New Year's Eve orchids and fireworks : December 31 2023

Wake to a grey day and a wet forecast. Was good to not hear a baby crying during the night. Spent the morning doing investing accounts from the week before. Did get out on the bike after lunch to walk looking for orchids

Parked the bike and saw this little fly - was happy to stay for the photo. No ID idea

Lots of native violets flowering

Quite a lot of Asiatic dayflower flowering. I tend to ignore it as it is an invasive weed. Did stop for this photo

This is the bonus - an insect chomping away - no ID yet.

Found a few hyacinth orchids - the recurved petals suggests this is rose hyacinth orchid - dipodium roseum

Budding slender hyacinth orchid - note the spots on the pedicel

Most of the photos of the flowering dipodium variegatum were out of focus - light too low. This photo of buds is better..weird as the narrow targets tend to be hardest to get focus

Dipodium variegatum

Lots of these flowering. Arthropodium is the broad genus. The particulars is an undescribed species - nice to find them twice on two visits

A few more dipodium variegatum

Banksia serratum are now flowering - not many

Turning point under the big trees and the pampas grass

Interesting mushroom form

Fire ant protecting their nest - did get nipped by one. It stings for a good 10 minutes

Twining glycine

More fly action - no idea on ID

One dipodium variegatum on the way back

Dipodium punctatum closing up shop - makes for 3rd orchid type for the day

Good to get out the bike. Route included riding down to pub for dinner and 9 pm fireworks. Was a lovely small town event with a few visitors. Dinner arrived faster than our last visit. We were joined by a Vietnamese family not long in the country

Location shot - Heads Hotel

View up the river

Fireworks - image hacked from my own video

Fireworks ran 15 minutes with a good low level display bubbling away punctuated by quite a few mega rockets. Was a fun time.

We cycled back directly after the fireworks ended. My wife went across to visit her friend. I sipped on a gin, updated my Actifit post and listened to jazz. Watched the fireworks from Sydney on mute on my own. A moment of quiet peace. Happy New Year
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Cycling, Daily Activity, Photowalking