Walking with the Seasons

We’ve been reading Walking with the Seasons in Kakadu by Diane Lucas. The book describes the Aboriginal seasonal calendar in North Australia (which is where we live). It gives a wonderful insight into how the seasons affect the lives of Aboriginal people. The calendar is also works a lot better at describing the weather in this part of the country than using the four seasons or than just having a wet and dry season.

We are currently in Wurrgeng

“This is the time of dazzling blue skies, and cool, crystal-clear nights. We celebrate Wurrgeng by sitting around our campfire under a sky full of bright stars.”

My son, who is a bit of a budding naturalist, loves the information about what various animals are doing that different times of the year. For example, in Wurrgeng

• Gumugen, the freshwater crocodile, lays her eggs.
• Gowarrang, the echidna, are breeding now.
• Garragan, the brown falcon, carries burning sticks to start more fires (also known as the fire-carrier)

The book also gives some ideas for creating a seasonal nature table. So, inspired, we went for a walk to spot some of the things described in the book and collect a few bits for our own nature table.

pink flowers of turkey bush

yellow flowers of kapok

yellow blossoms of wattle

white and orange flowers of eucalypt trees

We’ll keep looking and see what we can add to our nature table in the next few weeks (I’m not sure that the flowers will last too long anyway).