When the weather is hot and humid in Townsville I sometimes feel like wilting. The trees however have a different viewpoint.
The Cassia Trees are so bright and tenacious, their yellow flowers are sunshine personified, lasting for weeks and weeks. They grow in parkland, private gardens and in abandoned areas where they get no water.
The frangipani come in a surprising amount of colours and grow everywhere. In North Ward near the Strand and Ocean they line the footpaths.
The flowers of the Bangkok Rose might look like they need a drink, but that is just a facade.
The Poinciana Tree has controlled my destiny. After travelling in Europe for a year in our Twenties, B.H. and I settled in Perth. On a trip back to Townsville one Christmas as our plane flew low over the suburbs, all I could see was green (it must have rained) and hundreds of Poinciana trees in bloom, and thought “who would not want to live in this beautiful place”. The Poinciana was directly responsible for us packing our campervan and heading home for good.
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jenny@atasteoftravel
A great start to 2013…My favourites are the frangipani flowers.
Jan
I agree they are stunning, and a double whammy when the fragrance hits you on a warm summer’s night.
Danielle
Frangipanis always make me think of my beautiful grandmother, that passed away this year. She had a tree in her front yard and I would sit in its branches, enveloped by the beautiful fragrance.
Jan
What a lovely way to remember your Grandmother Danielle. I associate my Grandmother with Purple Bouganvillea. She had acreage in the semi-country outside of Townsville where she had a herd of milking goats. The land was fairly poor country but the Bouganvillea thrived on neglect. So much so that it ended up being more of a tree with a thick trunk, rather than a creeper, unfortunately no frangrance like the Frangipani. I guess there are lots of them in Cairns.