新年，新家，新一页

Eucalyptus
Originally uploaded by Island Diary.

New Year, New Home, New Blog

刚才算一下，原来搬到新家今天是刚刚一个月，那说明没动笔也有一个月了！既然离开了小岛，进入了新年，那博客也该重开一页了。

It's been a month since the last entry to my little diary about the little island and also a month since the house move. A New Year has started, a new house moved in, a new diary is in order.

想起来很好玩，去年一次去按摩的时候，按摩小姐推荐了尤加利油，当时还问呢，这是个什么东西呢？长得什么模样？自那之后，却时常碰到这个家乡在万里之外的来客。第一次看见，是到处去看房子的时候，进到一家人家，老太太有一个非常有中国意味的小庭院，并不是放了些仿东方格调的八角亭或钓鱼翁，而是房子中间有天井，天井里舒展地长着一棵树干光滑姿势优美的，就是尤加利。那时候已经是深秋，记得树干上有一圈一圈剥而未落的树皮，院子里充满着异香。老太太说，她冬天便经常将剥落下来的尤加利树皮放入壁炉里烧着，整个屋子便有了尤加利的香。虽然由于各种原因我们没有足下这间屋子，但这个小庭院和这颗尤加利给我留下了很深的印象。

A Story about Eucalyptus

It was about a year ago in a massage house in China I first notice the plant Eucalyptus as the ladies were recommending a Eucalyptus massage oil. No one could tell me what the plant was or what does it look like. So I was curious and made a mental note. Soon enough, I had the first encounter with this visitor from thousands of miles away. We were out house-hunting at the time. The first house we visited had some complicated layout and a big garden that's backing to a greenbelt. It also had a good-sized inner courtyard. It didn't have any oriental object like a pagoda or anything but reminded me of traditional Chinese SiHeYuan courtyards, maybe because they way it was surrounded by other parts of the building but at the same time was spacious. A handsome, medium height and not very wide tree with dark green leaves, smooth silver grey and peeling bark grew in the courtyard. The old lady of the house told me it was Eucalyptus. She also told me that she used to put the peels of the bark in the fire in winter and the the whole house would then be filled with the wonderful Eucalyptus scent. We didn't go for the house in the end for some reason or another but the Eucalyptus and the Chinese courtyard had engraved in my memory.

后来又偶然看到David Attenborough的《行星地球》，原来尤加利是地球上最高的树木之一，只有加州红杉能预知移交高低。最让人惊叹的却是它们丢车保帅的魄力，为了下一代树种的树种得以存活，竟然能利用树油高温干燥环境下易燃的特性，成年树木集体自焚，当然也烧掉周边一切，而早播下的树种发挥快速成长的特性，迅速占领所有地盘，就此独领风骚又五百年！。。。听起来很有些自杀炸弹的恐怖意思。。。

The next time I heard about it was on the Planet Earth programme. It says Eucalyptus is the tallest tree on Earth, with only the California Red Wood to compete with. The
most extraordinary thing is, however, that the way the Eucalyptus deal with survival competition: by self-starting a forest fire, using their own oil, to eliminate all the competitors, burning themselves along the way. The Eucalyptus seeds, which won't germinate without sunlight, then grow with incomparable speed, soon colonise the new forest. What a tree!

和中介约好来看新家的那天天很冷，草地全是湿的，我又感冒得头重脚轻，匆匆看了看船泊的长度便进屋了，根本没有留意花园里究竟有些什么生物。所以当蚂蚁搬家的一天过去，第二天早上巡视新的领地的时候发现花园西南角这颗高大的尤加利，有点像拍到脑门的惊喜。马上想象到红你小火炉，劈劈啪啪的烧着树皮。。。可惜这里却没有老式的壁炉！

I was having a bad cold when we came and view the house and didn't going the garden properly. So it was a nice suprise when I saw the Eucalyptus in the new garden the morning after the move. It is handsome with dark leaves even in this weather, reaching for the sky. I collected some of its peels, emagining what it will be like to put them in bonefires.

想为新博起个头，越扯越远了。可能是因为对原产地远在南半球的澳洲的尤加利却跑到这个北温带国家来生养安息，感觉有点自作多情的惺惺相惜吧, 也许我们应该养只考拉！原来想说的是，猪年大吉，猪事顺利！拜年啰！

It's a story of the new garden, new blog and the new year. Happy Piggy Year.