For a brief but bright moment, she shone. It only lasted two weeks but Magnolia Clemont broad and thick locks had unfurled to their fullest. She and her friends filled the streets with soft pink flames that others called ‘petals’. But petals didn’t capture the gloriousness of the effort that’s required to stop neighbourhood walkers in their tracks each and every Spring. Sure, she would not be here forever, but as they say, the brightest flames burn quickest, and she had learned to be OK with that. Scarcity, after all, was the foundation of beauty.

Artist notes: In the middle of August, all of the magnolias in our suburb burst into life. It's the first signal to me that says, "Winter is almost done". And, in the cold, long Melbourne winters, it gives my mood an immediate lift and I can't do anything but see them as gorgeous ladies of a Court, or something like that.