internal lights bring lots of insects on which they feast!

365 Days in Nature - Days 17 - 24

Day 24 - This beautiful specimen of a Purple-winged Praying Mantis thought he was camouflaged on my door!

Day 23 - My mother-in-law has green thumbs and always has beautiful flowers in her garden. This Children's Rose is one such example. You will see more as the 365 days progresses

Day 22 - in contrast this shot was taken on a beautiful sunny day when the Jacaranda tree (my favourite) was just bursting into flower - ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Day 21 - You have seen the magnificent Manning Valley from our front door and know that there isn't water in front of our place. However, in June 2011, I shot this photograph when it was in full flood. I was fortunate enough to be able to capture this particular one of the full moon reflected in the flood waters, hopefully a unique shot for me!

Day 20 - living up on a hill looking across the amazing Manning Valley lends itself to some incredible skies. I love clouds and these were magnificent!

Day 19 - we have the most amazing birds in Australia. One of the most famous is our kookaburra, otherwise known as a "Laughing Jackass" because of it's amazing call which sounds as though somebody has just cracked a very funny joke. Just before sunrise most mornings, we have a chorus of 'laughter'. It is wonderful to hear. My mother-in-law has acquired a tame one who comes in every morning and most evenings to be hand-fed. She is gorgeous. We call her 'Radar' because she quite often flies straight into the front windows!

Day 18 - it was a cool, crisp night and the sky was an amazing deep, deep blue, not quite dark and there was the moon just hanging there asking me to take a photo... so I did!

Day 17 - Another tiny spider web coated with dew. We have hundreds hiding in the grass on our front paddock that you only ever notice when it's a dewy morning. This particular one just needed grayscale!

365 Days in nature - Days 9 - 16

Day 16 - we have visits from our Australian wildlife quite often at Artisans ...on the hill. This fellow stopped to check us out before he continued on his way lolloping across the front paddock!

Day 15 - If you follow this blog for any length of time, you will notice I take photos of a variety of things in nature. However, I do have my favourites and spider webs are one of these. This photo I took a few years ago on a very cold and misty morning in a timber yard in Queenstown on the west coast of Tasmania. I can just about feel the cold still!

Day 14 - I love lavenders - this one is specially propagated for New South Wales' humidity (cross between a french and Italian variety). It is small of stature and clumps beautifully. Not a lot of perfume except in its crushed leaves, but a beautiful and profuse flowering bush

Day 13 - we have lots of native ducks who visit us regularly, but we have one pair who live here permanently, so they've been named!

Day 12 - storm approaching over the Manning Valley this afternoon. Temperature dropped from 43C (109F) to 26C (79F) in less than an hour! As well, we got a much-needed downpour!

Day 11 - one of our small green tree frogs - we have three different sizes here and you will see all them probably several times as I love frogs!

Day 10 - a closeup of a dragonfly

Day 9 - My husband Peter sitting at the base of a beautiful old fig tree - I just love the root system and the trunk

365 Days in Nature mission - Days 1 - 8

Day 8 - we get some pretty spectacular full moons. I liked this one in particular.

Day 7 - one of our local, occasional residents

Day 6 - just a hole in a rock but what a beauty - love the reflection

Day 5 - Where we live we have an abundance of wild birds. The rainbow lorikeets are particularly tame and love to come in and feed

Day 4 - I live in the beautiful Manning Valley on the mid-north coast of New South Wales in Australia. I am fortunate to work where I live. My husband, Peter and I own a small business, which we set up as a lifestyle change from Sydney. It is called Artisans ...on the hill. It is set up at the (nearly) top of a hill and the vista from the front doors is through the heart of the valley. We look directly east so we get up in the morning to the rising sun. The view is different every morning and, during this year of nature photography, you will see many different moods of the valley. Today's is a misty morning.

Day 3 - an interesting visitor the other day - a bit bigger than we normally see (approximately 13cms/5 inches across), but just a Hunstman, so I let him live!!!

Day 2 - an amazing reflected sunset on the back end of a storm front

Day 1 - Ok, so I've decided to join a group called "365 days in Nature". This group has been set up by a lovely lady who calls her Facebook page 'Me & My Million Blogs. I have been following her for sometime now and find lots of what she has to say fascinating. As well, she is a great photographer, so when she suggested this project for 2013, I hopped on board. So here goes.