Hi everyone,

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I'm Diana, or just plain Di to my Australian friends and Didey to my relatives.

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This is my author website where I'll be talking to you about lots of different things that interest me, but first of all, about myself, my work as a writer and also - why not? - about the books I've read.   And although it may seem strange, my first thought is to chat a bit about wattle.  Why?

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Wattle for me  has always been associated with Australia.   I think I never imagined that it grew anywhere else in the world, so when I came to Spain I was overjoyed to see it here. 

 

Spain - Madrid - is where I live and this is one of the wattle trees in my neighbourhood.  Here they are called mimosa.  Look at the soft warmth of its flowers.  It is obviously very happy here against that vivid blue sky.  During almost a month it resists the vagaries of spring and then, just as things and people age, the fluffy yellow flowers shrivel to a dry brown and fall to the ground.  Its leaves are small fronds, rather like baby ferns. They have what I call an Australian green.

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It isn't only the wattle though.  If you enter into other sections of this website, there might well be a gum tree.  Yes, a Spanish gum tree. 

 

After living here for so many years, the wattle and the gum trees that I see around me are somehow a token of the special feeling I have for Australia - a solid, sentimental link.

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I'd love to know if any of you feel like me about the wattle tree, or indeed, if you want to comment on anything at all that I write in this web page.