Actually the poem says "The stark white ring-barked forests, all tragic to the moon" but this white snow gum forest is not ring-barked, nor is it their normal healthy white ... this is the result of the bushfires that swept through the region in 2003. They are reshooting from the base and will recover but it will be a slow process.
At this altitude snow gums grow low and are usually twisted into fantastic shapes. The stuff of many awesome photographs, typically in the snow.
Musing:
From The Snow Gum by Douglas Stewart
"It is the snow-gum silently,
In noon’s blue and the silvery
Flowering of light on snow.
Performing its slow miracle
Where upon drift and icicle
Perfect lies its shadow."
Quite a gorgeous colour and shape, JE. Is that splodges of lichen that I can see?
ReplyDeleteIt looks very hazy in the distance: is that early morning or distance smoke?
I did not know about Google Books ... but now I do!
Julie, don't remember much lichen ... what is it with you and lichen?
ReplyDeleteThe haze is fog.
The is a google just about everything these days.
Lichen really presses my buttons: I like to find growths on old logs too! My fav Attenborough was Life of Insects.
ReplyDeleteThe Art Barton Memorial Park was only opened in August 2007 when the Leunig piece was installed and a quiet ceremony held for just the families of those who died. So your eyes are not failing you.