Beautiful trees

Photo from Gardening Australia

Spring has sprung; indeed the weather is already uncomfortably warm sometimes, and it will very soon be summer. . .

Some of my favourite flowering trees are currently in full bloom. The wonderfully fragrant Native Frangipani (above), of which we are blessed to have 3 in our neighbourhood - one that is very large, one that is very small, and one that is somewhere in the middle. All of them are covered in gorgeous creamy flowers at the moment.

Now, this is possibly my favourite tree - the silky oak (above). It's not an oak at all, I believe they're  called silky oaks because of the beautiful timber they produce. There you go, a tree that is beautiful on the inside and the outside!

There are silky oak trees everywhere where I live, in town, and all over the countryside, but you don't really notice them until they start to bloom in October.

None of the photos I've got here really do them justice - they're such a bright, vivid shade of orangey-gold. 

Photo from EyeFetch.com

They are beautiful from a distance or at close hand. The foliage is silvery and fern-like, and the flowers are - interesting. Silky oaks are actually a  species of grevillea, but you don't realise it until you  examine them closely.

Orange is not my favourite colour - blue is! So why are silky oaks my favourite trees? I honestly have no idea. I don't know what it is -their brightness and vivacity, their curious mixture of ruggedness and grace. . . I'm not sure what it is in them that so captures my attention, all I know is that they're beautiful and I love looking at them. . . :-)

Click here for more gorgeous photos of these trees.

And of course jacarandas. . . jacarandas are absolutely beautiful, but I'm  afraid I'm a bit sick of them at the moment. I know I'm not being fair  on the poor trees, but I've just had enough purple for now.

Maybe I'm just a bit grumpy tonight, because it's impossible to deny that they are lovely trees. . .