photos: darwin botanic gardens

photo: it's jacaranda time again!

quicko: waratahs

Do you know what a waratah is?  Don't worry, neither does spellcheck.

There's quite a famous sports team around here called the Waratahs (I think they play rugby, but I'm perpetually forgetting if it's union or league, and getting it wrong is generally only vaguely less than a capital offense), so I took it to be some sort of ferocious animal, roughly along the lines of a mythical cheetah.  I'm not quite sure where I got that from, aside from the last three letters.  But vicious, mythical cheetahs waratahs were in my mind.

Until I asked a Waratahs supporter precisely what a waratah was, recognizing that possibly it wasn't a cheetah, but thinking certainly then along the lines of a puma or bobcat and, on the off chance, another name for an eagle.

Imagine then my surprise to be told, in utter disgust I didn't know this previously, "the state flower of the state you've been living in the past four years!"

I've enclosed a picture here.  It looks a bit ferocious in the middle, hey?

quicko: the first frangipani of 2012!

Isn't it beautiful?!

quicko: bouquets

There's this fad (I hope it's a fad) these days that I'm not so happy about.  It's the fad of putting bouquets in boxes.  It seems to be quite popular in Sydney, but I just don't like it.  The flowers, granted, are easier to carry and display "as is," but it just seems less classy.  I'd much rather carry around a real bouquet and then put the flowers in a real vase at home, wouldn't you?

quicko: jacaranda trees

Unfortunately, this post is about three weeks too late and the photo's about a week out of date now, but better late than never, right?

The reason it's late is that the jacaranda trees finished their week of intense blooming about two weeks ago. They're absolutely gorgeous trees, hugely filled with purple flowers that petal all over the ground, creating a lavendar carpet all around the base of the tree, the neighboring street, the neighboring zip code, etc. They're beautiful.

And, while the photo really doesn't do them any semblance of justice, I thought you'd appreciate a glimpse of what they're like.

Evidently the place to go to seet he jacaranda trees in all their glory is the North Shore train line between North Sydney and Hornsby. Amazingly enough, this line is actually one I've been on and is quite easy for me to get to. Less amazingly, I was told this the week after they finished blooming.

One more thought while we're on the topic: it seems there's a saying at one of the universities strategically situated upon this train line to the effect of if you haven't started studying for exams by the time the jacaranda trees bloom, well, there probably isn't much point in starting.

quicko: flora

Guess what?? I have a new favorite flower: the frangipani!

You might know it as the Hawaiian lei flower, but it grows here -- on trees! It comes in white, light pink and light yellow and is absolutely gorgeous and smells beautifully. What more do you want in a flower?

The trees here are magnificent in general -- some tremendously big, some full of hanging vines that are actually supposed to be there, some with unusual bark and some twisty and turny. They're beautiful.