still looking at street trees

Our politicians call changing your mind a back flip, and it's supposed to be a weakness. I prefer to think of it as being flexible.

Looking closely at the Prickly-leaf Paperbark (Melaleuca Stepheliodes),  that grows in the street in front of the house, and the Plane trees lining the other end of the street, I find a lot of beauty, in spite of the pruning.

I haven't reversed the views I expressed in the last post. I still dislike the way the trees under the electric wires are cut back. But this is about seeing another side as well, about appreciating the complexity of the issue.

The autumn foliage is dazzlingly lovely.

The Plane trees provide autumn leaves for me to collect and put on my garden.

People grow small trees in their gardens. Few people can grow such large trees, so if they weren't in the street, they wouldn't exist.

Often at night, I've seen possums run up the trees and along the branches. In one tree there's a hole where a tawny frogmouth lives. Small trees can't provide the refuge that wildlife needs.

I'm even starting to appreciate the aesthetics of the interweaving of the wires and the branches. It's like  a symbol of the struggle to find a way for  human and non human life to co-exist in (relative) harmony.

For other posts about trees, check out the Tree Following meme, in Loose and Leafy, Lucy Corrander's blog.