Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens

Finally, we were able to go out with Danny for a photo shoot at Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens. He had asked Fr. Gerard and myself out for a day sometime before Christmas. With all the holiday demands, we were unable to accept the invite until last Wednesday. Thankfully, the day was just about perfect weatherise!

I won't give you the play by play of the plants, as I am not horticultural. Here are some of the highlights and why I shot the pictures! This is a panoramic image of the park after you enter (1). You can see the Blue Mountains in the distance. Mount Tomah, the mount upon which the gardens sit, is part of that chain.

This image is of the Wollemia Pine (2) which was thought to have been around at the time of the dinosaurs and extinct. A grove of pines were discovered about twenty years ago only in Australia and made international news with botanists from all over coming to see these trees. Since then, they have flourished and here are some fine specimens growing at the gardens.

I love the strange "viney" way these purple flowers grow (3-4). They seem almost like aquatic starfish. And this is just so weird looking (5), like some plant out of Star Trek. I sort of expect it to blink. The lighting was beautiful on these hydrangea (7-8). These were odd, too (12-14); the flowers looked like they didn't belong on these plants. The blooms were also very, very small. Photos 15-16 are of a white flower that didn't look real. The whole plant seemed bleached.

In the middle of the park they have this long water feature (17-19). I love the light on this water lilly (18); the dark leaves in the background sets the flower off nicely. This is a "delayed" shot of Fr. Gerard, our host Danny and myself (19). It gives you a sense of scale of the water feature.

While at the park, we saw something from the States: a "Giant Redwood" or "Sequoia" (20). There were also several varieties of these carnivorus pitcher plants (21-22). And this looked like Seymor from Little Shop of Horrors (26). These floral bells from a succulent looked so waxy they seemed artificial (27). I love the way these plants look like they are on fire, reaching to the sky (28).

A section of the park was dedicated to heaths (29-31). The colors of the different kinds of grasses were wonderful. In the surrounding trees I got some great shots of a tiny bird (32-34) (I don't think it's a hummingbird, as it did not flap its wings as it sucked the nector). At one point it just stopped and looked at the camera; I got lucky with this head-on shot (33). We also spied a couple of cuckaburra (35-36). And there were lots of bees, too (43-44). (How many do you see?) Finally, a selfie at the doors to the gardens on the way out: Danny, Fr. Gerard and myself (48).

I ask that you pray for Fr. Gerard's father who was recently diagnosed with bone cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes and pancreas. The doctors have sent him home as there is no treatment. He recently lost his sister last October so it has been very rough on him and his family. I expect that he will be going home soon to be with his family at this difficult time.

Have a holy Lenten Ash Wednesday…not sure what the week holds but am sure it will be busy!