Changing

Come for a walk in 'my' park.

What a joy it is to have all this at the bottom of the garden.

I love all the stuff that hangs over the back fences of my neighbours and those on the other side of the park.

The beauty of these old, established suburbs is the old established gardens.

Some of them get done over in the mode du jour, but luckily a lot of the big stuff that gives privacy and shade along the back fences survives these make-overs.

The big old fig tree in my neighbour's garden is thrusting forth strong new leaves and even little baby figlets.

Plunge pools, chimineas/chemineas and loggias may well be de rigueur, but who'd rip out a tree that gives all this lemony goodness?

Nasturtiums and morning glory are making tentative appearances now we're officially in spring.

Such a very-Perth thing, especially creeping out between sunbaked old jarrah pickets.

Meanwhile, the gum trees are exploding into blossom,

much to the delight of the twenty-eights, rosellas, honey-eaters, and wattlebirds, accompanied by magpies, willie-wagtails and kookaburras.

The cape lilacs look at their very best, I reckon, when they are devoid of their leaves and have their many clusters of golden berries. They are almost universally hated as an exotic tree that does very well here.

The same cannot be said of the jacarandas, which are similarly exotic. Must be because they are so beautiful. While the cape lilacs are about to get all their bright new leaves, the jacarandas are still losing theirs.

Within a few weeks, the cape lilacs will be all green and the jacarandas will be clouds of mauve. From my back windows I can see about seven big jacarandas — I shall have to have a party to celebrate all that purple loveliness.

Smile!