We had a camphor laurel tree in our backyard when I was a kid. It was my sailing ship and I'd climb the "masts" to see over the tops of all the houses and way off into the distance. Every autumn the leaves turned all kinds of reds and yellows and oranges and golds and, to me, they were like jewels. My dad didn't care too much for them because he did the raking. Hehe.
But the leaves weren't the only jewels. Every summer, the cicadas emerged from their burrows deep below the earth and climbed the tree where they shed their old brown shell in exchange for brightly colored new skin and transparent wings - Yellow Mondays, Black Princes, Green Grocers and others, each with a little diamond on its forehead.
I still count that tree as being one of the best friends I ever had.
A big old rambling, down to the ground curtain of a Pepper tree, that was my fav. A huge onld gnarly trunk, easy to climb, the cool sweet peppery smell underside was a perfect refuge in the hot summer days of my childhood. Tree house and perfect hideaway places up high in the branches. From outside you just could not even catch sight of anything inside.Evergreen, not native Australian....African I think they are, but are a very common sight in the hotter drier areas if South Australia, every old farm seems to have one. Hardy things indeed.
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We had a camphor laurel tree in our backyard when I was a kid. It was my sailing ship and I'd climb the "masts" to see over the tops of all the houses and way off into the distance. Every autumn the leaves turned all kinds of reds and yellows and oranges and golds and, to me, they were like jewels. My dad didn't care too much for them because he did the raking. Hehe.
But the leaves weren't the only jewels. Every summer, the cicadas emerged from their burrows deep below the earth and climbed the tree where they shed their old brown shell in exchange for brightly colored new skin and transparent wings - Yellow Mondays, Black Princes, Green Grocers and others, each with a little diamond on its forehead.
I still count that tree as being one of the best friends I ever had.
A big old rambling, down to the ground curtain of a Pepper tree, that was my fav. A huge onld gnarly trunk, easy to climb, the cool sweet peppery smell underside was a perfect refuge in the hot summer days of my childhood. Tree house and perfect hideaway places up high in the branches. From outside you just could not even catch sight of anything inside.Evergreen, not native Australian....African I think they are, but are a very common sight in the hotter drier areas if South Australia, every old farm seems to have one. Hardy things indeed.
Good memories, thanks Justin.
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