Morning light

I try to go for a run most mornings. This time of year is my favourite. The days still have some warmth but the mornings are crisp and clean. The morning light hits the street trees behind Victoria Park at just the right angle, and their brilliant oranges, reds, and greens pop right out, against the clear blue of the sky.

They're exotics, like me. At home in the city but not indigenous to this place. Australian trees don't have "Autumn colour". Some people think we should get rid of the exotic street trees. Often they don't provide food for native animals, or the right habitat. They're no good. Useless. It's ironic, in a way. The extreme utilitarian modes of thought that led to the paved streets, "land grants" and these exotic street trees in the first place, being marshalled in a new argument to justify wiping them out. A deeply weird botanical nationalism, bordering on something darker.

I love the callistemons in my own street too. The native birds love them, especially the Wattle Birds that appear in Spring. But we have plenty of native birds in our yard right now: minahs mostly, but also currawongs. They're here for the Black Genoa figs that have been ripening. The fig tree is not from here either – I planted it. The birds don't seem to mind.

The trees around the back of the park make me smile and feel a little mini-awe as I puff past. Sometimes I stop just so I can admire them for longer. I know the colours will fade soon and then they'll just be bare branches as the cold sets in. But right now they're beautiful. I feel sad for people who can only see them as "useless", looking only through their prism of food for native animals. When you look at the world like that, after a while you eventually end up building gulags, ocean-wide algal blooms and ever-expanding war memorials – and then wondering how you got there.

We need useful things. And we need beautiful things. And sometimes it's useful for things to be beautiful. And sometimes it's not, but they're nice anyway. I hope the Council doesn't take out the trees down the back of the park. They give me something to smile about as I run around in circles, trying to counteract my modern lifestyle.

=> Autumn trees