Heartbreak after a little walk in mtlawleyshire

It was only a little walk today – to the post office and back, but of course I took my camera.  It was a strange day – clouded and far too warm for this time of year.  Everything is out of sorts.

First, before I left, I had a wonderful surprise this morning: my magnolia flowered.  I have been watching this flower form for what feels like ages and this morning it opened, filling my courtyard with its beautiful perfume

 

and its glowing heart:

I caught the sunset as I walked down Beaufort Street, the colours behind the city were soft, almost beguiling:

 

behind trees as I walked home:

and the colours in the east:

The trees were lovely.  These are in the carpark:

 

This tree is behind a brick wall in someone’s garden:

and I met some friends on the way home:

This fellow was very personable and came up for cheek rubs

This one was very shy but wanted to talk.  Then someone came up the road and she scampered back inside before we got to the cheekrubs:

This young fellow I have known since a tiny kitten and he is very playful.  He wanted my scarf 🙂

 

and of course she was waiting for me when I got home:

Lots of purrs.

But now – the heartbreak.

This is a picture of a diseased lemon scented gum – or maybe a young white gum.  It is one of the three, growing tall and graceful in the carpark.  This one looks to be as tall and graceful, and it is, but – for this.

Later, this evening, there was a program talking about the deaths of trees all over the world.  In all the great forests.  And here, in south-western Australia. Last summer, it was so hot, so dry, that trees that have stood for hundreds of years died in a few weeks.  These are some of the toughest trees in the world and they are dying. They are so weakened by drought, by the rise in temperatures which in Perth and the south-west is faster than most other places, that the trees have reached their limits.  The forests are dying and with them, the beautiful birds and animals.

And it is here, in Mt Lawley.

I am very sad tonight.  All over the world, the trees are drying.  All trees, no matter what type – in the Amazon, in Turkey, in Greece, in the great forests of the Canadian and American Rockies – all types of trees, all dying.

Here, it is all types, and those that aren’t dying are not producing seed and they are no longer growing.

A world without trees. How can we even begin to countenance that?