Canberra (Australia) – September keeps us guessing. We smell the spring flowers while we are still Covid-free. This requires a visit or two to the Australian National Botanic Gardens. It has been 80 days since Canberra (the national capital of Australia) has recorded a case of Covid-19. My month is filled with medical appointments, getting in while the going is good. Survivor-guilt sets in. The threat of magpies swooping hangs over our heads.

There is sufficient material for a blog post on each of those topics, so I won’t bore you with the nitty gritty details of my September shenanigans here. I might have to say something in future though about the Prime Minister, who after consulting with the Property Council, has issued an edict that public servants should return to the office (where safe to do so, consistent with Covidsafe plans, blahdeblah) so they can spend their hard-earned dollars on coffee and lunch at CBD cafes. I don’t know how in heck, the PM expects the workforce will transport themselves safely to the office.

Now where was I? That’s right .. the Botanic Gardens. My friend convinced me that we should go out for coffee. So I went out. We went to the gardens. It was lovely but I couldn’t be so rude as to take copious photos, so I went back another day. And then another. We’ve had many grey rainy days, some sunny days too, so many of the photos from the gardens are dark and moody. All the photos in this post come from those visits, so I hope you like flowers and birds, and bearded dragons.

Some Enchanted Garden

Spring in the gardens.
Cacophony of sound.
Air vibrates and rumbles,
zips and whirs.
Colours flash and tantalise,
the smell divine.
Senses say stay a while.
My mind wanders.
A world away.

How green, or black and white, is your garden?

Purple invites a closer look and calms the senses.

Pink delights.

Yellow thrums.

Red is generous and racy.

This September, the world lost some incredible women, champions of gender equality and inclusiveness – Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Australian singer-songwriter, Helen Reddy; and former Australian senator and minister, the Honourable Susan Ryan. Ms Ryan is Australia’s equivalent to America’s RBG. Susan Ryan fought for and secured the passage of the Sex Discrimination Act in 1984. She also had significant public roles advocating against age and disability discrimination.

This is my response to The Changing Seasons – September 2020 photo challenge hosted by the lovely Su at Zimmerbitch.  Why not check it out and join in? Su has photos of gannets nesting.

Sing it with me, ladies.

Stay safe, sane and kind, everyone.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

About The Photos
I dragged my True Love to the Botanic Gardens one weekend. He is still recovering from his Achilles heel tendon tear, so he shuffled along with his camera. He took the photos of the bearded dragon with the purple flowers in the background, the bright yellow “Twistie” like flowers (Twisties are a type of cheese curl, corn-based snack food product), and in fading light, the shenanigans of a pair of gang-gang cockatoos. I took all the other photos.

41 thoughts on “The Changing Seasons – September 2020”

  4. Your photos are balm for my soul what with spring in the air for you and all those beautiful flowers blooming, Tracy.
    How I envy you your 80 days without a new covid case! So far it’s not as bad here as it’s in France for example but the numbers are getting higher each day and people seem more and more determined to ignore all rules. 🙁
    Better to look at your wonderful pictures than loose myself in these dark thoughts…
    The bearded dragon is beautiful and kudos to your TL for running around with his injury! I had quite some trouble with both my Achilles tendons a couple of years ago and it was agonising. It took well over a year to improve and I still have to do my exercises.
    Hope your PM will stop talking rubbish!!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I can’t quite believe it myself, Sarah – our 80 days clear and the growth in infection numbers elsewhere. I guess that is why I focussed on the flower photos. You would enjoy the gardens so much, especially on a cold day. It is quite surreal to be one of very few people wandering the paths.
      After your feedback on how long Achilles injuries take to heal (as opposed to heel), I realise that I have been rather unsympathetic about his, ahem, slow recovery!
      The pub culture is so foreign to me, Sarah, and has always been. I think I am in a very small minority. I couldn’t think of anything worse quite frankly. Is there no saving for that metaphorical rainy day anymore?

      Liked by 1 person

  5. I didn’t know that Helen Reddy had died. I’m sorry to hear that.

    Your spring blooms are very exotic–and they came with a bird bonus, too! Kudos to you and your TL for the photography.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. I’m super busy with work. I’m trying to get a new course developed (on a tight deadline, of course!), but I’m being hit with meeting after meeting. I will be very glad when this course is finished!

        Liked by 1 person

  6. Great news about 80 days without a new COVID-19 case. Some places in Quebec are in the red zone and are seeing 1000 news cases a day. Some attribute the rise to ‘’joie de la vie.” Bars and clubs open and mask wearing and social distancing ignored. The biggest rise is in the twenty to forty aged group. This group seemed to think it would not get COVID-19.
    Tracy, thank you for the Spring flower photographs. In my neck of the woods it’s the flaming fall colours of the maple leaves. Some areas get frost overnight! Winter is not far off.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I don’t know what motivates the 20-40 year olds, Sid. Perhaps they are just lonely and dating is important. Also for many young people, it is their first time out of home and their friends are a de facto family. Alcohol seems to feature in so many gatherings here, that I sometimes think that people have lost the ability to socialise without a drink in their hands. Drinking and Covidsafe practices don’t seem to go well together. I sympathise with parents. It must be so difficult for them. In some ways, perceptions of risk can be a victim of success in containing covid deaths. For most people below 50, the risks are not high of mortality, while the long term morbidity we can only guess at. It is so complicated. In Australia, a lot of effort has gone into helping those that have been most adversely affected by the associated economic downturn. As support is reduced and removed there is likely to be much less tolerance for the strict infection control measures we have in place.
      Canada must be an absolute picture of beautiful burnished maple leaves.

      Like

  7. Your photos are lovely Tracy; visits to a botanic garden is such balm for the soul. Thanks too for the song. I read about Helen Reddy’s death and have been meaning to play some of her music. Now I’ve belted out I am Woman a few times, I’m ready for anything.

    All the “health versus the economy” arguments around Covid really depress me. If people can’t see that it’s not a choice in the case of a virus, there’s sod all hope of them realising that the same is true when it comes to the planet as a whole.

    I hope you TL’s Achilles is healing well and that you and the whanau are all ok.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks, Su. I’m avoiding the issues you raised. Hence, very quiet on my blog on matters of substance in favour of visiting the gardens. I’m simmering though, bit like the planet. 😉 As soon as I hear the old economy killing arguments being trotted out again, I start to scream inside. As this pandemic has so clearly demonstrated, those countries that have put health first, are also doing the best economically. The same will be true of those that de-carbonise too. Unfortunately we can’t shut our borders to runaway global emissions, so ensuring planetary health is a bigger challenge, and I agree with you that is incredibly demoralising.
      We are all okay here. It is going to be a nice day tomorrow so I’m going to work on my mosaic which is coming along nicely, after which I will brave the magpies. People are walking around waving large sticks so I gather the maggies are a bit tetchy this year.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I’m glad that you’re all ok, and that you’re working on the mosiac.

        I feel exactly the same way about the world (but you knew that); gardening is my solace. I’m dreaming of a food forest in my backyard at the moment.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Pingback: The Changing Seasons, September 2020 | Zimmerbitch

  12. Wow. Like Wow, Wow. These photos. I can’t choose one or two that stand out as they all are so beautiful. Please tell your TL that I adore the bearded dragon 🙂 one – so many beautiful plants and birds, too!

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are now closed.