Summer

Post #103 Sunday 18 November 2018 – Signs of Summer

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Letters from America

Sunday 18 November 2018

There is a gecko that lives somewhere on the south side of my balcony.  It must hibernate over winter. Come October November evenings I can hear it start to make the little series of chk chk chk chk sounds that are so reminiscent of warm happy times.  It still amazes me that the gecko comes every year twelve floors up to my highrise home.

Another favourite sign of summer is the appearance of great quantities of mangoes at the local shops –  flavour, fragrance and texture are all summer.

 

xx MG

Flowering trees – Cape Chestnut

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Well I already reported on the excellent Jacaranda season we seem to have had  in Sydney this summer.    So at the risk of turning into a complete _b_o_r_e_ about flowering trees  I’d like to ask you to notice, if you come across it, another beautiful flowering tree that is just coming into full bloom now.  It is not as noticeable or as well known as the Jacaranda – it’s the Cape Chestnut.

Here is a Cape Chestnut tree in Rushcutters Bay Park, down near the tennis courts – it’s overloaded with bunches of blossoms.  This one may not be the best shaped tree of its kind, but it is still putting on a spectacular display.

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  This is an individual blossom fallen from the tree – delicate as an orchid.

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So it’s over an out from me in the Potts Point botanical studio here this evening.
xx MG

 

 

Brett Whiteley

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Late afternoon  today I took this selfie, twisted around a bit so that my arse is at risk of looking like one of Brett Whiteley’s designer executed arses.  There could be worse things 🙂

So you can picture the scene: it was beautifully sunny after more than a week of being sick for me, and the sun made the skin really warm and shiny.

Like having a cold in summer, if you are sad in the summer, that is sad.  So look after yourselves and each other – so says your glamorous aunt ♥

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Here is one of the Whiteley bottoms (posing and being drawn) – purely for reference 🙂  It’s a drawing done at the house in Lavender Bay.

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Post #10 Thursday 10 November 2016 – Dotted Sun Orchid

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This is one of the summer wildflowers appearing in the rugged bushland garden of my little place in the country.
I identified it by consulting the pocket field guide  “Burnum Burnum’s Wild things around Sydney”.  It’s a dotted sun orchid.  Isn’t it superb…

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Flowering trees – Jacaranda

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jacaranda-5-november-2016-riley-streetThis is a good Jacaranda season – in contrast to last year which was very ordinary.
Here is a photo of a fine tree growing in the heart of the city at the top of Riley Street (where Riley meets Oxford Street).  The street is closed off and runs one way.
It’s become a quiet and charming pocket of summer blossoms in overcrowded East Sydney.