9/4: Sydney: Garden lovers: this one's for you.

It had rained cats and dogs all night and we woke up to overcast skies and a lot of fog. Our plan for the day had been to do the famous Cooggee to Bondi walk along the coast but we quickly decided today was not the day for that! So we chose to simply switch around tomorrow’s plans for today’s figuring we could handle the lousy weather and the likelihood of rain better today if we could escape into a museum. 

Steven, who’s been feeling pretty lousy for a few days, pulled out all the stops clotheswise as he always gets chilled when feeling sick, wearing his woolen hat he purchased last year in Istanbul, his down coat on top of his fleece and long sleeved top and heavy socks to keep his tootsies warm. We had intended to need all that cold weather gear for later in the trip when we hit Nepal and northern India in December, not thinking he would need it in springtime in Sydney.

Foregoing taking the train (what we would call the subway) or buses, we braved the chilly weather and walked from our hotel toward the Royal Botanic Gardens, our first destination for the day, so we could join the free guided tour at 10:30. This year feels like it will be our Botanic Gardens tour as we have already toured many of them in the SE US earlier this year and our itinerary calls for visits to more of the same in Canberra, Singapore and other cities I can’t remember right now.

Zachary: we thought of you, hon, as we passed Sydney’s 

Garden Island Naval Base in Woolloomoolo Bay.

What a great park philosophy.

Had just enough time to walk to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair on the northern 

edge of the Gardens. The ‘chair’ bears the name of Governor’s wife; 

they were both instrumental in the development of early Sydney.

Royal Botanic Gardens at Last: Only 6 hearty souls joined the tour initially as it was very chilly and the likelihood of rain threatened. Ann, our wonderful volunteer tour guide, mentioned the Gardens are not just a lovely spot to enjoy the city’s flora but also a working scientific facility. Janina and Pat: I kept thinking you two would have enjoyed this tour so much.

Our first stop was the Spring Garden as, of course, it’s just the 

beginning of spring time ‘down under’ now. 

Ann told us these lovely purple flowers were  a spirea from China.

More than 5000 tulips from Tasmania, the island south of the mainland, are hand planted yearly as it’s not cold enough here in Sydney to leave them in the ground year round. Sydney has a very temperate climate with its never getting colder than 8 degrees Celsius, about 45 degrees F.  

Ann mentioned a friend of hers growing up inland had never seen rain til she was 7 years old. Imagine how scared she must have been when she saw and felt the rain at that age.

We saw these Stop Thief signs all over the gardens, something we had never encountered before in our many visits to Botanic Gardens all around the US and so far in other nations. Ann showed us one tree for example that was about 20’ high and said that a tree a quarter its height would cost upwards of AUD$ 1000.  How sad that some people are so destructive of public property.

Steven holding a Ficus Religiosa leaf: Buddha is thought to have sat under a tree like this and gained enlightenment. Ann stated that only this tree has a long pointed bit at the end of the leaf.

Bunya Pine Tree: Its cones can weigh up to 10 kg EACH and the seeds inside the cone are each the size of small eggs. When the tree is about to lose its cones, Ann said staff immediately put up a large fence around the tree so no visitors are beaned on the head!

Interesting bark, I thought.

Silver Crusted Cockatoo: Ann said that these birds are normally very destructive in home gardens and can be very malicious and vicious and are even known to bite off a person’s finger. Luckily the ones we saw in the Gardens are used to visitors and are safe to be around – phew!

Over the last few days in Sydney visiting the tourist sites, we saw scads of groups of young schoolchildren in uniform and to a one, they all wore large hats just like these but in different colors and crests on the brim. As you may know, skin cancer is a huge problem here in Australia, so it was very encouraging to see the required use of large brimmed hats by young children. Noticed though relatively few older kids and adults wore hats; don’t know whether it’s not a ‘cool’ thing to do or because it’s only springtime and that hat usage goes up with warmer weather. 

Postscript: In Canberra now (9/7) and I spoke to a former Principal  from Queensland (i.e. another state) who told me that her school's policy vis-a-vis hats was ' no hat, no play.'

Loved the base.

Lemon Myrtle Tree: Ann gave us a couple of its leaves to smell – oh, what a divine lemony scent, especially to me as I love all things lemony. Apparently Jamie Oliver, the renowned British chef, praised the tree in one of his TV cooking shows and soon every nursery in England ran out of the tree to sell! When President Clinton visited Australia, he was served a lemon myrtle tart.

Macadamia Nut Tree: I think most of the world associates macadamias with Hawaii

but Ann told us that Australia is now the world’s leading producer of the nut.

Mellaluca Tree: Certainly one of the more intriguing trees we’ve ever seen as it’s 1 tree with 3 distinct leaves, 2 of which are different types of figs. Turns out that the strangler figs have surrounded the mellaluca so much so that within 20 years, the mellaluca will die 

leaving only the fig trees in its place.

Convict Heritage Site: This tiny footbridge, built for  Mrs. Macquarie,

 was the 1^st bridge built by convicts in Australia

What a joyous sculpture of a happy centaur!

Having our fill of all things horticultural for the day, we had a picnic lunch and Steven then said he needed to rest awhile. We walked over to a park bench by the 30 year wall built along a lovely walking/jogging path and Steven dozed for about 90 minutes or so on my lap, all snug as a bug in his fleece, down jacket woolen cap and gloves. Many people gave me rather strange looks as they walked or jogged by as they were often only clad in running shorts and a T shirt. They must have been locals as foreigners were mostly dressed in far warmer attire. It was quite beautifully sunny by then but there was still a nip in the air, at least for us foreigners!

That's enough for this post. The next one will feature our visit to the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Hyde Park Barracks, another Convict site, also on 9/4.

Good bye and stay safe til my next post.