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Signs of Summer

I have been spending a little more time in our garden lately, and have noticed that this week it is definitely showing signs of summer. This morning, I took a break from weeding and photographed  many bushes and trees with their flowers coming to an end after the Spring burst....  like the bottlebrushes (above), shedding their flower spikes; the last Kangaroo paw, waving in the breeze....
and the Dianella droppingtheir bright purple berries .... 

but some are still in full bloom like the purple melaleuca....
and the 'Robyn Gordon' grevillea which seems to flower all year round
  I want the Australian Christmas bush, with just a few buds opening now, to slow down so it will be beautiful for Christmas.... 
While most of our garden is native,  the little chameleon roses are blushingly beautiful,  but the summer aphids are also busy as you can see from this photo ...
and this year, I planted a hydrangea cutting, and its first flowers appeared this week peerless pink ... 
It seems that summer is also appearing in my art work - I made cards for a handmade sale on the weekend and this was my most popular sale item ... the summer tree series....
These are made with cardboard cut outs of trees pasted to card, over an overlay of " ground" from decorative paper, and  buttons sewn at the end of the branches to represent leaves or buds. 

I gave them exotic names, too,  for example  Middle Earth tree ... Cherry Blossom tree...  I had so much fun making these..... 
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