Floral Friday #5

I had so many lovely responses to the poem for Tuesday Treasures that I decided to write one for today's Floral Friday.
It has been a long time since I have written so I'm a bit rusty. I always seem to have a bit of a clumsy rhythm to my poems so I beg your forgiveness and hope that you don't find it too clunky. The commas are to help you with that (I hope)
I hope you enjoy it:

The Secret Garden

Down in the gully where the old-man big trees grow
Water trickles down the hill, a constant bubbling flow
The coal mines from years gone by, feed my little steam
With water from inside the earth, pure, soft and clean

Little birds own this place and guard it with their lives
Anxiously they sound the alert, husbands warning wives
Mothers warning babies, to watch out for the danger
“Keep off the ground, stay in the nest, here comes a stranger.”

The canopy of old man trees, lofty overhead
Shades this mini forest floor, where Hawthorn now have spread
Thick in summer with tiny leaves, in autumn now they fall
Bare then, as winter winds make their howling call

My gully in the springtime, is full of Hawthorn flowers
Each tree of sticks just weeks before, is now blossom endowed
The best is yet to come as October winds begin
Coaxing petals off the trees, and downwards they spin.

The water in the creek, is still and cold and deep
Reflections of the canopy, enhanced by black beneath
Petals float above the black, above reflections made
As if suspended in mid-air, a magic act is played

How lucky I am to have this place of beauty so near
To visit whenever I want, every day of the year
I come, I sit, I watch, I breathe, and most of all I marvel
And blend as one, in this place this special secret garden

Bronwyn Barton 24.3.2011

Above is a picture of my Secret Garden. It is at the bottom of our block of land and can hardly be seen up at the road, apart from the tops of the old growth trees. You would simply not know that this beautiful place exists unless you take the hike down here. This pic was taken in the Summer with berries on the lovely Hawthorn trees.

This is the biggest of our 'Old-man' trees. It is our pride and joy and bigger than it looks in the picture. We are so blessed!

Please leave your link below if you would like to share in Floral Friday.