Every autumn we're greeted to this amazing display of fiery leaves on the smokebush gracing our driveway. Until we moved to the property we'd never heard of this plant, whose botanical name is Conospernum should you be interested. It is an Australian native shrub, but we've no idea which one of the 53 members in the Proteaceae family it is.
In the summer the smokebush's soft feathery flowers, that are a bit like a large dandelion clock preparing to disperse its seeds in the breeze, do resemble smoke. The shrub has it's own appeal then too, but as the season turns and the fine feathery fronds drop off the leaves turn a rich vibrant red and gold, and remind me of the glorious colours I associate with a UK autumn when the leaves on so many deciduous trees change their colours before dropping off altogether to carpet the ground.
Back in Tasmania, and despite being well into autumn, the weather remains unusually warm - and dry. Incredibly dry. No matter who you talk to everyone is saying they can't recall a summer and autumn like this one. The drought word hasn't been mentioned but surely this is what much of Tasmania is experiencing. A welcome, but brief, shower of rain several days ago has greened up grass and paddocks but farmers are still feeding their cattle and sheep with hay, and the wildlife are still edging closer to the verges in the hope of finding a bit of grass to eat. Far too many of them don't survive along roads where too many people continue to ignore the 'slow down for wildlife' signs between those critical hours between dusk and dawn, and another animal ends up as roadkill. A small tragedy in a world where far greater tragedies ae currently playing out, but a needless and preventable tragedy all the same.
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