We are building a new house at Blackheath, in the Blue Mountains. Our painter Rebbekah arrives every morning in her beautifully restored VW Kombi van. Unfortunately it has led to confusion and frustration for our resident Wonga pigeon. It’s those shiny hubcaps. Oh my word, what a
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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
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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
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Birthday parties of the 1950s; an intense, but simple joy for Tasmanian 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
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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
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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
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Where would we gardeners be without our wheelbarrows? I have early memories of being carted out in one by my older siblings. They have always provided fun for kids. I was interested to discover that the development of the wheelbarrow began in China around AD200. Chuko Liang,
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
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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
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For the background to this story, CLICK HERE. 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 JANE SMITH –
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