Mihaela Limberea Photography

Since our Swiss garden is pretty small, so are the photo opportunities as we have considerably fewer flowers now. And no butterflies yet - we have bought some lavender plants, but it'll be some time until they bloom and hopefully attract insects. We don't have any bulb flowers either, we'll plant those in the fall for next spring.

In the meantime, I turned to macro photography, lying on the ground for the sake of perspective (and hope nobody took a picture of ME, lying on my belly with the head at a curious angle and my derrière in the air; hilarious, really,  I'd say if it were about someone else).

A portion of our terrace is covered with reddish peebles, between which grow succulents. It's really beautiful, with the green of the plants against the red peebles.  

All photos taken using Canon EOS 5D Mark III and Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro.

Gardening season - at last! The garden we have here in Switzerland is much smaller than the one we left behind in Sweden, but a garden it is, nonetheless. And for Swiss conditions, it's not bad at all. Because the country is pretty small and most of it consists of mountains, terrains are really gold and hard to come by. They are pretty small, houses built very close together and with minimal gardens. Ours is a new development and the distance between houses is considerable larger than usual here, the garden too. Which is why we decided for this house, among others.

Minette, who's almost one year old now, loves it too and keeps a protective eye on it from the vantage point on top of the hill where the stone cat doubles as garden guard while Minette is out on patrol. 

In Switzerland you want to be on top of the hill, for the view.

Pink bougainvillea that reminds me of Australia - I miss it so much!

Serves me right to complain about Swiss weather (see my last post)! After that louzy weather last weekend the spring decided to put an apparition in Kanton Zürich at last!

Not too bad, considering I shot all these photos during a thirty minutes lunch break with three lenses.

Shot with Canon EOS 5D Mark III and Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro and Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II.

As promised, here comes "Best of Australia: Part Three", featuring the Sydney Chinese Garden.

The Chinese Garden of Friendship is situated in the Darling Harbour, close to the Chinatown. The garden is modeled on the typical gardens of the Ming Dynasty. Above - the Dragon Wall.

A lizard in the garden, not at all shy to pose.

One can rent traditional Chinese costumes, as the two girls above did. They looked beautiful in those costumes, and spent the afternoon taking pictures of themselves in different spots in the garden.

Entering the garden is like stepping back in time in the quiet solitude of Chinese architecture.

You can spend a relaxing afternoon in the garden with a good book, sipping the heavenly jasmine tea served in a traditional Chinese Teahouse overlooking the lake and watching the sparrows that are on the lookout for crumbs.

The garden was designed by Sydney's Chinese sister city Guangzhou and opened in 1988 as part of the Sydney's bicentennial celebrations. It was named Garden of Friendship symbolizing the bond established between China and Australia.

Here are the young girls again, taking photos on the small bridge.

Frangipani flowers - I love them!

And here are the girls again in a different part of the garden, comparing the photos on their mobile phones.

You cannot see the whole garden from any point within the garden.

The bonsai collection.

The garden depicts the wild aspects of nature with water features and beautiful trees and flowering plants.