Not playing, working

We have already mentioned (on April 30) Banksia integrifolia, that beautiful coastal bottlebrush tree that we are lucky enough to have plenty of just behind the beach.

And we mentioned how Banksias are named for Sir Joseph Banks (1743 - 1820), the British naturalist and botanist on Captain James Cook's first great voyage (1768 - 1771).

And on January 6 we mentioned Rainbow lorikeets, the 'beautiful noise' that squawk around here most days. Now that I have a camera, I can put the two together, although on a dull day with zoom the effect is not as good as I'd hoped, and as I hope to bring some time in the future.

These guys look like they're playing, but it's an optical illusion caused by their circus-clown apparel. It's like dolphins and cockatoos -- they always look like they're smiling regardless of how miserable they might be. And lorikeets always looked like they're dressed for fun, but this is no game for them and finding food is just a job, I suppose.

But what's the other tree here? It's one of the Melaleuca family of trees, best known as ti-trees or tea-trees, which give that effective ti-tree oil which is so efficacious for tyreating lots of maladies.