Blossoms everywhere herald Spring

Cherry blossoms and bees herald Spring

What an idyllic beginning to Spring! September 1 dawns a delightful day. Azure blue, cloudless skies, balmy sunshine, soft breezes and a temperature which passes 20. After such a long, cold, wet winter, we surely rejoice at the warmth in the air, blossoming trees and choruses of chirping birds in the trees.

For the first time in two years, I take an early morning walk in Belair National Park from the Sheoak Road entrance, over the railway bridge and past the historic gatekeepers house, down Sir Edwin Smith Drive and along the avenue of tall, mature sugar gums.

My doggie, Oscar, cannot believe his luck as he sniffs the natural bushland environment which he has not experienced before. However, the park – the largest in the Southern Hemisphere – seems to have suffered much because of the decade of drought with many more dead trees and so many fallen to the ground. There is no longer a canopy of tall gums to my left as I approach the arbor of sugar gums ahead of me. There are runners intermittently appearing on the “duck waddle’’ short cut path to the lake and the odd cyclist and others, like myself, walking their dogs, stick to the main bituminised thoroughfare. The gums seem full of birds and the flowering wattle colours my path. For half an hour I wonder at the beauty of the natural bush, which has always been within a kilometre of the two homes at Belair where I have lived for 20 years of my life.

Golden fluffballs of wattle

Back in my own driveway, I notice the wild plums are blossoming. There are snowdrops in the garden, violets peep out around the flowering cherry tree, pansies bloom by the letterbox and the neighbour’s mature wattle tree is ablaze with yellow pompoms.I pray that the joy of Spring brings a change for me, too, from the sadness of grief and loss at Olivier’s death to acceptance and an understanding that life is still good.

Be Sociable, Share!