I was intrigued by this friendly old house at Colac Bay, Western Southland, New Zealand. Initially I noticed the quizzical eyebrows but didn’t notice the Mona Lisa ‘smile’ until I did the editing 🙂
What you may think is an odd-looking tree is a native cabbage tree or Cordyline australis. If you’re from the UK or Ireland you may have seen them around, often called ‘palms’ .. which they’re not haha!
Photos taken 09 Jan 2021.
Home Sweet Home
Click on any photo to enlarge.
Text and photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2021)
Exploring Colour 
As you said, cabbage trees aren’t palms, but then they aren’t cabbages, either, even if their young leaves are edible. It seems Captain Cook liked cooked cabbage.
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Now “The Shadow Of Your Smile” is stuck in my mind’s ear. I was sure it had been originally composed by Joao Gilberto (Girl From Ipanema, etc.), but it appears that it belongs to his wife, Astrud. I sit corrected.
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Astrud Gilberto sang the song but Johnny Mandel composed the music and Paul Francis Webster wrote the lyrics. Many websites have the bad habit of indicating a song is “by” a singer rather than by the song’s creator(s).
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Definitely looks like a rather sad smile, Liz! Funny thing about that tree… here in Florida we have Cabbage Palms, also called Sabal Palms http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/extension/4h/plants/Cabbage_palm/index.html. And, as a relatively new Floridian, I’ve learned Palms are also not trees.
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Thanks for the link, there’s a lot of similarities in the way humans use the Cabbage Palms and our Cabbage Trees!
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It didn’t take much work at all for the owner of that house to bring a smile to the face of all those who pass by the house. I love it.
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Likewise!
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What fun to run across this unexpected bit of whimsy by a farmer, definitely prompts a smile here, too!
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Haha .. glad to share a smile 🙂
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One of the pleasures of editing is finding those unnoticed details. I smiled right back at the house; clearly, the sheep find it approachable. Maybe they were as charmed by its smile.
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I agree. Perhaps they think it’s ‘sheepish’ 🙂
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How cute!
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