In this extraordinary year of 2020, our resident Wonga couple have been producing chicks throughout winter. Remember Peter Costello’s quote on offspring, ‘One for Mum, one for Dad and one for the country?‘ Well, they have truly taken this to heart. There have been two single ones,
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I’m pretty sure these old tweed pants are the most ancient piece of clothing I own and still wear. I bought them at Bloomingdales on a visit to New York about twenty five years ago. I was delighted, because they were only size 4. Mind you, this
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Isn’t this just the most wonderfully constructed bower? Good, thick walls and a perfectly shaped, oval ‘front door’. You might say Mr. S. has home construction pegged (sorry, I couldn’t resist). He is a builder extraordinaire and a credit to the community of Blackheath. JULY 21 —
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Hello, Desmond Conolly here. I’m off to old Sydney town at last! Yay, lock-down has been such a challenge! Mind you, right from the start I knew the trip would be difficult for someone with an independent spirit comme moi. And wow, was I right! At Medlow
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Well during this creepy Covid-19 crisis my guardian Pauline Conolly has been using a funny little dumpling recipe. She heard about it on ‘Aunty’ ABC radio. It’s just self-raising flour and soap, sorry soup (tee hee, my little joke)….yes, that’s it, very simple. I said even I
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I am a latecomer to what has become known as iso-baking. However, I was listening to late night ABC radio recently when an elderly lady called in with an extraordinary recipe for pumpkin scones. ‘Just two ingredients‘. she said. Wow, it sounded so simple even I decided
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Our resident Wongas here in the Blue Mountains are acting so bizarrely. These monogamous, Australian native birds usually nest in summer, from October until January. They have a clutch of two white eggs, in a rough, twig nest built high in a tree. However, this year they
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So for the first time, our resident Wonga couple have left their chick June in a ground nursery and enjoyed a little outing together. They can’t stay away too long, because June needs regular feeds of ‘milk’. I was amused to see Mrs Wonga taking time out
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I’m usually writing positive, upbeat stories about Blackheath, so this is pretty disappointing. What a ghastly mess the pond at Soldiers’ Memorial Park is. We have had plenty of rain recently, but the level keeps dropping every day. Is it leaking? This wood duck thinks is less
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First trip to Sydney on the train for a very long time. I was a bit nervous, especially re social distancing on the train as I’m immune-suppressed. Only medical checkups for my partner Rob and I had prompted the journey, but it still felt like a little
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