It’s such a privilege to be involved in the life of baby birds. A pair of native Wonga pigeons have been providing my husband Rob and I with this delightful opportunity over a number of years. They live in our Blue Mountains garden, and are as much
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Daydreaming in our pandemic iso-world is a national pastime. Here is an imagined dinner, hosted by myself and my partner Rob in our new house at Blackheath, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. There are four courses (well sort of), and four dinner guests from
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What an unusually high temperature we had on Thursday. Even the breeze was warm. Maybe it doesn’t bode well for summer, but I did revel in it, and so did the crimson rosellas. Time to get out and about, much as I appreciate the delights of home.
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Deciding to produce chicks in mid winter was never going to be a good idea. However, our resident Wonga pair would not be dissuaded. We invariably get snow here in the upper Blue Mountains and sure enough, down it came in mid August. The eggs had only
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My partner Rob and I headed west to the historic village of Hartley at the weekend. We wanted to visit the Talisman Gallery, in the hope of finding an iron sculpture for a eucalypt tree stump in our garden. I had in mind an orb sundial or
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AUGUST 2020 AND THE WONGAS ARE STILL IN BREEDING OVERDRIVE. I BLAME COVID-19; THEY MUST FEEL THE NEED TO INCREASE THEIR NUMBERS IN CASE OF CROSS-SPECIES INFECTION. After producing two single chicks over a Blue Mountains winter (yes, I did tell them it wasn’t the right season)
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The native Wonga pigeons here at The Gums in Blackheath have already produced two chicks over winter. The third nesting failed due to that three day rain event in July, but they are discussing whether to try again. Unbelievable! Amid all the Covid-19 angst we humans are
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The Avalon Restaurant and Cocktail Bar at Katoomba is housed in the old Savoy Theatre (constructed 1936). The venue is full of vintage memorabilia. What a sense of fun there is here. It has a definite Alice-in-Wonderland quality. Upstairs is the dining room. For a sense of
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Did you ever have a tawny frogmouth take up residence in your garden? What a strange but lovely creature. Never steals your fruit and scarcely makes a sound. He is certainly imposing when he wakes up at dusk and prepares to go hunting. Look out lizards and
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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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