by Editor Des. Hello dear peeps. I’m on my way to photograph the satin bowerbird in Memorial Park at Blackheath. BTW, see how that fence pipe has been vandalized? It wasn’t me (just saying). So anyway, I’m conducting an important experiment. Here is Mr bowerbrird’s hedge surrounded
Read more →
At the end of May, what we thought was a solitary, juvenile King Parrot appeared in our Blue Mountains garden. I shared a photo of the bird we named Max, and a couple of people in a bird group suggested he wasn’t young, and that his oddly
Read more →
Writing in 1926, a journalist (The Daily News, Perth) reflected on the sport of wood chopping in the years before WWI. He appeared to have been pretty impressed by competitors from the island state. In Tasmania, in the underhand events, the axemen invariably were barefooted, and they
Read more →
Birthday parties of the 1950s; an intense, but simple joy for Australian Baby Boomers. Just a single, very bad photo taken at one of my own parties survives. I wasn’t even looking at the camera, which was a Box Brownie of course. The kids standing on those
Read more →
The Blue Mountains village of Blackheath has a new attraction. Her name is Princess, and she spends much of her time at the newly extended Blackheath Interiors and Homewares, in Govetts Leap Road. She’s a border collie cross. I’m not sure what the cross bit is, but
Read more →
Losing one’s footing on tennis courts has always been a problem, especially on grass. On one occasion at Wimbledon, leading Australian player Alfred Dunlop was forced to take drastic action; Evening Star, Wednesday 24 June 1914; Dunlop lost the first set owing to the slippery ground and
Read more →It’s almost the end of May, and the village of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains is looking its best. Tourists are enjoying the colourful foliage in Wentworth Street. Even the shaded little maple tree growing above the satin bowerbird’s lair is changing colour. What a fantastic location
Read more →
In 1984 my darling mother Myra was suffering from the ovarian cancer that took her life. While I was visiting her in Tasmania I noticed a cheeky little frog on her bedside table. ‘He cheers me up’, she said. I could see why; he was adorable. Froggy
Read more →
CASUAL DINING OUT IN THE BIG SMOKE! This Italian eatery is located in King Street. It was so good that on a recent visit to Sydney my partner Rob and I dined there two nights running. The style is described as Euro-chic. It’s decorated with pots of
Read more →
Poisoning – ‘Of all felonies, murder is the most horrible, of all murders, poisoning the most detestable, and of all poisoning, that causing a lingering death the most cruel.’ Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke, 1615 FOR THE FIRST PART OF THIS STORY, CLICK HERE Australian born
Read more →