You know it is spring when...

I wrote for her, I fought for her,/ And when at last I lie,/ Then who, to wear the wattle,/ has A better right than I? Henry Lawson

The wattle blooms! I don't care that the calendar says we are still in the depths of winter. The thermometer is hitting 30C during the day & the wattle is blooming. Spring has arrived.
I love wattle. It flowers generously, splashed in reams of gold through the drab~coloured scrub, glowing with golden light from the sun. Mind you I grew up with Sydney wattle, with delicate, pale lemon flowers like cotton ball tufts on twiggy string. The Black Wattle up here is considered something of a weed with its deep, rich golden hues but wattle is wattle. It promises summer.

The wattle is the largest genus of any native flower species ~ more than 900. When it comes to Oz God seems to like nothing better than variations on a theme. We won't go into the number of eculypt species; even larger!

It is the National flower & is represented on our coat of arms. It was first depicted on the amorial bearings in 1908 but these are stylised representations as no wattle actually looks quite like the ones depicted ~ but I doubt too many people either know or care. All sorts of strange things live & grow in the bush. In the early 1900s there was even a national "wattle day" & it is still celebrated, unbeknown to most of us, on the 1st of September each year.The wattle's green & gold colouring have become our national colours & these are usually the ones seen on our international sporting teams & our Olympic teams ~ though occassionaly the fashion industry meddles with that thinking somehow they can improve on a winning combination.

The flowers are dusted with huge amounts of pollen so hayfever sufferers do not enjoy this time of year but the birds certainly do. We kept as much of the native flora as possible when we built & have replanted as well so our house is deep in native vegetation & we get a huge variety of birdlife all year round, but more so in spring when everything bursts into flower. We provide water too & even a cat is no deterrant.

The only drawback to wattle is it has no real scent but sniff deeply anyway. You might get a stray wiff of the sea breeze laden with salt tang, eculypt soaking up the sun, of red dust & cattle cane sweet as burnt sugar. Mmmm.