Hello. Did you know that Australia’s dear little koala had a very bad time during the bush fires earlier this year? Well they can’t run very fast, so that was a problem. I was in Sydney the other day and people were protesting about it all. I
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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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Our resident Wongas here in the Blue Mountains are acting so bizarrely. These monogamous, Australian native birds usually nest in summer, from October until January. They have a clutch of two white eggs, in a rough, twig nest built high in a tree. However, this year they
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Just before Christmas, as the bush fires crept ever closer to Blackheath and we all suffered in the heatwave, I photographed a little tractor and water tank in Wentworth Street. I assumed it must be someone’s personal fire protection unit. Mind you, I did wonder about the
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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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And so Christmas in the Blue Mountains village of Blackheath has come to an end. The saddest, happiest, strangest and scariest festive season I’ve experienced in the twenty years we have lived here. In mid December my husband Rob and I attended a delightful nativity play at
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AUTUMN GOES ALL AWRY Here in the Blue Mountains we had an unusually warm, dry autumn. The fear is that this is due to global warming. I really enjoyed the warmth, but it was confusing for our plants. Spring bulbs were popping up before the autumn leaves
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The spectre of climate change and periods of prolonged drought have created an upsurge of interest in the growing of Australian native plants. However, we have been slow to embrace them. I suspect this would surprise and disappoint women pioneers such as Elizabeth Macarthur, who began
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