Sometimes you drive along the same round a thousand times before you stop to look at the nature with a more discerning, attentive eye. The bush on this stretch of lonely road edges the Angelsea Heath, and in the last few years, it's been burnt off in that strange Australian tradition of burning all the undergrowth in the hope it'll stave off fires. It's old growth forests that are, interestingly, the most fire proof - but we've also logged all of those. Still, even the burnt forests regenerate quickly, many species relying on fire to set seed. Anyway, it looked beautiful enough to park my van on the side of the road and go for a wander.

Here, it's late Winter, and there's life everywhere - banksias, yellow wattles, sundews - a type of carnivourous plant. You can see their strange alien flower on the right below - I've never seen it before, though I've seen the plant itself everywhere. Drosera hookeri, I think.

Sadly, I didn't get this as sharp as I would have liked, but there was a breeze, and it was raining. Very beautiful, but not that easy to take macro.

Bracken of course is everywhere - I love the shape of it, even the brown, dead leaves that make such good tinder. Everything is just a stunning kaleidoscope of greens, browns and blacks, with the occasional splash of yellow or pink.

The sundew are a pinky red and basically carpet the ground. Now I'm looking into them I'm quite confused. This flower is very different from the other one above - is it a different sort of drosera, or is the other not a drosera at all?

I know you guys were super worried that I was writing a nature post without a mushroom, but never fear - I found one! It's not really mushroom season although apparently there's morels in the central goldfields.. I'd love to find them!

I love the tender tendrils and filaments of lichen on the trees - it's so crazy that they're fungi and algae, the original plant that inspired botanical understands of mutualism or symbiosis!

Many little spikey banksias sprout from the wet leaf litter - they are a smaller variety I think. Nonetheless, instantly recognisable.

If you don't know much about Australian plants, all these charred trees might be depressing. But they're the only species that send off new shoots and branches from their trunks after a fire, and quite quickly too. Doesn't the charcoal black look stunning against the green, especially in the rain?

Can you guess what kind of scat this is? Place your guesses in the comment section below! Could it be a drop bear? Or something else?

Hope you enjoyed my little walk through the forest in the rain. Happy Wednesday - and remember, focus on the good things. There's no use in focusing on all the shit in the world - the media wants you to be unhappy. Negative news sells. There IS good in the world. There IS!

With Love,

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