Emily & I were outside filling up the woodbox in the garage.  It's amazing what flowers you can find when you're not trying to!  There above the wheelbarrow I noticed that the camellia bush is still in flower at the very top:

...and the little Hebe Sunset Boulevard which we were given as a housewarming gift last year is flowering again too!

The Hebe is a native shrub which has hundreds of varieties.  I love this one as it is my favourtie colour, purple!

So I picked a couple of blooms and brought them inside to draw:

Here are my drawings. The girls weren't too interested today, they had just started watching their Friday afternoon movie (The Fox and the Hound)  and have probably had enough of drawing this week!

The quality of some of my photos is not very good, I'll have to study up the camera manual a bit more!!

While I was outside taking photos of the shrubs I spotted a pair of fantails in the nearby tree.  I have tried many a time to snap a photo of one of these little native birds, but they are too quick!  So I have uploaded one from the internet.  Click here to go to a site with an audio file of the fantail's call.