Many years ago I read a book called This Bed My Centre, by Melbourne born Ellen Newton (1896 -1972) In the 1960s Ellen ended up in a series of Sydney nursing homes due to chronic angina. There she remained for six unhappy years, longing to be in
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A sweet, Eastern Water Skink family have lived inside an old stone wall in our Blue Mountains garden for years. When we were building a new house on the site we had to dismantle part of the wall. My lovely partner Rob decided it was only
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How beautiful Australia’s Eastern Water Skinks are, with their gorgeous, coppery colouring. My associate Editor Des has made friends with the family that live in our stone walling and under our old cement terrace, here at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains. There are actually two branches of
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For years, in the centre of my Blue Mountains garden, I had a bowl of grape hyacinths sitting on an old terracotta pipe. It was an interesting feature; rustic and simple. However, as surrounding shrubbery grew it became shaded and half the bulbs failed to flower. One
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When we moved to Blackheath (Blue Mountains) twenty years ago there was a large crabapple in our garden. I suspect it was planted by a previous owner, a professor of architecture who established the garden in the 1960s. The tree scarcely bore any fruit and eventually I
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Persicaria is surely among the most under-rated of plants. Here in the Blue Mountains they do very well and require very little attention. Mind you, bees and other insects adore the tiny flowers. Some of the small, immature leaves at the bottom of the stems are quite
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In the spirit of increasing biodiversity, my partner and I bought a little insect hotel for our Blue Mountains garden. Perfectionist owner-builder Rob decided to seal the back panel with Bondcrete and add a waterproof membrane to the pitched roof. Well, we do get a lot of
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It is mid winter here at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, cold and very wet. I have been watching Monty Don’s TV series on French gardens. Oh dear, the longing it evokes is almost physically painful. How long will it be before we can enjoy that beautiful
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Now admittedly I have been conducting a campaign against sulphur crested cockatoos. Well not against the birds themselves, but against the artificial feeding of them. Over the past 15 years their numbers have skyrocketed in the Blue Mountains. They are now competing with other hollow-nesting birds here
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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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