Category: spring

Stop and smell the roses

Posted in gratitude, moments of beauty, native flowers, nature, solace, spring, staying humble, staying true, What I love about ...Tagged , , 8 Comments

Native plants and vegetation are my passion.
(We all know that.)
So you won’t be surprised when I say I haven’t always been the hugest fan of roses.
They’re not native to Australia.
Sometimes they seem overblown to me, and showy — blowsy, even.
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But once a year, the rose bushes outside a library I visit frequently put on quite a show.
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Somehow, these roses please even my curmudgeonly spirit.
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They are, simply, quite lovely.
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They bring joy, not just into my day …
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but into my very soul.

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I think I’m slowly joining the rose-lover’s world …

Late spring

Posted in native flowers, nature, solace, South Australia, spring, staying humble, staying true, What I love about ...Tagged , , 3 Comments

In late October, I went for another bushwalk.
In blossom were fan flowers:
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muntries:
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and those papery, daisy-like flowers, the common everlastings:
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I encountered other inhabitants of the area, too —
many of them.
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It was mid-morning — grazing time, I think, before the sun gets too hot.
I don’t like disturbing roos:
when threatened, they can be aggressive, especially if they are guarding joeys.
And besides, I’m aware that I’m on their territory, not vice versa.
So I stepped away and left them happily to it …
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… Do you think it’s comfortable in that pouch?
It doesn’t look it to me!

Deception

Posted in Australian bush, nature, South Australia, spring, staying humble, staying true, What I love about ...Tagged , , 7 Comments

On one of my favourite bike rides,
I pass an empty field outside a GP clinic.
Most of the year, it’s just a bare field with long, uncut grass.
But in spring, it changes.
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Such deceptive beauty!
These flowers, heralding from South Africa,
are considered weeds here.
They’ve spread far and wide, pushing out our own native flowers.

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It’s hard not to admire them, though —
their abandoned spread;
their cheerful, bright colours …

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… and their faces uplifted to the sun.

Spring joy

Posted in Australian bush, birds, native coastal vegetation, native flowers, nature, solace, South Australia, spring, staying humble, staying true, What I love about ...Tagged , , 2 Comments

I took a walk through the bush again in late September.
Skinks rustled through the undergrowth.
Whistlers burbled; shrike thrushes sang; blue fairy-wrens and fantails darted about.
And there were wild flowers everywhere, including common fringe-myrtles;

Common fringe-myrtle (calytrix tetragona)

paper flowers;

Paper-flower (thomasia petalocalyx)

smooth rice-flowers;

Smooth riceflower (pimelea glauca)

and grevilleas.

Spider-flower (grevillea lavandulacea)

Every month brings a new season in the bush.
Every month brings a new, different kind of joy.

Soup for the soul

Posted in anxiety, cooking/baking, health, solace, spring, staying humble, staying true, What I love about ..., WinterTagged 1 Comment

Soup from my father’s kitchen

During winter, my father cooks up a weekly batch of vegetable soup,
which he and my mother eat for lunch each day.
The soup flavours vary —
pumpkin one week, tomato the next, broccoli and green bean the next.
And he always sets aside some for me.
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Winter’s well behind us now, of course.
(In the first week of October,
the temperatures soared over 30 degrees Celsius.)
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But I’m still enjoying my father’s soup,
which is tasty, warming and good …
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… and which he makes, always, with love.