Celebrate The Colours Of Joy In Your Life

Dancing Elephants prompt 6 of 52

These are the colours that dazzled and enticed me to live in Australia. The sandy red earth, the dusty green of the eucalypt and olive, and the blues of the sky and sea. As a child, I often holidayed in the South of France. Australia echoed the same climate and colours but on the opposite side of the world. No wonder I loved it enough to move here.

The light is the same, showing the colours to their full glory.

I now enjoy hiking through the Autumn and Winter and into early Spring, too hot at other times of the year. Arid, barren, desolate spaces with only the hum of many insects and a parrot's screech or the crow's mournful caw.

Each season holds its own charm, summer everything is put on hold. Autumn, bring breezes and stirrings of what is to come, and the grapes and fruits are harvested. Winter brings colder days and possibly rains, sometimes not. Spring, the blossoms, new growth, blue skies, the earth washed clean with heavy rain. Everything happens in a rush before another summer arrives.

At the end of summer, the winemakers are testing their fruit, nervously checking the forecasts, deciding on exactly the right moment to spend the cooler nights picking, crushing and pressing, eager to taste the potential that will become their next award-winning vintage.

The vibrant colours of the harvest, homegrown citrus fruit, nut and berries. All blissfully enjoying the sun's last warmth, to be picked and turned into jam, pickles, and preserves, or to be dried ready for a cheeky glass of gin.

I love Australia, the breathless heat and hot, dry earth reminded me of childhood holidays, living wild and free. Drinking in the surroundings, feeling elated, hopeful, and energised.

The seasons are harsh, and the creatures can be dangerous, but the colours drew me in.

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