maybe it's because...

it's dawned on me [yet again] that you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl...in more ways than one.

even though i was born in Australia and have lived there on and off for the greater part of my life and love my home dearly

there's something about the European flora that brings a rush of memory

hardly surprising given my DNA is almost entirely European

i say almost because it's clear my brownish outer layer has been influenced by the same dash of Khazak that gave my maternal grandfather his distinctive colouring

after years of the Big Dry back home i'd completely forgotten just how wonderful the northern spring can be

and when a student gave me a bunch of lily-of-the-valley [picked from her garden] yesterday i was almost overcome and had to have a little quiet moment in a corner

burying my nose in them like a deprived addict

the colours that emerged from this spring workshop reflect the green and pleasant land...can you spot the elephant in the room

the wild colonial boy dyed in Eucalyptus cinerea

 

the delicious colour above came from a black tulip much like the one below

and there's someone else in that photo above who is also far from home...

Kia Ora, my friend Harakeke!

one doesn't think of London as having woods...usually Bond Street, the V & A and Paddington Station are the things that spring to mind.

staying at Golders Green has revealed the delights of Hampstead Heath - which i had always imagined as a barren treeless plain

it's more the Wild Wood of Wind in the Willows [but without the river]

somewhere on this pond there are ducks...

and this is one for Petrus.