First full day in Sydney, 2007

I couldn't work in the National Herbarium of New South Wales until 9 am on Tuesday, so I took a walk around the area and the Royal Botanic Gardens early in the morning.



Hotel Ibis at World Square is very near the monorail line.











The monorail is very quiet. I was amazed when one of the trains scooted by overhead.








This was another site that reminded me of New York city. There were also kiosks for newspapers and a lot of shops of all sorts lining the streets.

Starbucks? You bet! There were several different coffee shops all through the area.







I also got a kick out of the mix of architectural styles. Very old facades were squeezed in between gleaming structures of metal and glass.










The fountain at Hyde park was even more striking in the early morning sun.












Here's another study in contrasts - flashy motorbikes with a portal to The Domains.













The Royal Botanic Gardens are very nicely presented. It's always a pleasure to take a walk through the area, especially if you know the paths that circumvent the flying fox roosting zone.








I did some trial pics with my 300 mm zoom lens. Not as good as a macro lens, but servicable and much easier than having to constantly switch from one lens to the other.















The trumpet flowers of this Solanaceae plant are always lovely to see. The morning sun made them appear translucent.







Some of the garden's fig trees are becoming dangerous in their senescence. This one was fenced off as a hazard zone because of the possiblility that a massive branch could snap without warning.









Here's a grey teal that was dabbling in one of the garden's ponds.


















The flying foxes were returning to their roosting trees, too.

















Mmmmmmm. wood!







Another practice photo with the 300 mm zoom. I don't know this plant, so I can't give you a name.











This one, however, is a Banksia. Banksia robur, I believe.










A juvenile Australian magpie was busy digging out something in this pile of stuff.










I found another part of the garden to explore and saw this lovely house. I wonder what's in there?









That interesting tree is a Queensland bottle tree. It almost looks like it's mooning the garden.









Here's a nice view of the opera house and harbor bridge in better lighting than I had the previous evening.









Ditto for the downtown skyline.











Somehow, I don't think this view would grow old very fast. It's really a beautiful place to take a morning walk.





However, 9 am rolled around eventually and I had a very full and productive day in the herbarium (the entrance is shown here). I photographed herbarium sheets of Euphrasia and did some tissue sampling for some DNA work I'll do in my lab at OSU. I worked all the way up to closing and then grabbed a pizza on my way back to my hotel as it was turning dark. Having the place pretty much to myself enabled me to get through more than half the Euphrasia collection during my first day of work here.