"The Bush"

Date: 08 August 2008 01:56:04

Down to the Capital this weekend. I am attending a charity concert by the Canberra Handel Choir, a choir put-together by the Wibsite's own Singing Semele. Profits go to the Ghana Health and Education Initiative. And it will be marvellous to see Semele again; she was living up here for some time, but due to a particularly busy time at work I only saw her once! Strange how those things work out...

On the way back to Sydney Sunday, I hope to visit the Wombeyan Caves again [my last, and only, visit was in January 2006]. One of the joys I recall from driving out there -- apart from visiting caves which I enjoy -- was driving through the Australian Bush. There are times where I do tire of life here, or I wonder if life could be more "fun" if I were somewhere else. But one thing I never tire of is the bush: its vastness, its variety, its beauty. A unique beauty perhaps, when compared to the lushness and deep greens of other countries, a harsh and rugged beauty even, but beauty nevertheless.

One of the pleasures of driving around the Hunter Valley last weekend, and coming back via the backroads, rather than the main freeway between Sydney and Newcastle, was seeing some of this beauty. And even before that, Sydney does have its pockets of bushland. The Ku-ring-gai campus of my university on the north shore is surrounded by bush: a very different setting to the CBD campuses where I study [and there is definitely no equivalent of the infamous Tower Building at Ku-ring-gai: even if concrete is prevalent]. Nice views from the corridors though, even with the green carpet!

I simply love the towering trees we have:

Wattle is one of my favourite native plants: I love the bright yellows; a number of other plants also caught my eye [though I have no idea what they are called!]:

I love driving along country roads, with trees overtowering you, or farms or plains stretching out on either side, or even a large, rocky hill in front of you:

And then there are our wonderful rivers [sadly many, particularly the Murray [a river I'd love to travel on a cruise on one day], are at very low levels and are in poor health due to drought and poor farming and industrial practices in the past] such as the Hawkesbury:

And you even get to travel across the Hawkesbury on a car ferry.

I do love this land of ours.