The Eucalyptus Rope.

Gardens are places of wonder, especially one like mine that borders the Australian bush. Here in the NSW Blue Mountains  a  eucalyptus tree was the source of great fun recently, but also a sad tale of pride coming before a fall.

Sometimes a  tree, in this case I believe it is a Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) will release a long, long strip of bark. This one must have measured nearly five metres. My associate Editor Des and his friends Milly and Little Jack  were desperate to climb it, and I really couldn’t blame them.

Eucalyptus bark rope.

Oh the fun the three of them had, swinging in the breeze by the woodheap.

A EUCALYPTUS SWING

Now this all sounds delightful, and so it was…except for my own  stupidity.

OK, so I haven’t worn jeans since I was sixty, in the spirit of trying to grow old gracefully. 😎 However, more than ten years on I found an old pair  and was amazed that they still fitted me. Oh vanity, thy name is Pauline. I was so pleased that I decided to leave them on for the day.

A dangerous pair of pants.

Now those wretched jeans tricked me into thinking I was a fit young woman and I climbed onto an old chair to help Editor Des back down the bark ‘rope’.  He was quite a bit higher up than his friends and had lost his nerve. The ground was uneven and  to make matters worse, the seat of the chair is made of  thick rubber bands. OMG, no wonder  I overbalanced and came crashing down into a banksia.

An accident waiting to happen.

Editor Des ended up in a grevillea bush, shaken but unhurt.

Good grief!

I nearly broke an arm and couple of fingers. It’s difficult to see in the following pic, but  there was a lump  the size of the proverbial egg.

When I went out next day the chair was in nearly as much trouble as me….struggling in the clutches of a dry, brown ‘snake’.   Honestly, there is something  very creepy about that bark. It has a life of its own. 😨

There was only one, rather drastic solution. Yes, revenge is sweet. 😎