Winter

Well it’s mid winter here, and it certainly feels like it. The last month has been cold and now we’ve had steady rain for a few days, and the little river opposite our house is flowing nicely. The house is a rather cold if you’re not next to a radiator! Still winter brings some rewards, great billowing skies, garish mushrooms, foggy mornings, and fabulous apricot sunsets.

I have just had a very short visit to Busselton in the south-west of WA and so got to pass through one of my favourite forests, the lovely tuart (Eucalyptus gomocephala) forest at Ludlow. The little woodcutters hamlet of Ludlow is now mostly just a moss covered museum of a time gone by, with only one or two of the quaint weatherboard houses lived in, the rest boarded up and in various states of decay, a remnant of times gone by. Nearby the forest also hangs on, a shadow of its former self. Although this 2000 ha is the only remaining tall tuart forest in the world, the Western Australian government permits mining there!

When I went through on Wednesday it was pouring with rain. During a brief respite from the rain I came across a lovely stand of “lime” pines, courtesy of a psychedelic lichen growing on the south western faces of the trees.

Wherever you are, enjoy the best of what is unique about whatever season you are in, and do stand up for our trees and forests, they need more champions. I'll try not to be so long between blogs next time!