A story about birds by me, Editor Des WOT’S MORE SCARY….A COCKATOO OR A KOOKABURRA? Do you know what? A kookaburra called Toffee visits our garden every day. At first I was a bit scared of him, I thought he might start pecking my fur off for
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WHO GIVES A FIG? I DO! I love Sydney; for the harbour, the museums and theatres, but particularly for it’s amazing old fig trees. Could there be a more iconic image of the city than in the photo below? Sydney sandstone and fig roots inextricably entwined. That
Read more →DEMENTIA; THE SILENT THIEF A few months ago my mother-in-law Jean moved into a Sydney nursing home. She had previously been in residential care for eighteen months after dementia and failing physical health meant she could no longer remain in her own home. My husband and I live
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ARE MINTIES NUMBER ONE? It would be hard to name Australia’s most iconic lollies Fantails? Jaffas? Life Savers? Minties must surely be a contender. They were invented in 1922, by Sydney’s James Stedman, son of Australia’s first large-scale confectioner. The factory was located in Rozelle. Just look
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TO CHICAGO – A MEDICAL MISSION On September 3 1906, a wealthy young dentist from Brisbane boarded the passenger ship Aorangi. He disembarked in Vancouver, then entered the United States and made his way to Chicago by train. His name was Victor Richard Ratten. Soon after he arrived
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The Echidna is known by quite a few names; spiny ant-eater, porcupine, hedgehog. It’s real name is Echidna acubata. It is a cousin to the equally weird platypus. There was an urban myth in the old days that the echidna could fire its spines like arrows, as
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THE BIGGEST SHOW IN TOWN Last week we went to the Royal Easter Show in Sydney. It’s a huge fair, and farmers and gardeners take their produce along and win prizes. Well some of them win. I wanted to enter some of my vegetables, but Pauline Conolly (she’s my guardian)
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Hello, here is a rather sad story about my Halloween pumpkin. I forget when I planted the seeds, and also what kind they were. And maybe I was a bit late getting them in. Our bees seemed to have left when the lavender and thyme and all
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LEAF PEEPING IN AUTUMN I love my little village of Blackheath. I do joke and call it Bleakheath, but only with affection. It’s in the upper Blue Mountains of New South Wales, so the seasons are well defined. Spring is gorgeous and snow can occasionally transform it in
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When the troopship Geelong left Hobart on October 20 1914, it carried the Tasmanian contingent of the 12th Battalion to Egypt, and thence to Gallipoli and France. There was a unique mascot on board, a Tasmanian devil. I’m not sure whether the practice was officially sanctioned, but
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