Looking Up When You’re Down

Getting in over your head

Feather palm (Archontophoenix sp., Arecaceae) forest with paperbark (Melaleuca sp., Myrtaceae). The tree in the centre is a Quandong (Elaeocarpus sp., Elaeocarpaceae). You can probably work out which are the palms and which is the paperbark! Cairns, Far North Queensland. © Bronwen Scott.

In mid-November, Anne Bonfert posed a challenge to tilt your head and look up. I am late to respond; I hope this prompt doesn’t have a use by date. (Watch me publish a Yuletide post in time for the next equinox.)

A few days ago I wrote that December was going to be a productive month. Since then, life has gone haywire. Look, it’s probably my fault for calling it Do-cember. That’s not so much tempting fate as poking it with a pointy stick and yelling ‘what are you going to do about it, sunshine?’

When things go pear-shaped, I turn to nature, to what American poet and novelist Wendell Berry calls ‘the peace of wild things’. When things are down, what better way to cope than by looking up? So much of nature is over our heads, both literally and metaphorically.

Feather palm forest, Cairns, FNQ. © Bronwen Scott.

Across the road from the Flecker Botanic Garden, a boardwalk winds through a patch of feather palm forest. At its southern end, the boardwalk turns into a gravel path almost hidden by fallen pandanus fronds. Even though you can’t see the edges, there’s little chance of wandering off track. On one side is a wall of pandanus armed with leaves as stiff and…