90 A BUSH CALENDAR 



the eye in the hot dry summer months, would look very dour 

 and cold just now were it not for the glowing pink blossoms of 

 the crowea, which cast a cheerful gleam through the shadows, 

 and catch on their round pink faces the glinting sunbeams that 

 come dancing down through the leaves. For the spirit of laugh- 

 ter has followed me down into the valley, and even the grey 

 rocks smile as the shadows of the leaves flicker playfully over 

 them. Higher up the bank a host of red spider flowers jig 

 like living things to the music of the wind. The grevilleas are 

 splendid winter bloomers ; and the red one is particularly pro- 

 fuse just now, and very gay is the note of colour it lends to the 

 landscape. 



But sweet though it was down in the valley, it was a day for 

 high places and sunshine. I crossed the creek, now quite dry, 

 and climbed up the other side. Here I found a clump of joyful 

 colour, where the brown and yellow pea-blossoms of the bos- 

 siaea looked like butterflies dancing on their quaint flat stems. 

 Close by the last blue flowers of the lobelia swayed brightly 

 in the breeze, looking each moment as if fhe slender stems 

 must snap and let the flowers dance off. As I climbed higher 

 I found a few stray blossoms of the red epacris, which seems to 

 flower all the year round, and when I reached the uplands once 

 again, I was greeted with the sight of the "five corner" with 

 pale green blossoms opening to the sun. 



It was while I was looking at the quaint tubular blossoms 

 of my childhood's friend that I heard a familiar note that also 



