Corymbia ( formerly Eucalyptus ) ficifolia, the red-flowering gum from Western Australia, thrives in the grains of a sandy soil. Which is just as well, because I have little else but sand here at home, this parched and burning summer. And there's not too much thriving...
I'm cranky as all hell. It's been a rotten summer. Yes, the drought's apparently over, but Melbourne's had 0.6mm of rain this January, compared to its usual 48mm. How can anything bloodily flower?
This has. There are a few here at home. Resplendant, glorious, full of the humming of bees, they are waving themselves above the rest of the dead or dying garden.
Such redness. I've given up hope lately, so tired I am of trying to keep the garden alive. You'll know that I cannot show you the worst of what I stare at, ineffectually. So challenging it is, to pretend to have a garden, when the assemblage of plants you've cultivated wither before you. Hurrah for these!
Hurrah too, for my beautiful magpie, who has this summer seen his playful offspring killed by foxes. He and his mate have been keeping away from their regular haunts, shocked, I feel, by what has happened. They'll recover soon, I hope, as I will, from this awful negation.
That tree looks very good, Faisal, considering the drought. Maybe autumn will bring some soothing relief.
ReplyDeleteYourself, James, you must be yearning for the new greenness of spring. Thank you.
DeleteHello Faisal:
ReplyDeleteYou really do have our upmost sympathy and understanding for all of the difficulties which you have encountered, and are continuing so to do, in what must be one of the very worst seasons in your experience.
We know from our own gardening days the efforts required to look after, maintain, and keep alive cherished plants when faced with adverse conditions and how frustration and disappointment can, and do, so easily set in. There is little we can say, let alone do, apart from assuring you that you are so often in our thoughts and we know that you will, most certainly, overcome.
Hello Jane and Lance:
Deletethat's very kind of you and now I feel a little guilty, complaining! I'm sure what you endure in your winter is just as difficult!
It's just as well we have seasons, then, that everything doesn't remain the same!
Dear Faisal,
ReplyDeleteI love those red flowering gums - I didn't realise that they were not eucalypts any more. I like the pink flowering gum too.
As for the weather - it is the reason Australia is what it is I guess: Summer equals the fires, the heat, the lack of rain: they make Australia what it is, they shape the land and the flora and fauna.
It doesn't feel the need to adapt to us - it knows that we must adapt to it.
Australia is indeed a land where the cycle of life is there for us all to see. My mum tells me that the grass is all dead, the roses are burnt by the heat and the ground cries out for water...
But we: me, my mum (even my partner whose family have been here since the 1840s) the roses etc must adapt; as the red flowering gum has adapted: It thrives, it blooms and it flowers for our delight in the midst of all this heat and dust...
I do love Australia - even though I am very much an Anglo/Norman plant who will be transplanted back there soon enough and will have to go through the adaptation process all over again!
Stay cool mon ami!
Dear Kirk,
Deletepositive feedback and encouragement help to straighten the wilting spine, so thank you!
We will overcome, I'm sure!
I hope you're not freezing alive!
I also love those red flowering gums and also did not know that they were no longer eucalypts. :-)
ReplyDeleteMarvellous, they are, Matthew, huh? Up Dandenong Road and all sorts of other places, they liven up the world around us with colour.
DeleteThe flowerings trees are lovely. I so understand your despair over the baked garden and the bird massacre. I have experienced both. In my heart I know it is not, but I can hope that we are in the middle of some unrelenting cycle. As I read your post I question if I will try to replant this spring. And yet, I am sure I will not be able to resist. Digging in the dirt is my play. Now see? I have turned your despair into my own when I should be offering you words of encouragement and something to brighten your thoughts. There is always next year! Bonnie
ReplyDeleteNo, don't worry, Bonnie; we're all facing things we'd rather not! Just hearing from others bolsters me. Autumn's not too far away, and though we've had so little rain, I believe our temperatures aren't going to be killing. I'm already thinking of what I can get moving in autumn. This is just the worst of times. The best are on their way.
Deleteyour sensitivity to this extreme of weather is logical, given the fearsomeness of the changes. i hope more rain and more relief come soon.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Velma. I don't know why it is, I'm always in the middle of things. That means I'm always in the middle of extremities, as I may be, in freedom. Yes, relief will come soon. I hope your own weather is kind - now, or sooner!
DeleteStunning flowers, Faisal. Small recompense, I know, for what you (and the magpies) have suffered but recompense nonetheless. Chin up - soon be Christmas. Dave
ReplyDeleteThe chin is tilting northwards, Dave. I know that the magpies, like me, are blessed. It is a blessing to be alive, however awful it is to witness trouble.
DeleteChristmas - Christ, I could do without it! Give me a few weeks on a beach without any formality any day.
X.
I love this tree. It is commonly used as a street tree in San Francisco, where I lived for 7 years. By the way, Google Translate is an excellent tool for reading Portuguese, or any other language.
ReplyDeletePoint taken, Jordan! I was only being lazy. In future...
DeleteThey are a wonderful tree, one of the finest to my eye. I didn't know they have been growing in San Francisco, though I knew Eucalypts, as a species, have been grown extensively in California.