There's nothing like a little topiary to improve an ugly shed. This was in Bundanoon, an attractive hamlet in the southern highlands of NSW.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Topiary
There's nothing like a little topiary to improve an ugly shed. This was in Bundanoon, an attractive hamlet in the southern highlands of NSW.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sign Language #2: Crumpets Face Inwards
My secondhand toaster bears this cryptic piece of information. Who knew?
Friday, June 26, 2009
Sign Language #1: In a hurry? Don't park here
Sign on a Katoomba parking lot, defaced by a tagger who obviously didn't have time to waste.
Monday, June 22, 2009
June bushwalk
A cold, rainy week had me thinking that I would jam out on this month's bushwalk. When Friday dawned misty but dry, I took a chance that it would not rain on our parade. I'm glad I did, because it turned out to be a lovely day, and our walk took us through spectacular terrain.
We set off along the spine of Narrowneck, a long spur jutting out between the Jamison and Megalong Valleys. The first part of our trek was on a fire access road with dramatic rocks on one side and a drop into the Megalong on the other.
As we walked we could watch the mist slowly rising out of the valley.
At this time of year, red lichen on the rocks is particularly vivid:
Similar lichens clung to the trunks of shrubs like Banksia serrata
and Allocasuarina anemonifolius
As Narrowneck began to live up to its name, we left the fire trail and made our way to the edge of the escarpment. Mist still lay in the Jamison Valley below where this gnarled Banksia clung to the edge of the precipice.
We made our way along the top of the sheer cliffs through an eerie but beautiful landscape.
By lunchtime, the mist had begun to lift, revealing the grandeur of the Jamison Valley below,
and our hilltop town of Katoomba shining in the sun above.
In a shallow rockpool filled by the recent rain, we found a small white spider marshalling what appeared to be a clutch of purplish-pink eggs. Eucalyptus leaves and nuts had fallen into the pool and were lying on the bottom; the spider and her eggs were floating on the surface.
On the return journey we walked among flowering banksias, the Old Man Banksia B. serrata ,
and the smaller, needle-leaved B. marginata
It is always interesting to see the new green, gold or bronze flowerheads side by side with the brown cones of previous years.
Other plants on this exposed heathland included Isopogon anemonifolius, its leaves tinged pink by the winter weather,
and, in water seepage among the rocks, colonies of small, red, insect-eating sundews, Drosera spatulata
We set off along the spine of Narrowneck, a long spur jutting out between the Jamison and Megalong Valleys. The first part of our trek was on a fire access road with dramatic rocks on one side and a drop into the Megalong on the other.
As we walked we could watch the mist slowly rising out of the valley.
At this time of year, red lichen on the rocks is particularly vivid:
Similar lichens clung to the trunks of shrubs like Banksia serrata
and Allocasuarina anemonifolius
As Narrowneck began to live up to its name, we left the fire trail and made our way to the edge of the escarpment. Mist still lay in the Jamison Valley below where this gnarled Banksia clung to the edge of the precipice.
We made our way along the top of the sheer cliffs through an eerie but beautiful landscape.
By lunchtime, the mist had begun to lift, revealing the grandeur of the Jamison Valley below,
and our hilltop town of Katoomba shining in the sun above.
In a shallow rockpool filled by the recent rain, we found a small white spider marshalling what appeared to be a clutch of purplish-pink eggs. Eucalyptus leaves and nuts had fallen into the pool and were lying on the bottom; the spider and her eggs were floating on the surface.
On the return journey we walked among flowering banksias, the Old Man Banksia B. serrata ,
and the smaller, needle-leaved B. marginata
It is always interesting to see the new green, gold or bronze flowerheads side by side with the brown cones of previous years.
Other plants on this exposed heathland included Isopogon anemonifolius, its leaves tinged pink by the winter weather,
and, in water seepage among the rocks, colonies of small, red, insect-eating sundews, Drosera spatulata
Monday, June 1, 2009
Eurama
When you take the train through the little mid-mountains town of Faulconbridge, you are high enough to glimpse an interesting ruin lying in grassy fields to the south of the railway line and the highway. This is all that remains of Eurama, once the home of Sir Henry Parkes, often referred to as Australia's "Father of Federation" Five times elected to Parliament in NSW (he had to resign three times due to bankruptcy) he was the dominant voice advocating Federation, although he died three years before it actually came to pass in 1901.
Last year we had made an effort to locate the ruin, but were defeated by a rough, unpaved road only suitable for a 4-wheel drive, certainly beyond the capacities of our little Echo.
On a recent sunny Sunday, we decided to try hiking in instead. Taking a wrong fork that we thought would lead there, we found ourselves eventually at a power-line pylon on the cliff edge and had to retrace our steps to the other fork. This one led us in the right direction and we emerged in the field we'd seen from the train.
The old mansion now has neither roof nor floor, but you can see that it was once a substantial property in the Gothic style, with walls of rough-cut sandstone and a square tower, now engulfed in ivy. Traces of garden beds, paths and shallow flights of steps are all overgrown with weeds and self-seeded saplings.
There is still a bit of old paving near the entrance,
and a motto carved on the lintel, by someone who wasn't very conversant with Latin. It should read Vi et Anima, meaning "By Strength and Spirit".
A cluster of agaves with strikingly tall flower spikes, the flowers long spent on this late autumn day, still stands among artfully jumbled rocks on the verge of bushland.
After a little on-line research, I found this old photo of the house as it once was.
Accompanying information says that it was built with stone quarried on the site. The estate included a tennis court, a large dam, and a circular driveway. Bushfires, and later vandalism, were responsible for its destruction, and the 164-hectare property has been derelict for several decades. Sir Henry Parkes was only one in a succession of owners; it is now owned by a development company which has plans for a gated community there, but on a positive note also intends to restore the house and grounds.
Last year we had made an effort to locate the ruin, but were defeated by a rough, unpaved road only suitable for a 4-wheel drive, certainly beyond the capacities of our little Echo.
On a recent sunny Sunday, we decided to try hiking in instead. Taking a wrong fork that we thought would lead there, we found ourselves eventually at a power-line pylon on the cliff edge and had to retrace our steps to the other fork. This one led us in the right direction and we emerged in the field we'd seen from the train.
The old mansion now has neither roof nor floor, but you can see that it was once a substantial property in the Gothic style, with walls of rough-cut sandstone and a square tower, now engulfed in ivy. Traces of garden beds, paths and shallow flights of steps are all overgrown with weeds and self-seeded saplings.
There is still a bit of old paving near the entrance,
and a motto carved on the lintel, by someone who wasn't very conversant with Latin. It should read Vi et Anima, meaning "By Strength and Spirit".
A cluster of agaves with strikingly tall flower spikes, the flowers long spent on this late autumn day, still stands among artfully jumbled rocks on the verge of bushland.
After a little on-line research, I found this old photo of the house as it once was.
Accompanying information says that it was built with stone quarried on the site. The estate included a tennis court, a large dam, and a circular driveway. Bushfires, and later vandalism, were responsible for its destruction, and the 164-hectare property has been derelict for several decades. Sir Henry Parkes was only one in a succession of owners; it is now owned by a development company which has plans for a gated community there, but on a positive note also intends to restore the house and grounds.
Monday, May 18, 2009
May meander
I had decided that I'd give up writing about our bushwalking adventures, thinking that there was little new to photograph and write about them. Then, we tackled the first section of the Six-Foot Track, a former coaching road that begins at Katoomba and descends through the Megalong Valley to the Jenolan Caves, and I couldn't resist the scenery.
More ambitious walkers than us hike the route, which takes an average of three days. And once a year, the Six-Foot Marathon www.sixfoot.com/index.php encourages serious over-achievers to run the full 45-kilometre distance, which the leading competitors manage to do in just over three hours. Our sedate group settled for the first leg only, a modest 8 kilometres.
"Leg" is an apt way to describe it, as the track begins with a very steep descent through a cleft in the mountains, where the drop down many narrow steps is long enough to jar your leading leg as your foot makes contact. Most of us admitted to trembling muscles by the time we reached level ground at the bottom. I took no photos of this section: not only was it quite dark beneath tree ferns and the sheer cliff walls enclosing us, but I needed all my focus on the track to avoid hurtling headlong down the ravine.
Once we reached level ground in the valley, the vegetation thinned out and we entered a more pastoral landscape of beautiful eucalypts - pink-trunked angophoras and silver scribbly gums.
After stopping for lunch near a mysterious sign...
...we continued through lush paddocks and more groves of gums deeper into the Megalong Valley, which has been settled for many years, mainly by horse-lovers. Ground cleared for paddocks here has allowed the remaining trees the space to grow into magnificent specimens.
Our route took us briefly along a dirt road and over a creek, which was placid and pretty on this day,
although it clearly had a different personality in rainy periods.
The last part of our trek followed trails through private property, whose owners had obligingly provided metal stiles over the barbed wire fences on their boundaries.
More ambitious walkers than us hike the route, which takes an average of three days. And once a year, the Six-Foot Marathon www.sixfoot.com/index.php encourages serious over-achievers to run the full 45-kilometre distance, which the leading competitors manage to do in just over three hours. Our sedate group settled for the first leg only, a modest 8 kilometres.
"Leg" is an apt way to describe it, as the track begins with a very steep descent through a cleft in the mountains, where the drop down many narrow steps is long enough to jar your leading leg as your foot makes contact. Most of us admitted to trembling muscles by the time we reached level ground at the bottom. I took no photos of this section: not only was it quite dark beneath tree ferns and the sheer cliff walls enclosing us, but I needed all my focus on the track to avoid hurtling headlong down the ravine.
Once we reached level ground in the valley, the vegetation thinned out and we entered a more pastoral landscape of beautiful eucalypts - pink-trunked angophoras and silver scribbly gums.
After stopping for lunch near a mysterious sign...
...we continued through lush paddocks and more groves of gums deeper into the Megalong Valley, which has been settled for many years, mainly by horse-lovers. Ground cleared for paddocks here has allowed the remaining trees the space to grow into magnificent specimens.
Our route took us briefly along a dirt road and over a creek, which was placid and pretty on this day,
although it clearly had a different personality in rainy periods.
The last part of our trek followed trails through private property, whose owners had obligingly provided metal stiles over the barbed wire fences on their boundaries.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Something completely different
As a break from all the photos and extended captions, here's a quote from the Family First Party's Steve Fielding, reacting to the budget just brought down by the Federal Government here in Australia. It appeared in the weekend newspaper under the heading "Warning: Mixed Metaphors Ahead".
This is a budget of broken dreams. It amazes me that the Rudd government can implore Australians to knuckle down and do it tough and then have the gall to continue sticking their own snouts in the trough of perks paid for by hardworking Australians. It is a real smack in the face to all Australians who are struggling to stay afloat when they see politicians feathering their own nest.
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