The christmas lists

• By Alison
• 15 December, 2009
• 5 Comments

What I’ve loved most about driving around Sydney this christmas is the wonderful greenness of it all. There is an obvious difference between the green of Sydney, and the green of London, although it took me a while to put my finger on it. It’s a subtle hue. The green shifts into a blueish (eucalyptic) hue and also a dusty khaki hue which is uniquely australian.

Despite there not being enough water most of the time, the bushland around here looks vibrant and glossy.

And the other thing I love, and have realised is the signature of Australia for me – is the punctuation of bright flowers throughout that sebile greeness. It’s not delicate or gentle like English fauna – it’s in your face – it’s almost noisy, resonant to the point of being sonorous.

It’s the christmas bush, the oleander and agapanthus that line the front yards of houses as we drive past. Vivid colours with rich contrast to their surroundings. Flowering gums, banksia and wattle – singing in colour.

I am drinking it in, loving every minute. When I arrive back in England I will have my obligatory period of deep depression (I always do) and then hopefully it will be summer. I am hoping that this coming year London might decide to HAVE a summer.

I thought I could fill a whole article with some rabbiting nonsense about how green it is, but I realise that would end up reading as mindless drivel. Kind of like what a koala would write after a big chow down on the magic leaves.

So here instead are my lists:

Things I love about being home for christmas

• the heat that gets right through you
• the sunshine that throws rainbows off the crystal hanging in the window
• the beaches with turquoise water and breaking surf
• the verdant green of the bush, with the bluish hues
• giant bushes of oleander in fuschia, pink and white
• vegemite in large jars
• violet crumble
• jatz (NOT the cheese variety)
• white and violet agapanthus in trimmed front yards
• old fibro houses lurking between the brick bungalows
• cabanossi
• the wonderful playareas with shady canopies
• the terracotta water filters that are far too heavy for me to take home with me
• flyscreens, and keeping windows open all the time
• airconditioning
• australian christmas carols (out on the plains, the brolgas are dancing…)
• seeing friends I’ve not seen for years (other than on facebook)
• parking in shopping centres is normally free
• birdsong, both raucous and melodious
• patting koalas. It’s a perk!

Things I hate am less anamoured about being home for christmas

• the fact that it’s not my home at the moment
• road tolls
• massive roads
• the houses that are trying to outbuild one another
• the drought
• the fact that I can’t take a terracotta water filter home with me
• the rising inflection at the end of sentences
• the high price of anything and everthing
• the lack of wifi in rsl clubs (I mean, honestly!)
• there isn’t a creek in the back yard
• the fact that we’ll have to leave in two weeks

And here is my favourite christmas carol by William G. James.

CAROL OF THE BIRDS

Out of the plains the brolgas are dancing
Lifting their feet like war horses prancing
Up to the sun the woodlarks go winging
Faint in the dawn light echoes their singing
Orana! Orana!
Orana! To Christmas Day

Down where the tree-ferns grow by the river,
There where the waters sparkle and quiver,
Deep in the gullies Bell-birds are chiming,
Softly and sweetly their lyric notes rhyming
Orana! Orana!
Orana! To Christmas Day.

Friar-birds sip the nectar of flowers,
Currawongs chant in wattle-tree bowers
In the blue ranges Lorikeets calling
Carols of bushlands rising and falling
Orana! Orana!Orana!
To Christmas Day.

 Photograph by ciamabue