When you visit a lovely place, repeat the visit the next day, especially if there are ID puzzles still to be solved, and if your name starts with J. If your name starts with M you’re more than happy to tag along, letting him do all the scrutinising while you amble and photograph.
Beginning with the pink bark of a southern mahogany (Eucalyptus botryoides), aka bastard mahogany. The tree is heavy with buds.
The bladey grass catches the sun turning from nondescript green and grey to a dazzle of orange and red. Rounded green bushes cover the hillside where a herd of kangaroos graze.
A flock of yellow-tailed black cockatoos erupts from the trees and flies overhead in a loose formation, one trailing a bit of twig from its beak. As we emerge from the knobbly banksias, J holds up a silencing hand. There is the sound of crunching and ripping. The flock has settled and they are feasting.
We dally on the sandy flat where wattle buds and flowers, wild grapes, gumnuts and lillipilli berries proliferate; a correa buds and flowers; and the berries of the geebung blush beside its yellow flowers. A creamy eucalyptus flower remains nameless for now: the threat of a dreaded plant key hangs over us.
We walk up the dune (the Eemian shore, traces of the last interglacial about 120000 years ago?) to the tall trees, unnamed, where we walked on Saturday and settle on a log for today’s picnic. A couple emerge from the bush near us and step over a collapsed fence. They pause to tell us they have just seen a very handsome echidna crossing the path.
The trees towering above us wear a sock of tightly-fissured bark, and high up on the light grey branches where the sock doesn’t reach, we notice the scribbles that intrigued us yesterday. Back home the eucalyptus books come out, and J finally nails the identity. It’s a blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis). The books don’t mention scribbles, but a couple of reputable websites do.
snippetsandsnaps 
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All those strange plantlets, they’re a total mystery to me! Beautiful and fascinating, and the cockatoos as well, the only ones I see are the common ones in zoos or pet shops!
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Were you tempted to go in search of the echidna? They’re not often seen in the wild. Lovely photos of the eucalyptus flowers.
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We followed the same track, but the others had obviously used him up! I’ve often seen them in the wild – and on the Potato Point road. My daughter used to see one that had taken up residence in the corner of a grave in an old bush cemetery. I’ve put links to photos from a few sightings where they deigned to be photographed in response to wanderessence’s comment.
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There are so many unusual things there in your part of the world, Meg, it’s as if you live on a different planet. I had to look up echidna, as I didn’t know it was an anteater. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one except in a zoo. I love that pink bark of the mahogany tree, and your list of names of trees and plants. I love this description: “A flock of yellow-tailed black cockatoos erupts from the trees and flies overhead in a loose formation, one trailing a bit of twig from its beak.” The detail of the twig and the word “erupts,” so perfectly telling. Thanks for taking us along. 🙂
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Echidnas are often the harbinger of storm. Once when we were resting from raking up leaves getting ready for the bushfire season, one virtually walked across our feet. A few times I’ve seen one burrow down and disappear when it was startled. Sometimes you see them waddling across the road. Their quills are quite beautiful – gold tipped. If you scroll down this post (https://morselsandscraps3.wordpress.com/2015/10/11/eurobodalla-beaches-congo-beach-south/) you’ll see photos of one close to home, not far from where we were last weekend. J encountered one on the rim of Mt Schank, an extinct volcano in South Australia
(Photos near the end of this post https://morselsandscraps3.wordpress.com/2015/12/03/following-the-kanawinka-geotrail-1/)
I’ll have to stop being so Australo-centric. Of course everyone isn’t familiar with what is familiar to me.
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How interesting that they are harbingers of storms. I love the photo in your link of those gold-tipped quills. Those echidna are not like anteaters I’m familiar with. I thought that’s what I looked up, but these look more like porcupines. Being Austalo-centric is what you have to do, right? You’re giving the rest of us in the world a taste of your homeland. 🙂
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Love the naming of things! Gum nuts and lillipilli berries are the most evocative
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“wattle buds and flowers, wild grapes, gumnuts and lillipilli berries proliferate; a correa buds and flowers; and the berries of the geebung blush beside its yellow flowers” Such conjuring names. And then: “A creamy eucalyptus flower remains nameless for now: the threat of a dreaded plant key hangs over us.” Oh so wry! And so conjuring too: a dogged march of past plant identification parades. And then there were the grazing kangaroos. A splendid piece of rambler’s reportage with domestic undercurrents 🙂
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I agree, Tish!
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It amazes me what you can observe if you pay close attention. I am so much more nonchalant, till a jewel catches my eye. 🙂 🙂 You have captured many. I don’t feel the need to name and catalogue but I’m happy that J does and keeps you such wonderful company. It’s quite odd to reconcile the Warsaw Meg with the lady who walks in kangaroo’s footsteps. I like that phrase 🙂
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I’ve been around J for so long I feel shame if I can’t name. It’s part of the specificity that’s so important to me when I write. I often feel the lack of the exact word – for a colour, a texture, a sound, a tool, a shape – so if I can actually name something I’m on the way to precision. After all, naming’s the power God gave Adam! (For “Adam” read “people”.) and somehow if I can name something it takes it’s place somewhere in my memory bank. That goes for all sorts of things. I was writing something today and I needed the name of the Broken Hill cafe I used to lunch in on Sundays: I was delighted when I remembered “Ruby’s”, and I would have been discontented if I hadn’t.
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Ah yes, in that situation very much so. I hate the frustration of non-memory 😦
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I’m with you, Jo!!
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In my back pack, Sue xx
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😀😀
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You have captured the magic of the bush with your words and photos Meg
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Australian Poetry! Superb! The trees and the scribbles take me back to the little garden just outside Dee Why where I was fascinated by them. No black cockatoos though only a brushturkey (which I confess I thought was a BUSH turkey) hard to photograph as he scrabbled around in the dirt.
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Birds are notoriously recalcitrant in the face of my camera. The black cockies were a bit more cooperative, but the photos are indicative rather than excellent! Brush turkeys are the nemesis of Mt Tamborine gardeners. You’d have enjoyed this walk I think. I suspect we’ll keep going back till we find the eucalypts in full flower.
PS I do the weekend photos in LiPix collages rather than the ones that turn into slide shows, because internet connection at J’s is hopeless, and I need to get the post underway. I do the text in Pages and then cut and paste. And now I have to go and SEW!!!
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I can think of worse places to go back to!
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See PS to my last reply
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