Waitara Creek at Normanhurst
New Year’s Day and a resolution to find more balance in life between nature and a writing project at home. We set out on a pleasant warm drizzly sort of January day thanks to the La Niña pattern which is giving us respite from the dry, brittle, fiery heat of last summer.
Something beautiful is happening before our eyes a cycle which is a new year (January ) phenomena – the eucalypts are shedding their bark – the most spectacular, because of its blood red colour is the Sydney Red Gum, standing like a maiden with her elegant gown puddled at her feet .
The clean pink dimpled trunk has the cool alabaster feel of touching smooth curving skin. One of theses three in the Wahroonga remnant of forest actually has a sign on it ‘Hug Me‘. Hmmm here is the seed for a very sexy poem.
Angophora Costata or Sydney Red Gum or Smooth-barked Apple note the kino stains and careful observation you can imagine grey pink purple and muted tones of browns
The next is the Scribbly Gum and there is the Narrow-leaved Scribbly Gum also stripping off its bark all the way to the ground
Sush an appropriate moment for us to experience this on the first few days of walking this same track after New Year. It has become a moment of Contemplation as we let go of 2020 with its anxities, fears,concerns, worries and disappointments of missing the children and grandchildren, missing holidays, having to adjust to celebrating milestones of our family life and my writers lifein new ways. Letting go to begin a new.
And having back my rambling partner and friend to enjoy and share the beauty of nature with is the best Christmas and New Year gift of all. We have lots of adventures to share.
These past few days we have had some wonderful bird displays and we have been finding hidden gems of wonderfully coloured fungi and all the stages of a fern in its growth to share.