The Wattle Cafe, on the Great Western Highway at Blackheath, has been around since the 1940s. My Blackheath born friend Larraine tells me they used to serve hot milkshakes, which had to be drunk quickly, before the straw melted. It is such a warm sanctuary on a
Read more →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
Read more →April 30 2020 – How extraordinary, today we spotted our resident Wonga couple snuggling up together whenever they weren’t foraging or feeding their most recent chick, Spirit. The Australian native pigeons mate for life and we thought they were just ‘bonding’, but no….there was a lot more
Read more →Local papers are under serious threat. Lack of advertising and competition from alternative news sources are taking their toll. The local rag where I live is the Blue Mountains Gazette, a free publication delivered to every home. This infuriates people who don’t want to read it, but
Read more →It’s a great privilege to watch baby birds being fed. Wonga pigeons feed their chicks ‘milk’ for quite a while, even after a baby has begun to potter about foraging for solids. They are very shy birds, so to see this taking place through our kitchen window
Read more →This is Spirit, who nearly did not make an appearance as her parents nested in a tree about to be cut down. Happily, the tree was spared. Spirit and a sibling we called Hope hatched successfully. We think a hungry fox took Hope. This a continual hazard
Read more →Celebrating a significant birthday under lock-down Balloons from the newsagency. Rich chocolate cake from the village grocery store. All his gifts were purchased in Blackheath. Warm, cosy slippers from the newsagency (well he is seventy)
Read more →Splendid isolation at the local duck pond in Blackheath – no tourists to feed the residents so I’m sure their diet has improved. Let’s hope that one day soon we will be free and the kids will be back on the swings. Such a simple joy. I
Read more →Social historians will be investigating and interpreting the pandemic and the phenomenon of self-isolation for years to come. Lock-down has altered our behaviour in so many ways. It has lead to a phenomenon dubbed ‘iso-baking’ (and a scarcity of flour), but also to a huge increase in
Read more →I was involved in a heated debate on a FB community site the other day. It was all rather pointless and a waste of emotional energy. In the midst of the fray I decided enough was enough and commented, ‘Well that’s it for me. I’m off to
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