64 Quotes by Holly Ringland

Green birdflowerMeaning: My heart fleesCrotalaria cunninghamii | Mid to western statesWidespread on sandy soils in mulga communities and on sand dunes, this shrub bears soft hairs on thick and pithy branches. The flower resembles a bird attached by its beak to the central stalk of the flower head; yellow-green, streaked with fine purple lines. Blooms in winter and spring. Pollinated by large bees, and birds.

Desert oakMeaning: ResurrectionAllocasuarina decaisneana | Central AustraliaKurkara (Pit.) have deeply furrowed, cork-like bark, which is fire-retardant. Slow-growing but fast to develop a taproot that can reach subsurface water at depths over ten meters. Mature trees form a large, bushy canopy. Many found in the central desert are likely to be more than one thousand years old.

Vanilla lilyMeaning: Ambassador of loveSowerbaea juncea | Eastern AustraliaPerennial with edible roots found in eucalyptus forests, woodlands, heaths, and sub-alpine meadows. Grass-like leaves have a strong scent of vanilla. Flowers are pink-lilac to white, papery, with sweet vanilla perfume. Resprouts after fire.

River LilyMeaning: Love concealedCrinum pedunculatum | Eastern AustraliaVery large perennial usually found on the edge of forests, but also at the high-tide level close to mangroves. Fragrant, white slender star-shaped flowers. Seeds sometimes germinate while still attached to the parent plant. The sap has been used as a treatment for box jellyfish stings.

Desert heath-myrtleMeaning: Flame, I burnThryptomene maisonneuvii | Northern TerritoryTraditionally, Anangu women beat pukara (Pit.) with a wooden bowl to collect dew containing nectar from the flowers. Thryptomene, derived from Greek, means coy or prudish; this bush appears modest but in winter through to spring produces a cloak of tiny white flowers with red centres, blooming as if revealing a secret.

Orange ImmortelleMeaning: Written in the starsWaitzia acuminata | Western AustraliaPerennial with long, narrow leaves, and papery orange, yellow and white flowers. Spring blooming after winter rain. En masse these flowers are spectacular. Have been found in their millions across much of the scrub and desert in the west, with people often traveling long distances to see them.

And her lightstretches over salt seaequally and flowerdeep fields.Sappho

Alice recalled one of the books Dylan had read to her, a collection of Japanese fairytales. In one, a woman artist practiced kintsugi, repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold. There'd been an illustration of a woman bent over a pile of broken pottery pieces, laid out to fit together, with a fine paintbrush in her hand, its bristles dipped in gold. It had enchanted Alice, the idea that breakage and repair were part of the story, not something to be disdained or disguised.

Flannel flowerMeaning:What is lost is foundActinotus helianthi | New South WalesThe stem, branches and leaves of the plant are a pale grey, covered in downy hair, and flannel-like in texture. Pretty, daisy-shaped flower heads bloom in spring, though flowering may be profuse after bushfires.