Year: 2024

Except here we are talking about BIRDS! One of the main reasons for going to Heron is its birdlife. A Bird haven. Just like we can be visitors or residents so can the birds. In fact we can probably make out four categories, Residents, Visitors, Breeders and Migratory birds and I am going to give…

Its a Coral Cay. Dating some 6000 years ago. They named it Heron because of the resident bird they saw there but actually they are Eastern Reef Egrets. It lies 43 nautical miles away from mainland Oz. Its about a kilometre and a bit in size and you can walk around it at low tide.…

Gladstone’s botanic gardens opened in 1988. They are expansive, over 150 hectares and surrounding Tondoon Dam- an old intake pump station can still be seen. There are 37 sections focusing on various plants and trees. You first meet tall eucalypts covering the area leading to the dam. Loud birdsong. A beautiful carved wood trunk and…

An Industrial town in northern Queensland. A huge port. The port which I gaze out to from a lookout, has mounds and mounds of coal waiting to be transported on huge ships and over on the other side of the lookout, iron ore awaits and a bit further on massive Grain silos. Not the prettiest…

It’s round one of the Easters. We are a mixed family. Half Anglican with a preponderance of Greek Orthodox. Memories of my Austrian nanny Erika blowing eggs empty so we could paint them for the Easter Tree. Making daisy chains when out in the fields in Cyprus as spring coloured the country side. We eat…

It is National Eucalyptus Day so we headed to Mount Coot- Tha for a day of talks, walks and workshops. We heard about the many types, admired their smooth trunk, or spotted ones, listened to how we can dye cloth using the leaves and heard all about powerful owls nesting in old eucalypt hollows and…

My neighbourhood called – its been a while and I set off in the sunshine. The day is mellow and welcoming. After over ten years in the area I came across roads I had not walked in. Down Arthur, into Fred, there was no George but definitely an Elizabeth and then up Bramble Terrace and…

Most of you who read my posts will know I am keen on showing you the very many new and exciting flowers I come across in Australia. So it is like a calling when Museum of Brisbane puts on an exhibition with the above name -Well known artists such as Vida Lahey and Margaret Olley…

Eliza is a young Ukrainian refugee who has been in Australia for about a year and a half. She is here with her mother and comes from eastern Ukraine which is where the fighting is raging and she has family back in Ukraine. She is an art graduate and is putting her knowledge and skills…