Wollemi pine

For Christmas we gave my parents a little Wollemi pine, which they planted at their weekender in the Blue Mountains. We often ask after its health, but this time we thought we'd go and see for ourselves. The weather in the Blue Mountains can be very cold in winter (and hot in summer too) so Spring seemed the ideal time to visit.

The rain the previous week, or perhaps just the Spring, had caused the pine to sprout a crown of new pale green leaves. At first I didn't recognise it; it looked like some sort of fern. It was not until I got closer and saw the older growth that I realised what it was.

I tried to get Louka to stand beside it for a photo, and to compare sizes, but she wasn't interested.

Later we went for a walk, and she was interested in the king parrot we saw, and the hollow base of a eucalypt which she could just squeeze inside ― not like the huge tingle trees at Walpole in WA.