Do you remember the tree on our nature-strip? It was a gum tree I think. We used to pick the leaves off and peel away a thin translucsent layer, no clue why but it was always a feat to peel it off in one piece. We would clamber in that tree, it wasn’t great to climb – remember? More get to one spot and stand and watch the world go by. We often wished it was taller and more spread out so we could hide up there.
I can’t remember if we were ‘allowed’ to play in the tree… it seems close to the road when I think back. Mum’s garden at that house – the one with the pretend grey bricks that I used to scratch at and try to move to see what was under that strange facade – it was cool, I remember it wasn’t quite the meandering fairy garden I wanted with pockets of hidden shade where I could perform magic but it wasn’t too far off.
I used to bang the white rocks together and like the gun powder smell it made. We would pop the fuchsia pods and tiny fresh looking beads of water would come out, I knew mum would be mad at me but that satisfying, fleshy ‘pop’ was too much to resist. Oh! And those leathery green leaves on the bush with the purple flowers! The leaves that stuck together like a little pod and if we were very gentle we could pull them apart and another two smaller leaves were stuck together and then… even smaller leaves!
The taste of the honey-suckle always surprised me, I expected a soapy warning of poison but the soft saccherine liquid was always a treat. And the lily-pilly berries… I am sure I made myself ill crunching on too many of those tangy white berries.
That lily- pilly tree was on the entrance to the wood yard where the swingset was and I seem to remember some trucks and toys always being around – rocks and gravel in the tray. On the other side of the wood yard was my favourite spot, my haven. An arbor with beautiful purple wisteria growing over it. I am guessing it would have been the spring months that it flowered and gave an incredible shade and I would sit at the wooden picnic table and write letters and stories, I would do craft and have dress up extravaganzas. I miss that place, remember how many snails we would find in the old stone BBQ!?
Further back there was a huge – well it seemed so at the time – vegetable garden. And the apricot tree! Oh the jam that came from that tree! And we used to have berries just from our garden for Christmas breakfast!! Remember the room off the garage? We would play schools and shops! And – oh! – remember getting on the roof of that room?! How did we manage to climb up there? I seem to recall being wedged between two buildings… There was an old dead sea horse – we thought it was the coolest thing we had ever seen!! I remember liking little bits of silicone coming out of the nail holes, I would pick them off and play with them.
Me, always poking and prodding in intense interest in the objects, materials and textures of this world.
stumbeline 