Late October Surprise

Every year, the jacaranda blossom takes me by surprise. Overnight, the trees seem to burst into their purple-blueness.

I remember my jacaranda, the one I would climb to read a book, uncomfortable on the rough branch but happy to be hidden away in the leaves. Beauty treatments - 'milk' squeezed from the end of the flower and applied to our hands - it softens and whitens, madam. The leaves pulled from the stem and hoarded, an endless supply of money, accepted in all the best backyard shops.

Jacaranda Blossom, Grafton