Sunday 26 August 2007

The Wattle Blooms


Our Cootamundra wattle (Acacia baileyana) has been blooming for over a week, but until now it hasn't been good weather for taking photographs, being either rainy or just overcast and dark.Yesterday was a true harbinger of spring with temperatures up in the high teens and bright blue skies, T-shirt weather at last. So, of course, it was time for the wattle's photo shoot. Cootamundra, for the benefit of my Canadian friends, is the name of the town in northern NSW where this small tree is naturally prolific, although it is now the most widely grown and marketed of all its family. Here in the Blue Mountains, they frown on planting it because it tends to crowd out the native wattles of the region. As our specimen was planted about seven years ago by the former owner, I can admire its dusty blue leaves and bobbles of golden flower without guilt. A fierce winter wind snapped one large branch off only a month ago, so it's looking less dense than earlier in the year.

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