Concepts. Addiction

"Arm-wrestling" with an addiction.

The bottle wins.

Losing the battle against the bottle. (© LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Abutilon Pictum (Redvein Abutilon)

Although these beautiful flowers open by day, they display showy nocturnal deep red cerise colour.

Abutilon pictum 'Nabob', Flowering maple, or Redvein abutilon (Family Malvaceae) is a species of Abutilon native to Brazil and Argentina. It is an erect evergreen shrub growing to 5 m tall, with large, 5–15 cm long, three- to five- (rarely seven-) lobed maple-like leaves and nodding, deep cerise crimson bowl-shaped flowers 6-7cm across with five petals, prominently veined darker red.

Abutilon Pictum (Redvein Abutilon) flowers and buds
(© LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Mediterranean Gulls (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus)

The Mediterranean Gull, Ichthyaetus melanocephalus, is a small gull that breeds almost entirely in the Western Palaearctic.
This gull breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes. Like most gulls, it is highly gregarious in winter, that's when a sizeable flock visits our pond and hangs around until spring. It is not a pelagic species, and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.
The Mediterranean Gull's an opportunistic omnivore, feeding on fish, worms, scraps, insects, offal and even carrion.

Mediterranean Gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus) on the water
(© LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Snug Places

Some snug places to spend an afternoon.

Palm trees on the beach
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Ganoderma applanatum (Artist's Conk)

Ganoderma applanatum (Artist's Bracket, Artist's Conk, or Flacher Lackporling; syn. Boletus applanatus, Fomes applanatus, Fomes vegetus, Ganoderme aplani, Ganoderma lipsiense, Polyporus applanatus, and Polyporus vegetus) is a wide spread wood-decay bracket fungus. The fruit bodies ("conks") are are perennial, woody brackets, also called "conks" up to 30-40 cm across, hard, leathery, woody-textured, and inedible; they are white at first but soon turn dark red-brown and typically grow in a fanlike or hooflike form on the trunks of living or dead trees. Ganoderma is a common cause of decay and death of beech and poplar.

Ganoderma applanatum (Artist's Conk)
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Night Scenes. Flowering Mimosa in the Street Lamp Light

Mimosas or Silver wattle, (Acacia dealbata), are in full flower now, spreading around sweet fragrance and delighting the eye. This particular tree seemed to be embracing the streetlight, and the scene gave me the warm feeling of cosiness despite it being rather cold.

Mimosa, Silver wattle (Acacia dealbata) flowers in the street lamp light
(© LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Purple Bougainvillea

In my humble opinion any garden worth its salt should have a Bougainvillea hedge.
Bougainvillea is a genus of flowering plants native to South America from Brazil west to Peru and south to southern Argentina (Chubut Province). The plant was classified by Europeans in Brazil in 1768, namely by Philibert Commerçon, a French botanist accompanying French Navy admiral and explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville during his voyage of circumnavigation. Shouldn't it be named after the man who classified it, rather than upper class invader?
Bougainvilleas are thorny, woody vines up to 1-12 meters tall, scrambling over other plants with their spiky thorns. The thorns are tipped with a black, waxy substance. They are evergreen unless there is a dry season and bloom almost all year round.
The actual flower of the plant is small and generally white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six bracts with the bright colours that make the plant so attractive: pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, or yellow. The fruit is a narrow five-lobed achene.

Purple Bougainvillea bracts and flowers
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