By Liz Low
I STROKE the branch of the coastal gum which leans over a corner of our deck. The breeze moves it around causing it to feel like a horse or a boat moving at the end of a rope.
This branch has a scar on its underside where it used to sway and rub against the tall deck pole when the wind got up. The rubbed bit is dry, rough and brown and reminds me of a healed up abscess. The bark I am feeling is smooth, cool and almost muscular. It could be an arm, an arm of the tree waving and stretching up into the sky and light.
We sited our house at Cape Paterson around some medium sized trees and since being given shelter from the winds by the house, they have grown, stretched up and opened out. We used to have foliage at the upstairs windows and now there are sinewy, slender branches to look through.
I STROKE the branch of the coastal gum which leans over a corner of our deck. The breeze moves it around causing it to feel like a horse or a boat moving at the end of a rope.
This branch has a scar on its underside where it used to sway and rub against the tall deck pole when the wind got up. The rubbed bit is dry, rough and brown and reminds me of a healed up abscess. The bark I am feeling is smooth, cool and almost muscular. It could be an arm, an arm of the tree waving and stretching up into the sky and light.
We sited our house at Cape Paterson around some medium sized trees and since being given shelter from the winds by the house, they have grown, stretched up and opened out. We used to have foliage at the upstairs windows and now there are sinewy, slender branches to look through.
The bark is a soft creamy colour, with flecks of impressionist green and grey. Sometimes there are long smudges of cream, sometimes a dangling strip of darker discarded bark.
I love this type of gumtree bark which also appears on river gums. I love the soft calmness of the colour, the irregular streaks of the cream, green or grey and the contrast of the burnt dark brown of scar tissue.
We sit on the deck and the trees sway around us. We are up with the birds which fly in to feed off the insects on the leaves. We can look the huge crow in its yellow eye before the wattlebird comes to harass it. The butcher bird has a lot of confidence and seems to think that we are there to feed it. We don’t but it still sings its piping song. Once we looked down on a koala which had settled into the fork of another tree.
Only the other night we startled the possum which plods heavily across the bedroom roof. We had turned the deck light on, opened the door and saw the possum on a near branch, crouching and staring hard at us. When we stepped forward, it stood up, retracted its lips and hissed at us before leaping off into the night.
It feels an honour to be up in the tree tops.
I love this type of gumtree bark which also appears on river gums. I love the soft calmness of the colour, the irregular streaks of the cream, green or grey and the contrast of the burnt dark brown of scar tissue.
We sit on the deck and the trees sway around us. We are up with the birds which fly in to feed off the insects on the leaves. We can look the huge crow in its yellow eye before the wattlebird comes to harass it. The butcher bird has a lot of confidence and seems to think that we are there to feed it. We don’t but it still sings its piping song. Once we looked down on a koala which had settled into the fork of another tree.
Only the other night we startled the possum which plods heavily across the bedroom roof. We had turned the deck light on, opened the door and saw the possum on a near branch, crouching and staring hard at us. When we stepped forward, it stood up, retracted its lips and hissed at us before leaping off into the night.
It feels an honour to be up in the tree tops.
