Another Gardens of Stone epic

Last week's Thursday bushwalkers' outing was once again to the Gardens of Stone area, starting and finishing near the amazing Temples of Doom. We did a circuit to the east of the Temples, including an exploration of Temple Creek.

Legalistically we were in the Newnes State Forest, but in a better future world it will be part of an enlarged GoS park.






It was another cracker of a trip, with perfect bushwalking weather despite all those wet periods in the days before and the days after.



Fabulous views into the Wolgan Valley.

Some moderately dense scrub to bash through.

An easy walk out along Blackfellows Hand Trail, and then a wet drive home.

A royal-watching guide for republicans

Sydney Exponential is proudly republican of course, and was initially a reluctant royal-watcher yesterday. I was curious though about the phenomenon. It made for a good-natured fun day out, I discovered. I could treat it as a professional challenge. See what sort of views and what sort of photos the average punter could expect.

Harry and Meghan were in town. They were at the Opera House at midday, doing a much anticipated walkabout. The crowd was big and enthusiastic. Every now and again there was an excited buzz, and a sea of phones and cameras were up in the air. I had no idea what was going on.

I  saw almost nothing from my carefully-selected vantage point. Hundreds of much more seasoned royal watchers had taken their more carefully-selected prime positions. Some even got to talk to the royal personages, we saw later on the TV reports. Mostly it was as depicted below!

First flowering

I've been planting waratahs now and again for the last few years. It's a notoriously difficult precious little thing, our state floral emblem. It prefers to do its thing in the wild, and tends not to co-operate with any but the greenest-thumbed gardeners.

A few years ago I tried some of the genuine natural native ones. They tormented me for a few years, staying just alive enough to keep me hopeful, but eventually dying anyway of course. Then a couple of years ago I tried again with some hybrids. Braidwood Brilliants, they're called. Hybrids are reckoned to be hardier and easier than the real deal ones. And after a tense recent few months of drought and frequent waterings, one my little beauties has finally come good. Look at this flower!

Look what they've done to our library!

So said the Weekend Herald today about the Mitchell State Library. What they've done of course is a terrific refurbishment of all their exhibition galleries. They are now able to properly display a lot more of their treasured possessions.

I turned up in time for the traditional smoking ceremony, carried out on the front steps.

With the building appropriately cleansed, the visitors made their way in.  We were all pretty impressed.

Among the exhibits are six collections of  UNESCO-listed things. The 'UNESCO Six include the journals of many of the First Fleet participants, some magnificent photography collections, the Miles Dunphy bushwalking journals, and the original copy of Dorothea Mackellar's 'The Core of my Heart' (aka 'I Love a Sunburnt Country').

Several galleries of historical paintings too by local artists.











And the main reading room is looking as good as ever.

It's raining and the angophora's shining!

We've finally had a good dose of rain after a lot of very dry months in Sydney. We'll need a few more such events over the spring and summer, if we're to avoid a dreadful bushfire season, but it's a nice start.

The angophora tree out the front looks like it's loving it!

Angophora costata

Angophora costata is a common woodland and forest tree of Eastern Australia, and is known by a variety of names including smooth-barked apple, rose gum, rose apple and Sydney red gum. It grows primarily on sandstone soils, usually on headlands, plateaus or other elevated areas. More at Wikipedia