The Flower Calendar

One thing I really like about living here in Western Australia is that there are flowers all year round and each month produces many different blooms.
And this time of year is one of my favorite times. It is mid winter and also the time that the world famous West Australian wildflowers burst into life and people come to visit from all corners of the globe.
Many international and Australian rovers set out in their caravans and/or four wheel drives to traverse our deserts to witness the colorful blooms that can stretch as far as the eye can see.

At the moment many wattles are showing us their bright and profuse yellow sprays on plants that range from small bushes to fully grown trees and my favorite, the Geraldton wax bushes are now coloring the verges of our highways and freeways with their white, off white, subtle pink, vivid pinks, lilac and purple clusters of small, dense flowers.
This is also the time of year for all the multi-colored daisies; both imported and indigenous.
The different times of year invariably yield colorful blooms.

Before the 'whitefellah' declared Australia Terra Nullus the inhabitants of this continent plotted their nomadic movements by the flowers (the flower calendar).
They knew that when a particular flower bloomed that it was time to move; to head out east, west, south or north following the best sources of shelter or bush foods.
Besides providing this vital information the flowers also provided information about climatic deviations as well as information about impending cyclones and floods etc.

The movements of the animals and insects provided them with vital clues too. For instance I can predict how much rain we are about to have by the activity of the ants.
When I recently returned to the city this week I noted how much of the sand between the brick paving had been rearranged by the ants on my verandah and I commented to my daughter that we were indeed going to have a lot of rain during the coming week.

To the Indigenous tribes different parts of Australia had different numbers of 'seasons'. For instance in the northern parts of Australia there are 6 seasons and these seasons announced themselves by initiating certain events in the environment not governed by specific dates.

In fact the 'whitefellah' in Australia did attempt to modify the Gregorian calendar used in Europe to be more in keeping with this land; however I have never been able to make sense of the choices of those powers that did.
In Australia we officially have 4 seasons made up of summer, autumn, winter and spring much the same as in Europe, USA and all other parts of the world previously colonized by European settlers but with the exception that here in Australia the seasons change on the first day of the month as opposed to being aligned to solar events such as the equinox or nadir that occurs around the 21^st of June or December dependent upon which hemisphere you inhabit.
Perhaps the settlers, after enduring around 6 or 7 weeks of heat starting in October must have thought that by December 1^st it must surely be summer.

I'm off outside now to have a cuppa besides my Geraldton wax bush. Keep posted.