Autumn colours

/ Robert / 4 Comments

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Daylight saving steals and gives back one hour. I have spent every waking moment of today relishing the feeling of my hour being returned to me unharmed.

Imagine losing six months……

I have an affinity with Autumn, however to me October = Autumn, this is the month I was born, it is when the trees in the northern hemisphere change their colours and shed them for Winter. This is the time that there is still a chance of an Indian Summer, harvest festival, Halloween and the first sign of Christmas decorations.

When we moved to Australia in January 1998, we left Winter in Birmingham to be catapulted into Summer in Sydney and before I knew it was Autumn again, but in April. No matter how much I cherish those lost 26 weeks, it is not enough to return to the grey country.

Autumn flower

/ Robert / 6 Comments

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Autumn seems to have finally rolled into town. The clocks change back at 3am tomorrow morning, the official end to day light saving in Sydney, Australia.

After a glorious Easter we have had a vey wet week. We dashed out between showers this morning to take Stan for a walk. I took the picture above with my mobile phone. I was attracted to the green and red leaves and the fried egg like flower. I have no idea what variety of shrub this is, all suggestions will be gratefully received.

Floating Frangipani

/ Robert / 6 Comments

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I walk beneath the deep green dome shaped tree,
I enjoy the sinus tickling fragrance,
Spiralling yellow white blooms lie scattered.
I bend down to pick up fallen flowers,
Sensuous silky petals feel so fragile.
I float them in a bowl of cool water,
Sustain them for a little while longer.

Sunflowers and Chimneys

/ Robert / 11 Comments

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Sydney Park has undergone a major transformation over the past two decades. The land was originally given as a grant to a convict woman and has since served Sydney as a site for crops and food production, brick making, gas storage and waste disposal. When the New South Wales state government first envisaged turning the site into a public green space in the early 1980s, a key factor in transforming the site was to preserve some of the history associated with it.

Spanning 44 hectares, the park is the largest in Sydney and is connected by about 12 kilometres of pathways. The vast majority of the vegetation on the site was planted as part of a community effort in the early 1990s. The park now has nine hectares of gardens and 28,000 native trees, including 277 Port Jackson and Moreton Bay fig trees. Fifty types of mammals, native birds, frogs and reptiles also frequent the park.

Read more:
The Sydney Morning Herald, February 11, 2012 Rubbish dump transformed into park oasis tips its hat to the past

Spring in the Northern Hemisphere

/ Robert / 11 Comments

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After living in the Southern Hemisphere for the last fifteen years I thought I had connected the months of the year with the feeling of the seasons. I have immersed myself in the Australian way of life and pushed thoughts of the Northern Hemisphere to the back of my mind.

Six months into becoming involved with the blogging community and spending time online has brought home to me the contrast between the two hemispheres. It is so refreshing to read about the excitement around the start of Spring in the north. An unusually warm March in Sydney and Autumn flowers have lulled me into thinking it is Spring here too, what a shock I will get when Winter starts 🙂

I took the above photo late in the afternoon with my mobile phone in a local park. I like the colours and textures against the blue sky.

More precious than diamonds

/ Robert / 16 Comments

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Delicious drops of dew glisten in the
Cool light of dawn, slowly, slowly, dripping
From leaf from bud from twig. Clouds speed above,
Drizzle foreshadows a downpour, to drench
Landscape wide. Streams and brooks rush, swell, rise, run
Into rivers, flooding deltas, breaking
Free, flowing out to sea to oceans deep.
Dive into life giving blue, cleanse body
And spirit, swim west to sway with undines fair.
Grasp the chalice of aitch two oh. Deeply
Drink to link with Druids of old and new.
Oft’ used for scrying by many a seer
to reflect and look from seen to unseen.
More precious than diamonds, worth guarding well!

(c) Robert Jones 2013, All Rights Reserved