Sydney Figs Pt2 - more of my favourites

(Post 2 of 2)

Botanic Gardens and the walk around to Mrs Macquarie's Chair...

Surely wrong tree wrong place...ROLF!

Through Paddington to Centennial Parklands....

I hope you liked this little taste of the amazing fig trees that you can find walking around Sydney...I really love fig trees, I guess for me (as a Queenslander) their size and impact on our senses makes me feel so good about them...



Sydney figs Pt1 - some of my favourites

(Post 1 of 2)

I should be very very clear - it is only possible to show a tiny fraction of the number of wonderful figs that I have come across in the Sydney area - and by area I mean within walking distance of the CBD.

Some very obvious ones that almost eveyone would know...

Hyde Park...NB get out and visit these if you can because in the next few years many will be removed if the schedule of the management plan for the park is followed.

Wedge failure anyone???

Some from the walk to and through the Domain...

The walk to the Botanic Gardens round the back of the NSW Art gallery...

A few more in part 2....





Chinese New Year in Sydney - defiant urban trees

So in an attempt to cheer myself up I went down to Sydney for the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations (the flights had been booked almost a lifetime ago, or so it seems now).
2012 is the year of the Water Dragon...

 Now frustratingly I missed the Dragon boat races but as you can see I did meet a kitchen dragon!

 

I really love visiting places like China town in Sydney, I like almost everything about it, the sounds smells and even the hustle and bustle....and of course there were some plucky trees to enjoy.

 

This tree is a piece of public art called Golden Water Mouth is a sculpture and fountain located at the entrance of Chinatown, in the inner city suburb of Haymarket. The artwork was created by Lin Li in 1999. The Australian and Chinese cultures are signified by the combination of materials creating a Yin-Yang harmony.

 

The five natural elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth have been incorporated in the design, to encourage positive energy and good fortune.

 

The artist found this dead two centuries old Yellow Box Eucalyptus in Condoblin, New South Wales, near the Lachlan River. This is where many Chinese went during the Gold Rush and later settled alongside the river and grew vegetables for trade.

 
I really love things like this and the intrest and engagement they provoke in passers by, this chap was playing a chinese version of  'O sole mio'...he was great too just jamming away with the door ajar not asking anything of anyone just making lovely music for the night air.

 



Ok so where are the urban trees (that one before was dead after all!!!!)....If there is one urban tree that I admire (probably) above all others it is London Plane, for no other reason than it is almost indestructable and brings so much beauty to the streets it lives in....Here are some in Belmore Park, followed by others showing the scars of their hard life next to Sydney traffic...

 

Here's another narrow street from Surrey Hills (I think) where the Melaleucas form a very wonderful living roof..I suspect that the residents possibly have mixed feelings about the trees but no signs of deliberate damage, so maybe I'm too cynical.

 

I had a really relaxing time in Sydney on that last day of the celebrations for the year of the Water Dragon....Kung hei fat choi to you all.

Some of my favourite city centre fig trees in the next post.....

Happy (wet) Australia Day

We have been getting a lot of rain down here at the Gold Coast lately, and for a while I thought that Australia Day would be entirely rained off...however there was just enough sunshine to entice people (like me) to go out for a walk...and even a swim...Drove up Currumbin Valley..as far as the creek would permit...

Some amazing flows going over the rock ledges, cliffs and boulders...too rough for me to swim although there were some hardly individuals who were in the creek (in slower moving areas!)

Some beautiful fungi and lichens emerging out of the wet weather...



Mycena sp

Trametes sp

Metallic turquoise lichen

Trametes sp

Mycena minya

Mycena sp becoming someones lunch

The forest enveloped in cloud...

Driving back out of the valley the temptation to swim became too great, so with more than a little trepidation I flopped into the swimming hole where some agile teenagers were having so much fun...

Despite looking more like something Greenpeace should roll back into the surf I did have a great time and for the first time in a long time relaxed and enjoyed the thrill of the moment.