Ganeida's Knots

There is a great deal to dislike about this time of year: the heat; the humidity; the Christmas madness; exams; hordes of kids released for the school hols; but amongst all the things I gripe about periodically there are things I anticipate with pleasure because all over Queensland now is the time of year both the Poinsiana [see lovely pics here] & the Jacaranda flower.  Both are lovely spreading shade trees & earlier, farsighted councils, planted them along the footpaths so that now the streets are carpeted in red & mauve & the red flames against the burnished sky & the mauve fades into it.

Our Poinsiana flowers late.  It is a rather shabby tree that was damaged when we got it & has struggled through the years of drought & random prunings so we can reach our front door but each year it still gamely throws out the great sprays of brilliant red flowers that announce summer is well & truly here!

Yep there is a house in there somewhere.  We have worked very hard the years we've been here to get our garden up & running.  One of the quirkier quirks of the old island was that whenever someone needed *sand* they removed all some~one else's topsoil so when we bought our block of land we were down to a bedrock of clay & ironstone that baked like cement.  As they side of the house faces the west it became unbearably hot through the summer months no matter how much of a breeze we got off the water from the other direction.

So another performance down; another mainland trip with Dearest in stifling heat & today I am just grateful to be home with the clouds bearing down on the heat & a breeze ruffling the water.  Much better.