Letter B

B is for Banksia – considered to be the symbol of the Australian bush. Named after the famous botanist, Sir Joseph Banks, the banksia is well known for its cylindrical flower spikes and distinctive woody pods or cones.  The “big bad Banksia men” are  the villains in the children’s story, “Snugglepot and Cuddlepie “  They are modelled on the appearance of aged Banksia cones, with follicles for eyes and other facial features. Generations of Australian  children have been more scared of tales of Banksia men than any bogeyman story. In our front garden we have a really big coastal banksia tree which has beautiful golden coloured spikey candles for flowers, but it does also have  lots of old cones, and they just look like “ugly, wicked little men” which May Gibbs describes in her book.  For this week’s tag, I printed a page and some text from my copy of “Snugglepot and Cuddlepie” onto white cotton fabric and embroidered ‘Banksia’. The image is of a big bad Banksia man kidnapping sweet little Ragged Blossom . The other photos are of the banksia in my garden ... There was only one old flower on our banksia at the moment, so I picked it and some of the sinister looking cones in varying stages for the photos.