Category: ZONE 1

We have passed the Summer solstice and so are heading towards Winter again. But before we turn fully away from the Spring here is that familiar transition from Winter to Summer as expressed by the interwoven wisteria and jacaranda. The blossoms come, the leaves come, the blossoms fall, the leaves come… the blossoms fall but… Continue reading 4 stages to Summer

Fungus, they appear seemingly out of nowhere. But this nowhere is not nowhere but the life-full earth. Neither plants nor animals they have a kingdom all of their own. They web the earth with a super network of connectivity and partnership, unseen, until the rain calls up a fruiting body, sometimes elegant, sometimes delicate, sometimes… Continue reading What lies beneath

The thin trunk and the thinner branches are covered with scaly encrustations from some sort of bug infestation. The tree, a eucalyptus (Eucalyptus saligna) is dead. It must have been struggling. This strange spot between the two houses is perhaps inhospitable. The four blueberry ashes (Elaeocarpus reticulatus) have slowly died. Two have already been removed.… Continue reading Is it the ground?

Every now and again in the middle of the night I hear the possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) crossing the roof above me. There is a thud as it jumps from the tree to the roof, then paw-thread, then silence again. My house is connected to no.38 neighbour’s house. There is a canary island palm on the… Continue reading We are not alone

The wattle is flowering, the skinny one in my garden, bending itself to get around the jacaranda, and the half a dozen trees out on the street, which were planted by my neighbour, Kevin. There is something wonderful about this unabashed, overflowing abundance of bright yellow against the blue sky. The scent sweetens the air.… Continue reading Let there be yellow

It was a Christmas gift from their great-aunt but when they arrived home my children (then c.9 and 10 years old) handed it immediately to me—a small Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) with the potential to grow to 40m. The ancient pine species had been discovered in 1994 and its exact location kept secret to keep… Continue reading To be moved…but to survive?

I rake and sweep and blow mounds on leaf litter in being. The deciduous trees have dropped the work of the Summer months, their leaves, the sun eaters, the photosynthesis containers, the sugar generators that feed them and the world—so they can rest for a while. Even the evergreen trees are perhaps dropping leaves, the… Continue reading Here we are in Winter– part 2

The wisteria has lost its foliage and the jacaranda is in the process of losing its. The chaotic frame of the wisteria is revealed hanging over, weaving through the branches of its host. My eye wants to find some sort of order or logic to it but there is none other than a plant logic… Continue reading Here we are in Winter– part 1

The Pittosporum revolutum (also known as Wild Yellow Jasmine, Rough fruit Pittosporum) is fruiting. The warty, yellow pods have opened like a wide jaw displaying a mouthful of swollen shiny bright red seeds. I think how these “mouths” look so much like a sci-fi monster, perhaps aliens from a planet far, far away. I feel… Continue reading Monster me