Belladonnas

The Belladonnas are out on the long driveway of a house just out of town – but I am wondering if this is really early – I thought they were later. There is no sign of mine yet – those ones are out in a dry paddock, so maybe they come up early if they are stressed????

Belladonnas for inextricably linked to Easter for me, although I know that is a floating date, depending on the date of the full moon – but it is never this early. The year of the Ash Wednesday fires I spent Easter in Cockatoo with a work crew, just helping people to clean up their blocks. And everywhere, everything was black, except for the pink of Belladonnas in bare ground. Somewhere I have photographs of them all around the burnt out remains of a motor bike. Not that it was possible to take many photographs - I can still remember the utter disgust the people there had with the streams of people just driving through the town for a look. Someone put up signs at either end of the town saying “Rubberneckers are Lower than Looters”. So Belladonnas always remind me of that time, and the pink in the black.

A nicer memory I have of them is in a nearby area, where all that is left of the town is a couple of houses, a hall, tiny empty post office and a little white Uniting (formerly Presbyterian) Church with blue trimmings. There is no garden to it except the thick line of Belladonnas along the fence, which come up this time of year. Might just have to go that way tomorrow with the camera.