Welcoming 2022 in Peace and Serenity

/ Garrulous Gwendoline

And the tall stately Eucalyptus beside the path put me in mind of fellow blogger, Agnes Ashe, whose neighbour recently removed one from his narrow back garden in England.  It must have seemed a good idea at the time to plant such an Aussie icon there in the first place.

In our meandering onto the Rainforest Collection, we accidentally overlooked to go into the Azalea Bank and Middle Creek,  home to not only Azaleas, but also Rhododendrons, Camellias and water-loving plants such as Irises, Daylilies, Flax and Arums. Many of those would have been past their peak at this time of the year, (although we saw plenty of Arums elsewhere in the gardens). Instead, the extensive rainforest was green – we have had SUCH a rainy spring that everywhere is a green rarely seen here – and magical. It’s a cool, shaded space with several creeks running through it.

Take a look at how this root system has grown over a fallen trunk:

And the artistry of this strangler vine:

Or these:

I have a fascination with root systems. This was from a Moreton Bay Fig:

Another who had a fascination with scratching around roots and leaf litter was this mound building brush (or scrub) turkey.

And as you would expect, there were ferns a-plenty. This maidenhair, which we saw on the way out of that area, is happy in shade or dappled sunlight:

And this, methinks, is a Monsterio Delicio:

The gardens are cleverly laid out, covering 30 hectares/50 acres, and on this visit we skipped the entire north-east section, which features succulents, dryland plants, a bush tucker garden, Australian grasslands and open forest, palms, a temperate garden and glasshouse and a fountain. Also the Discovery Centre, kitchen garden, and herb garden. So lots to see there, too. Instead we skirted beside the flowering trees and shrubs, pausing for a rest on one of the many benches scattered through the gardens as we admired various formal plantings.

Then, oh my, we lost ourselves in the Rose Garden. Just a small sample in these photographs here, with the ever present challenge of getting a true colour photograph on red roses:

This garden also features a plaque, a poem written by Aunty Barbara Nicholson, an amazing Wadi Wadi elder who has dedicated so much of her life to highlighting Aboriginal issues. This poem refers to the thousands of indigenous children who were removed from their rightful parents and put into orphanages and missions – now termed the ‘Stolen Generation‘.  My photo is a little blurry, so I do hope you can read it properly. It is a heart-wrenching tale.

By this stage we had reached the Kawasaki Bridge – a gift of friendship from Wollongong’s Japanese sister city – and this signalled we had arrived at the duck pond which is close to the main entrance, and nearby children’s playground. It was looking magnificent as these photos will show. We circled right around it and then exited by the same side gate at which we’d arrived. 

We returned home with light hearts and expressions of joy at such a well spent morning. Time for a quick lunch and to prepare a plate of savoury nibbles, and then I took my sister to meet two of the neighbours, good friends that we have made in the thirteen years since we moved to this community. They had many tales to tell of their adventures sailing around the world – twice – in their smallish yacht, Tucantu. My sister was all ears. I can’t say that I would ever have had the nerve to actually do the sailing, but I never tire of hearing the story!

Back at home we wrapped up the day with another nutritional evening meal (Bill have woken from his afternoon Poppy nap), and chatted away until the previous late night finally caught up with us too 🙂 And so to bed …zzzzzz

If you would like to know more about the various collections of the Wollongong Botanic Gardens, you might care to explore this link: https://www.wollongongbotanicgarden.com.au/collections-and-conservation/our-collections/woodland-garden

38 thoughts on “Welcoming 2022 in Peace and Serenity”

  1. Beautiful photos, and a heart-wrenching poem. So telling. Not just about Australia, but about the USA. How long will we keep trying to either cover it up or dress it up? Thanks for this wonderful tour–on the assumption I’ll never be able to see it in person! 🙂

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  4. Nice you could visit with your sister! The garden reminds me a bit of Kirstenbosch outside Cape Town – a heaven on earth place! I’m hoping for a negative PCR test in Bucharest B4 my departure via Istanbul. If it’s positive :o( plan B begins. In order to return to the US you must test negative 24 hours B4 boarding your flight, regardless of the number of covid shots you have… I got a third – booster – in Prague. I understand many fully vaccinated travelers with zero symptoms test positive. My landlord in Bucharest is well connected and will work with me, if the test is positive, but if there’s a delay in Istanbul – have to start all over!! When will covid leave us alone? Happy New Year Gwen!!!

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    • It will feel strange to return to the States after all this travelling. Fingers crossed for your negative tests. This Omicron variant is behaving quite differently, and after all our hard work, it is taking its toll in Australia. My booster is happening in a couple of weeks. Only one element in the precaution against catching COVID, but every little bit helps.

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      • Agree there are many elements to containing covid, but most countries visited this trip have followed very lackluster practices! On the train to Braşov yesterday, most people weren’t wearing masks – young and old alike. I changed seats several times on the way back when it was late on a Friday night and people were jovial and laughing while walking around. Of course, the train advertised that strict covid measures would be followed – ha! Friends back in Oregon say life is strange and awkward – covid and out of control politics. Counter culture shock will hit hard – price you must pay for extended travel adventures…

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        • Perhaps the numbers are so huge that people think it inevitable they will catch it someday? So far the death rate from Omicron is not in the same league as Delta, but who knows what other variant is cooking?
          Your comment about the counter culture echoed what I was thinking. You’ll be back in your home, speaking your mother tongue, exposed to 24 hour news cycles. I suspect it will hit hard as you say. And people will expect you to have an opinion…

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          • I could be wrong, but honestly in the countries I visited, unless someone has had covid or knows someone who had it or even died from it, they simply don’t seem to see the danger – too busy living their lives to notice anything out of their immediate realm of existence. The most annoying part of returning from a long trip abroad is the expectation that you can verbally describe months of solo foreign travel in one sentence. That’s 100% impossible. Many Americans don’t see the value of stepping into worlds beyond their own comfortable existence, not judging at all, but I’m not that way. Over almost 9 months, I really put myself out there, and there were so many new things I saw and learned on this trip, it will take time to grasp it all… The blog posts cover maybe 5% of the total experience.

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  7. Those are fine botanical gardens showcasing a fabulous range of horticultural gems. I would like to say how much I admire the ‘Gums’ when grown in their native soils, beautiful. And they are fine even when grown in my English part of the world as long as the gardener who plants them understands what they are doing! Right plant, right place and all that.

    Looking at your photos of the glorious roses made me think how humans have spent centuries taming and cajoling the wild roses to give us the thousands of varieties we have today. Of course, most rose cultivars to do not do well in the heat of tropical weather and as the climate crisis worsens I think rose gardens will likely be a goner. I have to mention that even if ‘net zero’ was taken seriously it’s not the panacea people believe it to be. The concept is nicely summarised in this piece, if you can bear to read it.

    https://theconversation.com/climate-scientists-concept-of-net-zero-is-a-dangerous-trap-157368

    I wouldn’t recommend it if you’ve just watched ‘Don’t Look Up’ recently; there’s only so much you can take at the beginning of a new year.

    Anyway, here’s a Happy and Healthy New Year to you and Bill, and a big round of applause to Australia for challenging the arrogant Djokovic and his crackpot take on vaccines.

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    • I thought you would like the visit to the gardens 🙂
      Another I visited at the beginning of December grows only ancient and heritage roses. The scent was divine.

      I’ve read a part of your attachment and it definitely makes interesting reading. Also helped me understand what PM Morrison was on about when he kept saying we will address climate change through technology. It sounded hollow and meaningless when he said it, and sounds sadder still when read against the article.

      Djokovic is challenging the Border Force decision. Court appearance on Monday. Let’s see what facts emerge, but apparently he is claiming he is exempt from requiring vaccination as he has had COVID (was that the Delta variant?). Meantime his parents are reportedly saying some weirdly wild things, but I sense soundbites don’t represent what they intended, especially as they spoke in English. Anyway, of course his mother would spring to his defence and say we are treating him poorly (bed bugs in the quarantine hotel? Really???) I feel a little sorry for Djokovic as he has been caught in the cross-hairs between State and Federal governments and it looks as if Tennis Australia ignored official advice when encouraging him to attend. They, in turn, are desperate to keep a tournament in Australia. So many competing interests., and he’s followed the path that suits his rhetoric.
      But plenty of other people have been denied entry for one reason or another, particularly if they are trying to claim exemptions from our strict quarantine regulations.

      Heck! Even I was detained by immigration one time I tried to return to the UK after having been on the continent for six months. My passport was seized by the Home Office, but when they returned it to me, intending to give me three weeks to leave the country, some official – perhaps thinking a mistake had been made -had over written 1980 with 1981. So I obligingly stayed one more year before deciding not to push my luck 🙂

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        • Having lived in the former Yugoslavia and knowing Serbians, I’m finding the reactions of his mum and dad somewhat amusing, although as I said to Agnes Ashe, I think something is being lost in translation and media soundbites.
          My cousin’s son is in border force, but I don’t think I’ll get to hear the inside story. And there will be so many versions depending on who is defending themselves, and who told what to whom. Whatever way it cuts, it will be another embarrassment for Tennis Australia.
          I agree with your thoughts on the poem. There I was, la-la-laaing in the rose garden, and then suddenly I came up short when I saw it on the wall.

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      • Oh yes, I have seen the latest news about the tennis player. Can’t say I am a fan, have always preferred Federer both on and off the court. He shows you can be a World Champion, fiercely competitive and a graceful human being. A fine role model and a splendid ambassador for tennis. Regarding Tennis Australia and world class tennis in general, like most elite sport these days it’s all about the money. Wouldn’t it be amazing if all that money was directed to dealing with the climate crisis, pushing for significant, massive change in how we live now and maybe even plant the seeds for a more equitable society. I am NOT holding my breath.

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  8. I love your intention of “we should start the year off the way we intend to keep going”. What a lovely way to start what would hopefully become a tradition for you, Gwen. And what a magnificent space to start the new year. May you have many more lovely, joyful and peaceful encounters with nature this year.

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  9. What a gorgeous garden Gwen, I especially liked the roses. The expression ‘stroll out’ amused me as I’d never heard it before! Hope the start of the year us going well for you both. I see Australian tennis is hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons! Marion xx

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    • Hi Marion. Thanks for commenting. If you have time, you might like to have a look at what I said to Agnes Ashe about the Djokovic affair. No doubt it will be in the news for another week before the world’s media moves on 🙂
      The gardens were fabulous. And with luck and time, I’ll get on to posting about all the other fabulous things we did in our week together. I think you’ll enjoy some of them. xx Gwen

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    • True about welfare, and of course, the Protector of Aborigines system created terrible consequences. I guess though, society was complicit. I remember when I was a young dental nurse in 1975 and a (white) woman came in with an indigenous toddler she had just fostered, me, like the dentist, believed it was a wonderful thing she was doing. I’ve often thought of that moment since, and wondered how it all worked out.

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  12. Oh Gwen, what a most beautiful garden. And the beauty is always a counterpoint to stories of sadness. I wonder if the day will come before I die when we will find a way to really say sorry for the stupid, blind and ignorant way we treated those who were here before the white man came and wreaked so much damage.

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  13. A splendid post in prose and photography, Gwen. The tribute plaque is indeed heart-wrenching. One of my mothers in law once asked me to do a drawing for her. I chose a very entwined root system from her garden. She questioned the state of my mind and put it away in a drawer.

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    • But they are so beautiful, don’t you think? I went through a stage of enlarging, framing and hanging my photographs. One was taken from a hot air balloon and featured driftwood in a dried creek bed. I thought the texture and colours just perfect, not to mention the unusual angle. But every time my girlfriend saw it, she said, ‘but it’s just sticks in a puddle.’ Ah well, beauty in the eye of the beholder, and all that.

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