All aglow

Sunday's foray up to Stirling got me all wanting for some Autumn colour.

Let me explain a little about Adelaide. The plains (where the city and majority of the suburbs are) are hot. Not 10 kilometres away, there is Belair in the foothills, where we live, and our night time temperatures are, on average, 4 degrees cooler than the plains.

Then you have "The Hills" proper. They are not very high hills, but there are pockets of much cooler climates, especially around Stirling and Crafers. It's also a lot wetter than Adelaide - getting, I guess, around 1000 mm, compared to Adelaide around 550-600 mm per year.

So, once you get into the Hills you can get some wonderful autumn colour, and you can grow some very lovely exotic trees, like this tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera). This tree won't grow as big as it does in the Northern Hemisphere - we don't have the right climate for that, but isn't it gorgeous. It was literally glowing in the sunshine this afternoon.

The place is the Mt. Lofty Botanic Gardens - an offshoot to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Up there are grown such exotics as rhododendrons, camellias, and other cool climate trees and shrubs. It's a wonderful place. Especially on a day like today.

Radiant