May #TheChangingSeasons

nature, Personal Reflection 1 Minute

May has arrived. I watch the trees light up in their flaming pre-sleep cacophony. Our May pole, in the southern hemisphere, is the downward spiral of unbridled leaves sifting to the wind-skittered piles below. The children do not hold ribbons, but duck and fling, fingers stretched to the sweet blue sky, or scuff noisily through ankle deep history. In Australia, it is really only the higher-altitude areas (like Canberra) where this fabulous transition is an observable break between hot and cold – a delicious period of perfect sunny days and cold, snuggly nights.

I sit now on the deck with the dog asleep on my foot. We have had our walk and he is content with the warm drift of sun across our right shoulders. I stare at his muddied paws (envying their unclutched repose) and at the way his ears rest against his cheeks and shade his eyes. I have been thinking a lot about friendship after reading Jewish Young Professional’s recent post and I value this little white dog for the uncomplicated love he demands and returns. His gentle weight on my foot is a very pleasing pressure – a sweet reminder of his trust and loyalty.

The cockatoos are sharing some raucous message – it is hard to differentiate between horror and excitement in their noisy communications. Watching their yellow crests sling forward like the reversed falls of feathered dominoes, does nothing to clarify although it invariably makes me smile. Wattle birds occupy the cockatoos’ silences – chuckle and chatter, honk and chirrup. And beneath that, the incessant humming of the bees – busy in the hedge of rosemary. 

Autumn dresses our world 
in fabulous garb bribing us 
into future nakedness

Linked to The Changing Seasons hosted by Su Leslie (with her site Zimmerbitch)

Published by abigfatcanofworms

We all walk in the dark. But if we hold hands, perhaps the dark won't be as scary.

Published

23 thoughts on “May #TheChangingSeasons”

    1. 🙂 Yes, they really ring true to the science that it is birds who are most closely related to dinosaurs. I feel like I enter prehistory every time they fly over as a group, yelling obscenities (or loving phrases?) at each other. 🙂

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    1. Thank you. I felt compelled to represent the southern hemisphere among the many spring posts I see and read. We are upsidedown here and yet all our festivals pretend we are the same way up as you northern folk. History hangs on like a persistent band aid. 😂. One day we will drop our pretence and learn from our Indigenous people how they celebrate the seasons. To be fair, all the trees I posted photos of are European trees. The vast majority of natives are evergreen. So in that way, you can see I am as stuck in the past as anybody. I love their flamboyant autumn colours.

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  5. Pingback: The Changing Seasons, April 2021 | Zimmerbitch

  7. I love the mix exotic and native trees. There is always something happening in the garden. Canberra autumns are so beautiful. Thank you for sharing your photos and your thoughts. I have a maple like your second last photo. It is pure joy to gaze on it.

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  10. Lovely autumn photos. We get a proper autumn here in Tassie too. I love it, in Adelaide I really only saw that kind of colour in the hills. Towards the end of the time I lived there if felt like we really didn’t have autumn any more as it was often hot right into May.
    I think that it reminds me of the England of my childhood where I first saw the leaves change colour, watched the odd leaves of the sycamore trees fall and searched for acorns and horse chestnuts on the ground.

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