Protea

I was a little early for the debut of this large protea flower. Still, there was much to admire in the texture of this bud and the arrangement of the leaves.

Leucospermum cordifolium - Pincushion

A time for celebrating the start of the Lunar New Year and on the second day of these two days of public holiday, I am lucky to have some precious time to put these South African beauties up on my blog. Proteas! What a difference they would make to any garden. From a distance they look like mirages of sea anemones floating in front of me. Closer they are like pincushions (hence the common name) and once I was right in front of them I just could not stop taking photos. I must make a resolution to choose my subjects and take time to frame my photos and pay greater attention to lighting and focusing. Since time was unlimited, I took the easy out by taking shots the way one would devour food as if there is no tomorrow. Seriously, I should be more disciplined because the result of this runaway habit of mine is stores of digital images, half of which should never have been taken.

Then again, how could I have resisted nature's show of how life is celebrated through the flowering of plants like these.

Flowers in Australia - Protea

This flower is a protea but because it has so many varieties, it gets rather complicated when it comes to trying to identify it accurately. For now, I am not going to overload my brain. This particular bloom and the bud below were photographed in the Tasmania Botanical Gardens in summer. These lovely flowers are found in South Africa and Australia.

Leucospermum cordifolium - Pincushion Protea

Family: Proteaceae

Common names: Pincushion

I saw these flowers in a place where I never expected to see flowers. It was indeed a pleasant surprise that greeted me as I stepped into a room where I found myself alone, undisturbed and with my new camera in my handbag. How could I ever resist this opportunity to photograph, and photograph. I sort of knew they were proteas that are native to South Africa. I have never been to South Africa but I had a penpal from Cape Town and for more than 4 years we corresponded fortnightly, weekly and those were the days when the arrival of an aerogramme from the post was the highpoint of my schoolgirl existence.

My pen pal was a few years older than me and through her I learned much about South Africa. Of course those days of Apartheid did not really make much sense to me and Nelson Mandela was not mentioned. It was only much later that I realised what it must have been like in those days of Apartheid. Though she tried to explain, it was just explained in a matter-of-fact way and so the impact was lost on me. She also sent me many postcards that showed the natural beauty of South Africa including flowers such as the Protea. That was how I could identify this flower without much trouble and a search using Google confirmed my hunch.

Today, when I saw these flowers, memories came back and it would be nice if I could get in touch with this pen pal of mine again.