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Stray Gifts

“Pleasure is spread through the earth in stray gifts to be claimed by whoever may find them ” William Wordsworth

Jacaranda flowers in streets of Grafton NSW are this week’s stray gifts. The Jacaranda tree might be a native of South America but it grows really well in northern NSW.

In the 1870s Grafton town council invested in seedlings to line ALL of their streets with graceful shade trees with the added bonus of a floral display celebrating spring in the southern hemisphere.

Grafton’s Jacaranda Festival celebrates spring as well as being Australia’s oldest floral celebration and largest & oldest collection of jacca’s in the country. Every single street pretty much looks like this, big beautiful shade trees that shower purple flowers in spring.

A beautiful sight in this little country town.

Sky Watch Friday is the best fun, check the link to see what bloggers from around the world are sharing this week.

Yellow Tabebuia‏ is one of the other trees that flower at this time of year, nice compliment to the purple haze of Jacca time.
Sarah of the Beach Cottage in sunny beachside Sydney is hosting a give away this week. Click the link and check out her blog full of fun ideas on creatively recycling but get a cup of tea first, you could be there a while.

Then look into the Bloggy Give Away Parties all kinds of fun things going on over there.


Another Melissa Frances project from a recent class. Aren’t these kids the cutest?