Monday, March 5, 2012

Moreton Bay Fig Trees Again...

Any followers of this blog will know of my obsession with the wondrous Moreton Bay Fig trees, especially those on La Mesa Drive in Santa Monica. I am regularly drawn to them and each time find something new to overwhelm me yet again.

When you leave the sunshine of San Vicente Boulevard and plunge into this strange shady tunnel, you can become very aware of the graphic patterns of the leaves' shadows on the limbs of the trees, as I was when I last went there:






And the windows of light you get between the branches I find a constant fascination:



But what always absorb and excite me are the amazing sculptural- or sometimes almost etched- details you find on each tree:





This tree I call the Bondage Tree, with the very designed "ropes" of its aerial roots:




This next tree I always have to photograph- I just love its totally sculptural modelling:




And this last time I was there I caught sight of this oddity among the roots:


And I love the varied colours and spots you get on the figs, according to their ripeness:



The ground is at present covered with the dark purple over-ripe fallen figs...