Mt Cootha

I attended a little digital camera workshop at Mt Cootha Botanic Gardens yesterday and, of course, took loads of photos.  It is such a beautiful place!  Here is a selection of the photos I took:
Magnolifiscense to begin!.................

And Treasures of the Lotus Pond to finish......

I hope everyone has the Sunday they have dreamed of.

Frogs!

There was a bit of raunchiness happening outside our front door today.  I felt like a bit of a voyeur taking photos but.... oh well... they kept going anyway.  They are Striped Marsh frogs and live around the ponds in my yard, though these two chose a plant saucer next to the pond for their rendezvous.  During the night the males call with a toc toc sound that resembles two pieces of bamboo being struck together, they all seem to have slightly different tones and sound like bamboo wind-chimes when there are a few of them competing for the attention of the females together.  The eggs are fertilised as they are laid and appear as a mass of foam around the frogs.  

The music is "You Can Leave Your Hat On" by Joe Cocker.

I apologise for the poor quality of the slides - it is the first time I have saved a slide show, turned it into a movie and then posted it here..... or anywhere! Next time I will save it larger so the pictures are clearer.

Kezia, who is 13, reckons that to her the frogs sound like the facebook chat alert on her MacBook!