Wildflowers

It’s wildflower season here, in WA. Are you a lover of wildflowers? I’ve found a few and I’m keen to spot a lot more!

Exploring our own back yard as local tourists is a favourite past time. With warmer, spring weather, we head out for few hours – along with fellow picknickers and trail-walkers, and an endless stream of traffic, possibly with much the same idea! Our Sunday drive takes us to Walyunga National Park.

At the park

Exploring as local tourists, we find a handful of wildflowers as we drive through the park. We stop and discover a walk way, paved and much used, leading to a river.

An unexpected volume of water is flowing. I recall my visit to Canadian rivers, near Lake Louise, in the Rocky Mountains. The flow is much gentler here, and the debris not as heavy. But that is where the contrast ends, for right here, now, I capture the presence of this flowing river. And its unique beauty.   

Wildflower memories

As a child, I recall my dad driving between our farm and the local town. As we pass a stretch of newly cleared land, he comments that burning off the scrub would probably bring it to life in a fresh way. That spring, the paddocks are sea of blue leschenaultia waving in the warm spring sunshine. Their bed of dark soil and ashen sticks of black and grey wood are a stark contrast to the bright blue flowers and rich green leaves. Fire had burst open dormant seed pods and birthed a lasting impression of stunning beauty. An image that is forever printed on my mind.

Sharing the love of wildflowers

On my childhood farm, stretches of uncleared, scrubby bush along fence lines were home for seasonal wildflowers. Many flowers were tough, and prickly, but the hardy leschenaultia is softer, and the petals delicate.

For one of our parent’s wedding anniversaries, my brothers and I gifted a print of Meryl Bell’s vase of Blue Leschenaultia. Why did we buy the painting? My mother liked that Meryl was a local artist whose work captures the beauty of our native flowers. The painting held pride of place in the lounge room for many years.

.

Wildflower seasons are short

There are many wildflowers drives in WA: further north, along the coast, and inland. This season, our planned trip up the coast and back via the midlands is deferred due to an inclement weather forecast.  If we wait too long, though, we may miss out! That’s just the way it is!

It might take a couple more weeks of sunshine for the plants to blossom along our local roadsides and in the swathes of bush along the highways. A week or so ago, at the start of spring, we checked out our Great Southern Highway. We enjoyed a random show of colour.

The drive is as familiar to me as the back of my hand. I’ve travelled it more times than I can count, as it is the link between the city where I live, and my childhood home town. Innumerable visits to family for over fifty years!

I am accustomed to the glorious spread of green paddocks and the stark contrasting trunks on different varieties of gum trees stretching tall into the sky, canopies of green for the grazing sheep. Others, stark grey, dead wood reaching high, proud reminders of what they were before cockatoos stripped their branches clean, or an untimely disease diminished their greatness.

A rich smell of lanolin from the unshorn sheep drifts across from the grazing mob. I feel very much at home as I lean into the scene, capturing more than images – revisiting inner mindscapes of childhood paddocks.

Will there be wildflowers later this month?

We plan a trip to Bunbury at the end of September. We hope to spend time capturing more yellows, reds, pinks and oranges and all shades in between as we travel south.  

With the shifting seasonal patterns, we will just have to take pot luck!

In the comments below, do let me know your favourite wildflowers. (Or click here and scroll to the end of the post.)

***