Tag Archives: Rocklea

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Keeping bees

Keeping bees is a fun and relaxing hobby (if you don’t get stung!). I had no idea how honey was made and how bees interacted before I invested in my first FlowHive. Their hierarchy and relationship to their queen, their breeding cycle and the distance they fly to look for flowers are just some of the fascinating reasons for keeping bees.

Investing in a Beehive has been a calculated venture – even though it is an expensive hobby there are a lot of returns on investment. My good neighbour Rudi was complaining that his veggie garden wasn’t getting polinated as the flowers of his tomatoes and zucchinis were dropping and not providing any fruit.  We will have free, fresh honey, we are learning about something totally new, and are doing our part for nature.

Rocklea Reds

In Brisbane, there are two types of flowering trees that stand out from the rest – they are Poinciana‘s and Jacaranda‘s. During my time as a student at UQ (Saint Lucia campus) and a footballer at New Farm Park, I used to have a great appreciation for Jacaranda trees. I loved the subtle and relaxed feeling of the purple flowers – they give you a sense of zen.

Then I moved to the suburb of Rocklea.

Flamboyant poinciana

The firey red – sign of passion.

Flamboyant Poiciana bokeh - pardon the pun

Shot on Canon FL 55mm f/1.2 lens

There is a tree down the street where I live that was flowering late last year. Since I got myself a new (old) Canon FL 55mm f/1.2 lens, I just had to go down and take some photos. That tree, in its flamboyant greatness, screams fire and passion. I took one of the pods I found on the ground and planted 3 seeds, all of which have since sprouted and are now growing. I will be planting one in my front yard to carry on the legend of the Rocklea Reds.

As a side note and worth mentioning here, the exhaust towers for the Clem 7 tunnel were covered in colours representing Jacaranda’s and Poinciana. The tower at The Gabba is covered in purple panels, and the one at Bowen Hills, is covered in red panels. In this article, local residents of the Gabba complained about the “monstrosity” that had been built there. I personally could not have thought of a better way to cover a tunnel exhaust and the idea of the Jacaranda and Poinciana colours is quite cool – IMHO.

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Poinciana boken.


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