Absinthe is a distilled, highly alcoholic drink. It is anise flavoured, derived from the plants wormwood, green anise and sweet fennel. It was popular in early 20thC Paris, especially among bohemian artists and writers such as Picasso, Proust, Vincent van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar
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Who would imagine that dear old hydrangeas would hold up so well during the 2019/20 fires and heatwave conditions in the NSW Blue Mountains? The origin of the name seems to contradict the very notion that they would! ‘First discovered in Japan, the name hydrangea comes from
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Time to be out and about now the fire risk has subsided. My own garden is a disaster, with only the natives and hydrangeas holding up. But how is everything else going in this awful heatwave I wonder? Well, to my great surprise an ibis has taken
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AN UPDATE ON THE FOLLOWING STORY…. It can be a bit of a worry when your long term neighbours sell up, especially if they were really nice. What if the new owners have non-stop barking dogs, or are throwers of wild parties? That might sound a bit
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I never could resist a nativity play. They are usually performed by sweet little schoolchildren, so an adult version was something of a novelty for me. Titled, The Shepherds’ Play, it was held in the dining room of The New Ivanhoe Hotel last night. All seats were
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My young friend Miss Milly has not always been comfortable around nature. Here she is hiding behind Editor Des when our Kookaburra called Taffy came to visit. She thought he might fly off with her to Govett’s Leap. Or pull her hair. Her idea of nature is
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Writers need to get out and about sometimes, otherwise our solitary profession would drive us to distraction. Plus, for a gardener like me there are too many distractions at home….such as roses! I have a ten minute walk to my village of Blackheath, and in a place
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It was a delight to see young ‘Blackheathens’ Luke and Fergus back at their lemonade stall in Soldiers’ Memorial Park this year during the Blackheath Rhododendron Festival. Apparently they made a decent profit in 2018, but I’m tipping an even better result this time around because they
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Everyone wants to be at the Rhododendron Festival. It has been our day on display for such a long time. This gorgeous local was trying to escape through a picket fence in Park Avenue. I was looking forward to seeing my friend Larraine Home in the parade
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The name New Ivanhoe Hotel is a delightful contradiction in terms. Little has changed at this Blue Mountains pub in 70 years. It’s located at 231 Great Western Highway, Blackheath. It has been owned by the Ray family for over four decades. I’ve been working on my
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