Many places in Sydney are being coloured in purple-blue nowadays: it is the flowering season of the beautiful Jacaranda tree. First of all, I have to tell you a short story about me and my relationship with plants. I never felt this kind of enthusiasm about flowers, trees and other plants before. But the truth is, that this all started here in Australia. The whole year long, flowering bushes and trees make you just a bit happier when you are passing them on the street. You can not miss them if you are walking in the city. I have sent a lot of letters and pictures - many about flowers - to my family in the past few months, telling them, that the nature here is absolutely stunning and lovely. At a certain point one of my dear aunties reminded me smiling of that day (this happened a few years ago), when they were talking between each other about the flowers- growing in their gardens-, and suddenly I was wondering loudly and ironically, whether I would be interested in flowers as well in a few years time …

But let us go back to the jacaranda tree. I can say, it is one of my favorite trees here in Australia, because of its castanets-shaped fruits hanging on the branches through the whole year. But the name of this tree has been unknown for us until these days, when it started flowering so purple, so brightly, that we got curious and looked after this tree on internet.

You can find Jacarandas in tropical areas, especially in South and Central America, in India, Africa, etc. Here in Australia -according to Wikipedia - Brisbane  is very famous because of its purple avenues, as well as Grafton because of its Jacaranda Festival held in every October.

The students at Sydney University know the saying: “by the time the jacaranda in the main quadrangle flowers, it’s too late to start studying for exams”. By the way, the tree is also known as `exam tree`. If a flower falls onto your head, it apparently means, that you have failed your exam, unless you catch a falling bloom before it reaches the ground.

Finally, there is an other Australian expression as well, which says: “When the bloom of the jacaranda tree is here, Christmas time is near”.

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On Saturday we walked down again from Bondi to Coogee Beach, which is a very nice trip with beautiful views over the beaches and the ocean. We planned to see the outdoor exhibition “Sculpture by the Sea”, which was interesting, so we will write a post about that later.

Between Bronte Beach and Clovelly Bay the road goes through a cemetery. When we saw this for the first time, we were so amazed that we almost had to laugh about the situation. It is a bit absurd, if you see men without T-shirts - headphones plugged in their ears - running over the hills, showing their sweated bodies. Or happy families walking through with small children as if they were in Hyde Park.

No doubt the Waverley cemetery is located on one of the most beautiful places; on the hill sides, ending at the high cliffs that are suddenly rising out of the ocean.  The view is spectacular with only the sound of birds and the ocean.   Just a few people reach this part of the walk from Bondi, only the families in the neighborhood, the sweated joggers and the persistent tourists.

Because it was All Saints` Day  - and we could not visit the cemeteries like we are used to at home - we made a small detour from the prescribed road and we walked around a little bit on this cemetery. Most of the graves are over 100-150 years old, they look very similar in their appearance, shape or colour, and the fact that most of them have not been visited for a long while. You don’t find there colourful flowers or candles that you can see at home around this time. Either there are no flowers at all or there are tiny little yellow daisies - spread by nature - as in a `still life`.  Here, or at least on this cemetery, it is no habit to bring a visit. The sight however is beautiful, and if you have been here a few times, you will also get used to the running people.

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A little while ago we wrote a post about the Pinnacles Desert located in Western Australia. We showed a few pictures, but because of technical reasons we were not able to upload a movie. To make up for this, here is our first video!! We hope you will like it …

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