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Published: October 21st 2016
My Aussie Backyard...the Rocks & the Trees. It kinda begs the question...why the rocks & the trees?
We love the birds that sing and the animalia that slither, climb and crawl.
But what images are our deepest emotional attachment to Australia as our home?
It's the rocks & trees that remind us of home when we are away...that welcome us when we return from our travels...the sap of our life blood...trunks that give us strength...evergreen branches that open like arms...that catch the wind...that perfumes the air...that shades and comfort us...that provides the oxygen we breathe.
While the flora & fauna change around them...the rocks are our constant...always there.
What reminds me of the magical places in this World we have visited?
It is the landscapes...the vistas...the people...the animal and birds...the colours...and definitely the rocks & trees.
As an Aussie...I reckon our life force is the eucalypt...our freckles the flora and fauna...the rocks the stubble.
But without the Aussie bush full of all these things...I reckon I'd never feel at home.
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The eucalypt seems to be everywhere.
I had a woman in China arguing vehemently that the eucalypts were
endemic to Yunnan (they were introduced in about the 1860s as I recall).
The scaffolding in Ethiopia are skinny eucalypts introduced for building purposes that Ethiopia exports to Sudan and other surrounding countries.
Aussie eucalypts seem to dot the slopes in many countries we have visited in Africa, Asia, North & South America and places in between. Always a reminder of where they originated...our island continent home.
In the Everglades of Florida they told us of the introduction of our Aussie paperbarks, the melaleuca. Talk about not doing their homework!
They introduced them to suck up the swamps and they bred like flies. They then tried to burn them to get rid of them. But hey. They are a tree from a sunburnt country, a land of fire and floods. Fire is its catalyst of life. So instead of reducing the melaleucas by burning they encouraged their spread.
They told us the ecology of the Everglades is under threat...from the humble Aussie paperbark tree!
******
We hear of the destruction of the forests in Brazil, in Borneo, all sorts of places.
Deforested areas opening up for pastoral activities...promoting hamburgers...destroying habitats
for animals...resulting in erosion...seemingly changing the courses of rivers...increasing the pollution in the air we breath.
It seems people are starting to realise that the trees support the survival of humanity on this ever increasingly fragile planet.
We constantly hear of global warming.
Let me put it out there.
Are the destruction of forests a contributing factor to global warming?
I've gotta admit I haven't heard that before but I'm not a scientist...but considering the following I reckon it's a "maybe."
What do trees do?
1. They produce oxygen and suck up carbon dioxide.
2. They filter the air of pollutants.
3. They stabilise the soil thus reducing erosion.
4. They shade the ground reducing evaporation and drying.
5. They shield the land from the effect of wind, softening the impact of rain.
6. They filter pollutants from the soil.
7. They slow water runoff.
8. They store the carbon they suck up through their leaves as wood that reduces the carbon dioxide in the air.
9. They shade our houses and protect them from wind, rain, hot and cold or at least
the severity of them to a significant extent.
!0. And their fallen leaves form humus that supports microbes, bugs and crawlies that fertilise the soil so plant life can spring forth again.
We back onto forested National Park in the northern suburbs of Sydney.
Because we have so many trees they say that's the reason our mobile phone access sucks.
Yet because we have so many trees, the air at our place is a pure and clean.
Time to inhale...to breathe.
We live in sandstone country...ridges of sandstone like terraces stepping down into the amphitheatre that is Galston Gorge.
A land of caves and overhangs...streams dropping into pools...tree ferns looking up...gum trees like fathers looking down...massive boulders laying like the muscles of resting giants.
Come with me for a walk...into our backyard...yep...my place.
Breathe deeply...enjoy the colours...the textures...the shade.
Aussie rocks and trees...gotta love 'em.
Relax & Enjoy,
Dancing Dave
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Nice yard!
Dangerous One here......enjoyed your blog. Deforestation does lead to global warming. Need those trees in large numbers to do their thing. They are marvelous in so many ways.