Hello, here is a rather sad story about my Halloween pumpkin. I forget when I planted the seeds, and also what kind they were. And maybe I was a bit late getting them in. Our bees seemed to have left when the lavender and thyme and all the Australian
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Autumn is a delight my little village of Blackheath. I do joke and call it Bleakheath, but only with affection. It’s in the upper Blue Mountains of New South Wales, so the seasons are well defined. Spring is gorgeous and snow can occasionally transform it in winter.
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THE LITTLE WEBSITE THAT GREW! Recently this website clicked over to 550,000 visits. Maybe not a great deal by some standards, but amazing to me. When I began in late 2012 I had no idea about SEO (search engine optimization), effective tags or stop words. It must
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Hello from Editor Des, MY MUSHROOMS Well my guardian Pauline Conolly wrote a story about fungi the other day called Fungi: Flowers of the Fall . So I thought I would do a better one. Mine is about very special, magic mushrooms. I think you will love it
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The following photos were all taken at Blackheath, mostly in my garden or on the walk up to the village via Memorial Park or Robertson Lane. The scene that follows appeared in the Blue Mountains Gazette, when Blackheath had a bumper season a few years back. It
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MOMENTS IN TIME, BUT NO LONGER IN MEMORY Pop psychologists are always urging us to ‘Live in the moment’. I do try to do this, especially when it comes to enjoying my garden and the wonderful bird life around me. However, as a writer on social history and
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A DAY OUT FOR EDITOR DES (THAT’S ME) Well one day my guardian Pauline Conolly took me to Sydney as a special treat. Now she loves going to the State Library, but I don’t (boooooring!!) I was pretty p…..d off when we ended up there (sorry, I
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WRITING TO SANTA IS A SERIOUS BUSINESS; AN ILLUSTRATED ESSAY BY EDITOR DES…. ER, THAT’S ME! Well here is a letter to Santa written by a little Australian boy called Paddy, over a hundred years ago. Who do you think Paddy was? (see answer at the bottom
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Hello, Editor Des here, Well I have been searching all over Sydney for the best Christmas tree. I found the first one in Cremorne when we were having a little holiday. I thought I really set it off. I’m a true ornament. Hahaha. Red and green
Read more →Well last week I went on a holiday to Tasmania in search of two special little girls called Ellie and Ash. My elderly guardians Pauline and Rob are their great auntie and uncle. I reckon this might make me their adoptive fourth cousin thrice removed. OK, so
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