© irene waters 2014
© irene waters 2014
© irene waters 2014
I grew up in Casino a town approximately one hundred and one kilometres from Grafton the home of the Jacaranda Festival. The first Jacaranda festival was held in 1934 and has been held on the second last weekend in October to the first weekend in November ever since. It has the honour of being the first and longest running folk festival in Australia.
Grafton has incredibly wide streets and Queensland style housing built to withstand the floods that happen with regularity on the Clarence River. When the lilac blooms are in full blossom the town is a real picture. There is one street where the Jacarandas planted on either side of the road form an archway through which you drive. We unfortunately arrived after the festival had finished and the blooms were no longer at their best.
We had a Jacaranda tree in our street outside our house which we used to climb. Although it must have been very beautiful, I don’t know that as children we truly appreciated its magnificence. We saw it as a bit of a pain. When the flowers started to fall it was as though there were millions of flowers carpeting the area where I used to play hopscotch, elastics and hoola hoops. My brother rode his bike here. The flowers covered the ground and almost immediately rotted, going to a slimy slushy consistency which meant that all games were suspended due to the slipperiness of this fallen flower. Skating on the remains was really the only activity which could be successfully carried out but the constant falls led to stained clothes and an unhappy mother – we just didn’t appreciate the Jacaranda Tree.
© irene waters 2014
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
My favorite tree. Everyone who has them here in Southern California hates them. But they bring me simple joy!
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Maybe that is the nature of the tree if you live with them you learn their negative sides. Now I’m not living with them I see them as truly beautiful.
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🙂
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Stunning photo that middle one, what amazing colour! But I love the one of you and your sibling (?) climbing the tree! Loved this post Irene, wonderful memoir snippet 🙂
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Thanks Sherri. A comment on last weeks floral reminded me of jacarandas which reminded me of a road trip I did with my mother when she was 84, arriving in Grafton just after the festival which led me to the tree we had as a child. Delightful (most of the time) where memory takes you.
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What a lovely memory to share and to remember for you being able to return all those years later with your mother 🙂
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It was an incredible road trip. 🙂
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I love road trips and want to do many more 🙂
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Me too. 🙂
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Beautiful purples.
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Thank you Cee.
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Regardless of their undeniable beauty, they’re frightfully dangerous for us oldies when the blossoms fall, as you mention, Irene; in the inner city you’re not allowed to grow them so that they can drop blossoms onto the street.
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M.R. I can totally understand that. I didn’t know that was the case but the slippery blooms are certainly dangerous to the health if you go for a slide.
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Wow the color is amazing ❤ I have never seen them before in my life and would love to some day! And I agree with you on not appreciating beauty when we are young, somehow it just slips past and when you look back at the pictures, you wonder why!
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Perhaps as a child everything is new and wonderous so physical beauty takes a back seat until those other things become commonplace and beauty alone remains captivating.
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That’s a very valid point, Irene 🙂
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Are these the photo’s you were talking about. Oh they’re so beautiful – I do miss them especially walking or driving down the lines streets when they’re in bloom. Don’t miss the petals falling on the car and having to worry about the paint work but hey they are just so lovely who cares. Thank you so much for finding them – would I be allowed to copy one of the pictures out of the post. I wouldn’t use it without permission but I think I’d like to print it on the photo paper and frame one just so I can remember them.
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Those flowers and trees make that street look amazing!
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Grafton is a real sight when they are in full blossom as most of the streets have jacarandas as street trees. The street where they form a tunnel is certainly spectacular.
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