This magnificent tree, (is it an oak? Is it a pine? I don’t know) sits in front of the Albert Hall in Canberra. Her lower branches splay out across the ground, making her look like some giant broccoli-capped land octopus.

At any moment she might lift herself up and scuttle away to hide from the heavy traffic passing by metres away.

“Jaime had never realised that trees made a sound when they grew, and no-one else had realised it either, because the sound is made over hundreds of years in waves of twenty-four hours from peak to peak. Speed it up, and the sound a tree makes is vrooom.” 

― Terry Pratchett

If trees could walk, we probably wouldn’t see them much. They would hide in forests and woodlands. They would seek shelter in jungles and groves.

I have tried to photograph this tree on several occasions, but never felt that I had captured her out-spreading wonder.
Today, she stood still long enough for me to get somewhat close.