Mid February, and in my Blackheath garden the banksia serratas are in bloom. They are loved by all the honeyeaters, but especially Wattlebirds and Eastern Spinebills. Bees are visiting the native lilly-pilly flowers on the bush outside Slurps café, in Wentworth Street. I know there must be
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When you have a large garden filled with birds there are lots of opportunities to create photographic images for occasions such as Christmas and New Year. So why not Valentine’s Day? Admittedly I’ve been married over 40 years, but Rob is still my knight in shining armour.
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MASTER OF THE ART OF GLASS How lucky we Blackheathens are to have someone as talented as glass artist Keith Rowe in our midst. He built the huge furnace pictured below himself, back in 1990. His work is represented in public and private galleries around the world.
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It has been a long courting season for the bowerbird in Blackheath’s Memorial Park. I began monitoring his ‘boudoir’ in mid August 2018. Without doubt it was one of the most beautiful, symmetrically arranged collections of blue treasures I had ever seen. WOOING IS A WEARYSOME BUSINESS
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WELL HELLO AGAIN GANG-GANGS! After not seeing Gang-gang cockatoos in my Blue Mountains garden for several years I was delighted when a lively group arrived a couple of weeks ago. There were lured by the ripening seeds on my various wattle trees (acacias). They have been returning
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I have obtained permission from my two ‘boss’ brown thornbills to write a little story about them and their relatives. We have a resident group in our Blue Mountains garden. They are really small; about 10cm long. They weigh in at around 7 grammes apiece. My darling
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My beloved Blue Mountains village of Blackheath has long been the butt of jokes regarding its chilly location. Bleakheath, Lackheat…..yes yes, we deal with these corruptions of our name with good natured humour. But remember…we are closer to heaven than our neighbours down the hill!
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The Growers’ Markets in Backheath are always wonderful, but there was something a bit special about the twilight Christmas market last night. My partner and I arrived early when the stallholders were still setting up around 4.00pm. You simply cannot celebrate the festive season without cherries. We
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I have a very strange orchid in my Blue Mountains garden. Its botanical name is Gastrodia sesamoides. This leafless, Australian native has been dubbed the Potato Orchid, as the tubers the plants grow from were roasted and eaten by Aborigines (particularly the Wurundjeri people of central Victoria). They
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Despite living in Blackheath for 17 years, I’m embarrassed to admit that I still make new discoveries. Hard to believe I know….it’s not exactly a huge metropolis. In this instance it was the small business centre over the railway line in Station Street. What a revelation.
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