A Flower is a Lovesome Thing (occasionally, wrongly, it appears online as …a Lonesome…) is one of many exquisite compositions which Billy Strayhorn composed for Duke Ellington.
This post’s flower is one of many orchids that exist only in certain locations in southwestern Western Australia.
Kojonup is a town of not many more than 1,000 residents, 256 kilometres south-east of Perth,.
It is around two thirds of the way to Albany, if you drive from Perth, down the Albany Highway.
Most people driving from Perth either drive straight through Kojonup, or stop only to refuel their vehicle, and/or for a comfort stop, and/or a meal, snack, or coffee.
Kojonup has no towering mountain, nor any other obviously-arresting “attraction”…and after all, once you have reached K-town, some of the world’s most magnificently wild coastline, some of its taller hardwood forests, one of its finest natural harbours – and two of the world’s most incredible National Parks for flowering plants – are all now within easy driving distance, as are some splendid wineries.
For more than thirty years my beloved and I had always proceeded straight through Kojonup, en route to Albany, or to Denmark, or to Porongurup, or to the Stirling Range, or to Bremer Bay, and/or Fitzgerald River National Park.
In spring 2017 we based ourselves for several days on a farm stay near Kojonup.
Sure enough, the vicinity proved rich in lovely, easy-walking places with interesting bush, Wandoo-dominant open woodlands, wetlands, beautiful flowering plants, and abundant birdlife.
Click here to get some idea of why it is a good idea not to just drive through Kojonup.
Spring is the time to go, and do remember the insect repellent!
I photographed this post’s orchid near Kojonup on 13 September 2017. (whilst being “eaten alive” by mosquitoes)
It is one of Western Australia’s Green spider orchids, the Caladenia falcata complex; to see/learn more, start here.
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A Flower is a Lovesome Thing has been recorded countless times.
Strayhorn wrote it for Ellington’s orchestra in 1941 – and the orchestra did play it in concerts – but its debut recording was in 1947, and not by the Ellington Orchestra…although it was by one of that Orchestra’s key players.
The “original” was succinct, and lovely – inevitably so, since it was a vehicle for Johnny Hodges” alto Saxophone:
Most subsequent recorded versions are also short and sweet, but some of the more interesting ones are much more exploratory: