Verse And Worse

Random Wit, Errant Rhyme. Not A Literary Crime

Up the bush in Turramurra
There's a raucous kookaburra
He laughs at those who aren't too sober

Even tour groups from Manitoba

Annie, Get Your Gum

Is This Some Sort Of Leaf-Spring Assembly?

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Gum trees are wonderful to photograph at any time of the year. Their bark spans every hue from a ghostly silver-grey to a mellow tan. Their long, curved, slender leaves are always a study in grace. And when they are fringed with bearded blooms that range from scarlet to stark white, that's just one more reason to train your lens on them. All that I needed in this picture was a native Australian bird to complete the evocative line of the song, ``Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree; Merry, merry king of the bush is he''.