Guest Speaker at Mannum

Calothamnus flower

Yesterday I had the delight of being the guest speaker at the Mannum Garden Club. The small river port of Mannum is less than an easy half hour drive from my home. Like Murray Bridge, it is situated on the banks of the River Murray here in South Australia.

I should add that the speaking duties were actually shared with my wife. Almost exactly three years ago I spoke to the group about Australian birds, so this was an invite back to this very friendly group. I modified my talk this time around, talking about how to attract birds to our gardens, in particular native species. Because my wife accompanied me – and shared in the talk – I tapped into her expertise in the area of native Australian plants. We focussed on those species we knew would grow well in the area, and which would attract our birds. We made a good speaking team and were well received.

And the chats over morning tea were engaging – made even more pleasant by the lavish good old country style cooked cakes and biscuits.

I have another talk about birds coming up at the end of June to another group here in Murray Bridge, and just a short while ago had a call from the president of the local bird club, asking me to speak again at their meeting in two weeks’ time.

Offer: I’m getting to be quite in demand as a guest speaker. Book me up while I still have vacancies in my diary. I’ll even travel interstate if a plane ticket is included in the deal!

Photos:

Instead of photos of birds today, I thought I treat my readers to some of the flower photos I showed the group yesterday. Enjoy.

Further reading:

• Mannum South Australia – official website of this wonderful holiday destination
• Mallee Native Plant Nursery – link to my wife’s site about Australian native plants.

Banksia flower

Callistomen flower ("Bottlebrush")