Brisbane

I think of Brisbane as a city with an.overwhelming amount of small beauty. It doesn't have much of the kind of loveliness that people will travel to see, and I've even been sad before that I don't think I've been able to adequately show it to people who visit. But it feels like you can't go far in any direction without hitting it.

I have all these loops I walk. Like sort of to the grocery store but I go via a couple of different park options. And we live on the floodway creek, and you can reliably see lizards and water birds, herons and egrets, stuff that I think of as a special occasion but they're every day here. And then about midway you get to the tall trees, eucalyptus mostly where the cockatoos roost. Reliably a flock of some kind of parrots fly over. Reliably there's a child's birthday party in both the parks. Reliably some little kid is playing catch or cricket bucolicly with their parent. Reliably every south Asian guy in the state is having a pickup cricket or soccer match on the field. Reliably a crew of enthusiastic speed bikers speeds by.

Or like there's the city where there's no worthy architecture but every building has been designed. I can walk up Queen Street mall with all the other pedestrians. And there is definitely a street performer there and probably some kind of lame event. I can go up the side where there's city hall and the quiet little museum and the too exposed square and the church bells. Or I can go across the giant intersection where there's always a flood of humanity heading somewhere and cut through the fancy shops, or I can take the skyway over Anzac square where the external flame is through post office square where there's all the community chairs and usually some students or a little meeting and the homeless guys hang out, meet at the start of the day. And then Queen Street mall takes you straight up the hill to the bridge and you cross the river.  The river defines my city like so many others. There are four or five bridges across my city but I have a couple favourites. This one that arcs across and you can really see the water, and the best view of the skyline. And Kurilpa or sneaky bridge which cuts from Roma street back over to the art museum.

Ok so you crossed the river and now you can go left or right. Left takes you past the giant Ferris wheel and along the river or along the bougainvillia walk you can choose and eventually there's another bridge and you can come back along the river as well. Oh and there's students and trendy shops and markets through here. Or right past the art museum, library, modern art museum to kurilpa bridge which shows up like a secret so we call it sneaky bridge.

And that's not talking about the botanical gardens or the parks every minute that split up the inner urban because it's not just builders ripping up every green here.

There's a pink tree that was in full spectacular bloom a few weeks ago and now it's switched to this yellow one, the jacarandas will come at the end of the month. But it's always the time for something to bloom and something to fruit, they fold in on each other like a braided rope.

Anyway there's more and more and more and that's kind of part of it. It's not the kind of stuff that would be worth saying all of, but it's like everywhere you go, beauty unfolds itself to you around each corner, in each crevice and so you are rewarded.

That's some of what I'm thinking these days, as I wander around the city, playing Pokemon or whatever just walking these circles and loops for hours. It continues to be worthwhile, and it's not something I can show other people well, but it's something I see all the time.