We interrupt the sculpture exhibition....

...to celebrate thae most magnificent of Sydney seasonal events - November's display of jacaranda blooms. They are everywhere. If you stand at a high point, whichever direction you look there is this glorious display of mauve. This tree is on my walk to the station. Here it was in 2006, and this is what the jacarandas looked like elsewhere in 2007: click here. And here's the jacaranda in the main quad at Sydney Uni.

Spring is sprung

On 2 Sep, ie 8 days ago I showed you the dental hospital with London plane trees (Sydney's predominant street planting). I said they were just strating to come into leaf. Now a week later, look how far the plane trees have come! These aren't the same ones, but about 100m away along the same stretch of Elizabeth St. I took this photo this morning.

Under the fig tree, Cremorne Point (Walk Pt 4)

Time for a lunch break, under a giant Port Jackson fig, overlooking Mosman Bay. Our American guests learn the secrets of the game of cricket - at this point, the importance of the ball's seams in spin bowling if I remember correctly.

Tree poisoning, Mosman Bay (Walk Part 3)

This huge sign has been erected where a tree has been destroyed. The sign directly faces a house. I wonder if the Council particularly wants the residents of that house to read the sign? We strongly suspect so. Destruction of trees by people complaining they 'spoil their view' have become more numerous . The aim of the signs is to block, or at least mar the view thus 'created'.

Tree poisoning

Walking the Dog

Victoria St, Potts Point
The London plane tree is a widely used street planting in Sydney, due to its robust structure and resistance to urban conditions. Being deciduous it allows for winter sun and summer shade. Plane trees also have a noted tolerance to pollution and their broad leaves take many airborne particulate pollutants out of city air. They are criticised in some quarters for their high pollen levels and possible allergenic qualities in September.

I love them

Tree graffiti

Graffiti on a poplar tree in Hyde Park.

Free Art

Fig tree in The domain, behind the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Now, here's something interesting I read in the paper yesterday. Apparently, the Art Gallery of NSW, with 1.3 million visitors last year, was more often visited than the Guggenheim in New York, Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Pergamon Museum in Berlin and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. More here. (But wasn't the Guggenheim closed part of last year? And the Getty's visitors are self-restricting because it's hard to get to by public transport and you have to book a parking space ahead. Surely this can't be Australian cultural cringe/hype?)

Best of all, the AGNSW is free for permanent exhibitions. Every year the AGNSW has a coompetition for portraiture called the Archibald prize

Are art museums free where you are? For me, the greatest free museums in the world are the British Museum and the National Gallery in London. The Metropolitan in New York suggests a donation, but it is not compulsory.

I'm one of those people who believe that culture, education and knowledge should be free for all - paid for by a progressive tax system - public libraries, art museums, museums.

[And apropos of none of that - today is the last day of summer; our seasons here change officially on 1 March, 1 June, 1 Sep and 1 Dec. And in Sydney, autumn is my favourite].

Jacarandas, Sydney Town Hall

In November I showed a row of jacarandas in full bloom. Keen-eyed observers of yesterday's photo of the Town Hall may have noticed that the trees out the front are jacarandas in full leaf. Here's a close-up of part of the building with one of the trees.

Sydney Town Hall is very "hotel de ville" French, and it does indeed have Italianate, and Second Empire French beaux arts influences. There's some history of it to be read here.

Jacarandas

Two days ago, in the aerial shots of southern Sydney I pointed out the abundance of jacarandas. The second shot here is cropped from one of those aerial shots, and shows the line of jacarandas along Fry Reserve in Warialda St, Kogarah.

This morning I went down there just before dawn and took some shots in the early morning light.

These Brazilian natives have found a very happy home in Sydney.

Bardwell Valley Morning

This morning I went to the gym for my usual swim, and no-one showed up to open up. So, I headed back home and went for a walk around the local area. Here's a view taken in the early morning light (6.45am daylight saving, so really 5.45am), looking over the olive grove planted by Council in honour of residents of Greek origin, and to the golf course and creek valley beyond. Pity about the real estate advertising brochure sheltering under the sandstone outcrop, but I guess it shows we are smack bang in the city, not some pristine wilderness! The trees in the foeground just behind the rocks are left: a Casuarina ('she-oak'), right: a Banksia serrata, both native to the area.

I've posted about the olive grove before - click here to see how the trees have grown.

Spring is here

Last year I noted the arrival of spring by posting about Wattle Day (1 September).

In Australia (and New Zealand?) the conventional Northern Hemisphere seasonal names begin on the first of each month: 1 September - Spring; 1 December - Summer; 1 March - Autumn; 1 June - Winter. The reason for doing it that way reather than by equinox and solstice is a bit hazy. There is one story about colonial soldiers changing from wionter to summer uniforms on 1 Sep and vice versa on 1 March.

Anyway, in much of Australia, it's all entirely meaningless anyway, because the seasons don't necessarily resemble the conventional European ones much. Traditional Aboriginal people had a very sophisticated understanding and depending where they lived identified numerous seasonal variations. Up in tropical Darwin/Kakadu and surrounds, there are 6 named seasons, for example.

Whatever, I always know spring is coming by mid August when I get my first waft of jasmine scent. The jasmine growing over my side fence is well and truly in bloom now, though the Japanese maple will take a while longer to come fully into leaf (it's still got a few of last year's clinging on too!).