A Visit to Blue Mountains Botanic Garden

Father Leonides, my associate, and I took a mental health day and headed to a "botanic garden" on Mount Tomah in the Blue Mountains. I had been here a couple times before but Fr. Leo had not, so we went to enjoy a perfect day. The sun was shining when we started though it got cloudy by 2 pm. These first few shots are of some lovely orchids (I think) that greeted us in the welcome center. The park sits atop the crest of Mount Tomah and so you can see faraway from the entry. If you look carefully, you will see dark patches in the distance where (sadly) the bush fires destroyed the surrounding trees.

You could hear the sound of the water feature throughout the first park of the park. It emptied into a modern basin and then dribbled down into a free flowing rock bed that snaked through different gardens. As the park sits atop a mountain, it's all down hill from the visitor's center!

Immediately after the waterfall we entered a desert like setting. Still there was lots to see and many flowers to attract the bees. So exotic!

Rhododendrens bloomed with gusto! I had never been to the park in the Spring and so had missed the fireworks. Above is a compliation of shots takes throughout the park. As you can see they bloomed in different colors. (Not sure if the yellow are a kind of Rhododendren or not. According to signage, these are a speciaes of plant from China.)

Here is a hodgepodge of some of the rest of the scenery in the park. Lots of massive trees with winding paths that make it feel like a bigger park than it really is. (I estimate it might be a couple of acres at most.) We walked casually and were able to see the whole park in about an hour.

When I had had visitors from the States a few years back, I had wanted to take them to this park but the weather did not cooperate. The day we planned to go started cold and windy. You wouldn't want to be on this mountaintop park on a windy day!

So much noise from cicadas! We almost needed ear plugs! The park felt so alive with butterflies, birds, bees and the cicada symphony.

Dahlias were also in bloom. Fopr me they takefirst prize for most stunning in terms of size of blooms and vibrancy of colors!

Near the entrance of the park was a more formal garden with wisteria in full bloom, snapdragons snapping and a powerful display of pansies!

Finally, I leave you with some miscellanious shots of lorikeets in our backyard sucking up the nectar from bottlebrushes in bloom. They were so greedy they didn't even care about me or my camera!