The first blowfly has just been despatched from my kitchen - can spring be far behind? On a recent sunny afternoon and following my first visit to the newish location of The Canberra Times in Civic, the magnet was the forest of Himalayan cedars (Cedrus deodara) at the National Arboretum. The sun lit the tree trunks which were wrapped in knitted scarves made to Indigenous patterns for Warm Trees this year by Friends of the NAC.
The species name, deodara, is a Sanskrit word which means "timber of the gods" and the air among them felt beneficial. The trees were planted from 1917 to 1930 followed by plantings in 2010. A friend who is heading off to live for some time among Indigenous artists far north-east of Alice Springs said, "Big hugs to the trees."
