This was one of the reasons that convinced me that Victoria was a good place to relocate to: a sign warning people in cars to watch out for trees instead of the city just hacking off the "low branches."
This is the tree you see just beyond the sign – it's a chestnut – and I
assume it is the one being mentioned. It may well have been trimmed
over the years and it is on a windy curve along the Dallas Road
waterfront so likely the weather has also shaped it.
If you whiz by in a car you get a bit of the sense of its sprawl and
lean, but it is worthwhile to become a pedestrian and stop and stare.
In full leaf it is magnificent; bared to the branches it silhouettes strength. The word "tracery" comes to mind…..
These chestnuts have dried open but usually I pry the shell open as
soon as they have dropped onto the ground and marvel that no one has
seen them before.
These are edible chestnuts and they are so prickly…. even stepping on
them wearing a shoe to get the nut out is done with caution and even
then they do not pop out. But they are very tasty – need to be roasted
before eating.
I had made a chestnut but couldn't find it so made another using the wet felting method of taking some buffalo wool (it's not buffalo buffalo wool, that is just the name I know it by) and wrapping it into a ball…..
….wetting it and adding a bit of soap and rolling it around and
around in my hands, adding a bit more water, a bit more soap, rolling
and rolling….. until the wool got the idea and turned chestnut
shape….
While it was drying I went and had a coffee and a mini carrot cake –
and then a refill on the mini cake – at Bubba Rose's on Cook Street by
Fort. Cook Street has many huge chestnut trees along it.
When the chestnut had dried I needle felted a bit of fleece for the
'blush' and went looking for the discarded shells to display it and
found….
….the first chestnut so they both got in the picture; a tribute, of sorts.
And
in a few months time those stark trees will put out fat glistening buds
and then leaves will open like curled up fists and 'candles' will
follow…. and then more chestnuts…..
On the way home this afternoon I stopped to collect some more chestnuts and saw this…..
Those are new shoots of iris coming up; growth may slow down in
Victoria if we have cold spells but mostly it is year round growing.
Looks like the chestnut leaves were providing a blanket until someone started raking.