art in the willows

I’ve been visiting the old pine forest areas along the Melonglo River (I say old because they all got burnt out in the 2003 bushfires so there isn’t really any forest any more, though plantations are being re-established. It’s a nice area to go cycling on the dirt tracks, and poke about and explore the river. Just the sort of socially marginal landscape I enjoy! Along the river is almost exclusively exotic weed trees – mostly willow – many of which survived the fires and in any case are recovering very quickly. If you ignore the ramifications of all this weediness though, they are still lovely trees – especially now with all the spring growth – and will be nice and shady in the summer. The willows were dropping flowers last week.

On the way back I bumped into someone from school of art – she was just heading into the forestry land with her young sister on their bikes. They said they were off for a play in the creek. I said I’d been doing much the same – but since I’m not a kid anymore I photograph what I do and call it art !

Tags: canberra, cycling, ephemeral, flowers, silhouettes, spring, willow