Category Archives: Eucalypts

July 4, 2014 · 4:31 pm

A funny thing happened in the night… and a sign of hope

When I came home from my run early this morning I realised there had been action overnight.At the scene of the loss of three immense trees only too recently, I saw this.

And this.

Here’s the close up.

This raised my curiosity about yesterday’s losses. I didn’t think I had the heart for it, but in the end I went to see.

Heartbreaking to see the space where those trees stood.

But the commentary was to the point.

Thanks so much for all your kind comments since the past post. I read them as they came in and appreciated them very much but didn’t have the heart to answer them all for a minute. Given how devastated I felt yesterday, I thought my friends might need cheering up.

Attentive readers might recognise this parcel! Some of that string is made from the same pair of pants that went onto the feature panels…

On an altogether happy note, during the big infrastructure works in our neighbourhood, one of the Department of Transport and Infrastructure employees who cares about the state of the environment decided what she might be able to do in the face of so much tree felling and habitat loss was get bird boxes put into any tree of any size on public land in our area. She initiated a project in collaboration with local schools whose students painted the boxes. they have been in place for a while and have been checked once or twice already (we have become vigilant and therefore approach men on ladders who are looking at trees to check what they are doing, these days). Today as I left home I saw a woman peering up into a nearby River Red Gum (E Camaldulensis) we managed to save. She took a photo of one of my Beloved Tree banners, but she also took several at what struck me as an unusual angle. This afternoon I saw why.

It is an overcast and rainy day, and this is the best photo I could get. But that is quite unmistakably a rainbow lorikeet who has taken up residence in one of the bird boxes and felt safe enough at that great height to look down on me without budging a millimetre. Best thing.

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Filed under Eucalypts, Neighbourhood pleasures

Tagged as E Camaldulensis, E Cinerea, eucalyptus, friendship is the best form of wealth, think globally

July 3, 2014 · 10:52 am

The roar of chainsaws

I was just settling in to working at home this morning when I had a phone call. One friend had been on her way to work by train when she saw two more massive trees about to be felled nearby. She called home and her partner contacted me asking if I could offer backup at the site while she tried to contact the Council. My friends are awesome. I felt proud as I stood in support. I have to say I feel so heartbroken at present I left most of the speaking to them and supplied moral support, numbers and hugs.

So I went over. These two spotted gums (E Maculata) are standing far more than the 10 metres away from any dwelling that would make them exempt from tree protection legislation. I include the blokes in high visibility clothing for scale. Well, we didn’t let these trees go without a fight, contacting the Council, a local councillor, our State MP, the local newspaper… and so on, while holding respectful conversations with the men who were there to take the trees down. It took some time to ascertain with confidence that the property owner needed, and had, a permit to fell them. As events unfolded it became apparent that Council had recommended the application be refused and that this matter had gone to the Development Assessment Panel and been refused three times, finally being being approved on the fourth attempt, after 3 rejections. I guess by now we know both that the 2011 changes to tree protection laws have removed many of the barriers to removal of trees like these, and that DAP is not a great protection either.

These trees stand opposite the Goodwood Railway station and shade it in summer. Rosellas and magpies were flying in and out of them as we spoke with the tree fellers in person and various other people by phone. Of course, their proximity to the station also means the trees are standing in a small patch where hundreds of trees have been lost in the last few years and the roar of chainsaws has been a recurrent, powerful, appalling theme. Friends came past on their way to work or from the shops or walking their dogs, expressing their sorrow, regret and anger. One woman from my street, evidently feeling as heartbroken and unbelieving as I was, said: ‘I have to admit, I don’t like living here anymore.’

Those birds won’t be able to live here anymore. Meanwhile, we are still waiting for any sign of the promised revegetation of our area. We have, however, been supplied with mulch. Where once stood 20 trees, in just one patch I know well, we now have this.

I try hard not to think about where the chainsaws were roaring to create that mulch.

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Tagged as E Maculata, think globally

June 25, 2014 · 7:35 pm

Eucalyptus Megacornuta: Warty Yate

Sometimes it is hard to know which to prefer. The common name (Warty Yate)–splendiferous as it is–or the Latin name (E Megacornuta), also glorious! Both names focus on the bud caps of this tree, which are both mega (4.5 cm long) and warty.

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There was a yate (one of the still-splendid but not-so-warty yates–I am guessing E Lehmanii) growing in the playground at the kindergarten I went to. We would put the bud caps on our fingers and chase each other around, yelling ‘witch’s fingers!’ Needless to say, we had been offered no information about whether witches really have long pointy fingers and no one had offered me the perspective that witches might mostly have been maligned herbalists and midwives…

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A friend’s dog is staying with us and we went for a walk the morning I picked these. The flowers called out to me. I identified this tree a couple of years back. Those bud caps made identification simple, but as you might imagine this tree also has impressive fruit. Speaking of awesomely good names, please note the ‘flattened, strap-like peduncle’ my eucalyptus manuals mention.

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I picked up fallen, dried leaves and took home a small sample. My sample dyepot showed a barely-orange tinted brown. I did also create a small sample bundle.

Fresh from the pot and still damp, it also was on the slightly orange side of brown. However once dried out, washed and dried again, it had turned quite definitively brown.

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Filed under Dye Plants, Eucalypts, Leaf prints, Natural dyeing, Neighbourhood pleasures

Tagged as E Megacornuta, linen, Warty Yate

June 25, 2014 · 3:21 pm

Windfall!

My friend emailed to say that a branch had come down on her Eucalyptus Cinerea. I was visiting anyway, and I think I’m in a much more physically capable position to deal with a fallen branch than anyone at her house. So I packed my loppers, gloves, secateurs and sacks. We’ve had gale force winds and lots of rain here and it was late on a windy rainy day when I arrived.

Well… I managed to saw up the bough and cut up the woody parts and get them all into the green bin that signifies they will go to commercial composting through council collection, and then we ~~packed~~ stuffed the leafy stuff into three feed sacks. Wowsers! My friend couldn’t believe I would use them all. Little does she know! (I am glad to hear I haven’t been boring her stupid with details that don’t interest her). Then I realised that in spite of it being cold and wet, I need to let these leaves dry out, because these sacks are not permeable enough to let them dry and I don’t want mould.

The wheelbarrow–ever useful–and my bike trailer were pressed into use. I have had about 30 years of trusty service from that little box on wheels (the bike trailer). But that was not enough…

Leaves in the bathtub…! My friends are happy and have one less physically taxing job to do in wild weather. Their garden is in better shape. The gum tree is still immense, the bay tree no longer has a broken bough tangled up in it,and the smaller plants underneath are safer. I was up to doing the labour, delighted to be able to help them out, and now have loads of lovely leaves to work with. I know it’s cheesy, but I have to say that was a win-win-windfall…!

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Filed under Dye Plants, Eucalypts

Tagged as E Cinerea, think globally

June 14, 2014 · 3:16 pm

In preparation for a natural dyeing workshop

As I write, I’m preparing to run a workshop at my Guild. I’m counting down and there are only a few days left. Preparation has been going on for weeks now! I’ve skeined beautiful organic wool and mordanted some.

I’ve washed fleece in two colours and two breeds, and mordanted some. I’ve decided being able to mordant cold in alum is a real benefit to preparing unspun fibres. Less opportunity for felting or simply mooshing the fibres. Three cheers to Jenny Dean, who introduced me to the idea of cold mordanting with alum.

I treated some merino roving to a cold alum bath too. Later I decided that past unlovely experiments with paj silk could go in the mordant bath with a view to being overdyed. And added silk embroidery thread.

I have been packing things into bags and writing lists. I’ve begged milk bottles from coffee carts and turned them into sample cards. Finally, on the weekend, I wandered the neighbourhood on my bike gleaning leaves, and finding some damaged pomegranates that might be used for dyeing–the rats that were scampering along the fence nearby had clearly been having a banquet! It was overcast, but can you see these two E Cinereas forming an arch at the end of this street? Cute as a button!

Ironbarks were oozing kino, which is their main strategy for avoiding pest attack. This one seemed to have gone a bit too far…

Some ironbarks were in flower. Gloriously.

In some streets there was a carpet of flowers on the ground where lorikeets and rosellas had been partying.

Some of the neighbourhood E Cinereas have recovered from the most recent attack of the chainsaws a bit.

I stopped off at my favourite E Scoparia on my way home. It now has some leaves I can reach for the first time since a bough was lopped a couple of years ago.

So, I came home fully laden. I even found an E Cinerea branch that had been cut some time ago but must have fallen to the ground more recently. Needless to say, it came home with me.

Hopefully, my preparations are nearing completion. I had a dream the other night where my workshop went terribly wrong… for one thing, there were two workshops and I had not prepared for the first one at all… and the Guild hall, which is a bit of a rabbit warren, had several rooms that I had not previously seen! Perhaps it is the idea of using cochineal for the first time acting on my overdeveloped sense of responsibility…

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Filed under Dye Plants, Eucalypts, Fibre preparation, Natural dyeing, Neighbourhood pleasures

Tagged as corriedale, dyeing, E Cinerea, E Scoparia, E Sideroxylon, eucalyptus, for the love of the Guild, local trees, merino, neighbourhood dyeplants, polwarth, wool, yarn

June 10, 2014 · 5:24 pm

Dyes of antiquity: Eucalyptus leaves

My friends, there is going to be a little series on dyes of antiquity here on this blog. It arises from plant dyestuffs that have been donated anonymously to my Guild, which have come to me as the person currently teaching natural dyeing at the Guild. Needless to say, there are women at the Guild who know more about natural dyeing than I do and have decades of experience. Some are dyes used in antiquity (cochineal, indigo, kermes). Others are in packaging that predates metric weights in Australia, which came in in 1977. Certainly, safe disposal of mordants that are now regarded as toxic has had to be arranged. So I am using the word ‘antiquity’ both literally and figuratively–but I have a trove of dyestuffs which I would usually not have come across, and some of which I would not be prepared to buy if they were available. Some require identification. Some require research, so I can figure out how to dye with them. I decided to start with what I know.

There were bags of varying sizes containing eucalypt leaves. One was clearly E Sideroxylon leaves. Then there was the orange bag of unidentified leaves–possibly E Nicholii (which has clearly been in widespread use at the Guild in the past).

Then there was a lovingly stored and labelled small pack of E Crenulata leaves.

From time to time, people online ask whether you can store Eucalyptus leaves for too long. I don’t know. I tend to use what I have on a rotating basis, partly because I have seen what insects can do to stored vegetable matter! These leaves appeared to have been stored for a long time, but under good conditions. No signs of insect damage. They had clearly been dried prior to being bagged for storage. They retained some green colour. They were sitting on top of a stack of newspapers dated 1991. Was that a clue? I don’t know! A fellow Guild member who helped me clean out the cupboards thought they were probably older!

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The E Sideroxylon leaves gave far more intense colour, partly because there were more of them. And possibly because the small fine leaves were not from an exciting dye species and the second dyepot was mostly relying on the small quantity of E Crenulata. Just the same, more of my white alpaca fleece is getting dyed, spun and ready to be knit all the time…

Meanwhile, I am preparing for a dyeing workshop at the Guild and deciding which of the dyes that have come to me are suitable for use there… I’m thinking madder, walnut, cochineal and logwood!!

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Filed under Eucalypts, Natural dyeing

Tagged as alpaca, dyeing, E Crenulata, E Nicholii, E Sideroxylon, eucalyptus, for the love of the Guild, orange again

June 3, 2014 · 10:01 am

Milky merino: Second effort

I decided to use the scraps from my milky merino to make a singlet for a small friend. One inspiration was the discovery of another E Cinerea nearby on a suburban street. It is beautiful.

It is covered in new growth, whose leaves are larger and teardop shaped rather than the rounder heart shape that is usual for mature leaves.

I have to say milky merino is a glorious fabric to use for eco-printing. It takes colour in a most spectacular fashion. I bundled up one night and unbundled a day or so later.

I love the way the fabric took on a golden creamy colour where it did not absorb a direct print.

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Action shot!

I created a pattern from an existing garment and set about cutting and sewing it from the fabric.

The finished garment is sooo cute, and so tiny I need to find a different recipient for it. I should have recognised the difference in stretch between the garment I measured up and the milky merino…!

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Filed under Dye Plants, Eucalypts, Leaf prints, Natural dyeing, Neighbourhood pleasures, Sewing

Tagged as E Cinerea, eucalyptus, local trees, milky merino, neighbourhood dyeplants, orange again, silk, user error, wool

May 28, 2014 · 5:29 pm

Milky Merino: First effort

Last year, I managed (with a little help from cossack design) to acquire some milky merino knit fabric. I have been thinking that if I want to make all my own clothing I will need to learn how to make turtle neck, knit, long sleeved tops for winter and T shirts for summer (though perhaps it will be years before I wear out my current collection of T shirts–and people keep giving them to me)! I decided to try a pattern I bought some time ago. Then I managed to trace a pattern from a garment I already have and like to wear and cut one of those from the length of fabric I had as well.

I was feeling positively gleeful about the potential for two garments to emerge from this experiment. Many other dyers–see examples here, here and here have had beautiful results dyeing this fabric.

I’m delighted with these results.

I also dyed the little samples that came in the pack, neatly enclosed in my soup ball:

This thread has since been applied to a ‘beloved tree’ banner.

That was all very well. I sewed my garment together, only to discover that I had succeeded in shrinking the fabric… and more in one direction than the other. In the end, I gave the garment to a smaller friend and she adjusted it to fit her. She looks wonderful in it! Now I am building up my nerve to sew the second turtleneck together and see who that will fit!

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Filed under Eucalypts, Leaf prints, Natural dyeing, Sewing

Tagged as dyeing, E Cinerea, E Scoparia, eucalyptus, friendship is the best form of wealth, India Flint, local trees, milky merino, wool

May 18, 2014 · 6:47 pm

Eucalyptus Polyanthemos

I’ve been curious about E Polyanthemos for ages. I saw one on a tour of the Currency Creek Eucalyptus arboretum years back and I had already heard it was a good dye plant. I am guessing it is mentioned in Eco-Colour. It has been on my mental list for quite some time. So when I found one that had been identified by a more knowledgeable person recently, I paid a lot of attention.

I think the two trees I have been holding in mind as potential examples of E Polyanthmos might actually be E Polyanthemos on the basis of this sighting.

It’s a lovely tree–those wide grey green leaves are truly lovely. Evidently, they are also delicious, because this one was covered in leaves that had been nibbled by some kind of insect.

This tiny sample went into my dyepot…

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And created very interesting prints. It intrigues me that one plant can create such different colours in such close proximity. I have had wonderful colour from the buds of the other two trees I visit from time to time, and the tree is truly spectacular when in blossom, because the many-anthers its botanical name promises are needless to say held on many flowers which attract many birds. Ah, the glory of eucalypts!

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