Friday, October 29, 2004

In my Garden This Morning

Yesterday was such a disheartening day that I walked around my garden this morning and tried to kick start or revive some spark of creativity. I hate the jousts with bureaucracy that bring me home deflated with the knowledge that we are too poor. And then I look around my garden and see the wonder of the weird and wonderful shapes of the native flowers in my garden. We planted a corridor for birds and planted many natives, and my favourites- banksias. The knobby seed pods are a constant source of facination and have inspired many artists and writers alike. There are children's books dealing with banksia men that focus on their monster like protrusions and their hairy pods. There are people who have made "elf"people into the hollows of the pods. I love the change of colour from the darkness of the interior of each individual seed pod to the lighter rings of the lips of the pod. Many banksias will only seed after fire, or as in this case where the seed pods do open the seeds will only germinate after fire. The seed pods and the banksia flower are on the tree at the same time. I love the delicacy of this particular flower as the stamens seemed topped by delicate pearls. And the waratah- is just big wah me- so in your face so wonderful.

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