Sweet Wayfaring

It’s hard to imagine that this peaceful spot (the setting for our next wayfaring adventure) is just 15 kms from the centre of the busy city of Sydney. Photo: Lane Cove River National Park

Fish and chips sitting on the sea wall – our farewell feast. Photo: Pelicans, Kiama Musing: This famous limerick was written in 1910 by Dixon Lanier Marritt, a newspaper editor. “A wonderful bird is the pelican, His mouth can hold more than his belly can, He can hold in his beak, Enough food for a week! I'm damned if I know how the hell he can!”

Photo: Superb Fairy Wren ( Malurus cyaneus) Musing: From the lyrics of Walk the Line by Johnny Cash "Mm-mm-mm-mm… I keep a close watch on this heart of mine. I keep my eyes wide open all the time. I keep the ends out for the tie that binds. Because you’re mine, I walk the line."

We were enjoying lunch at the Lyrebird Café. Sitting quietly we could hear lyrebirds scratching the undergrowth, the burble of flowing water, the shrill noise of cicadas, crows and parrots calling from the trees. Then silently this visitor joined us. I guess back in the past he would have been the lunch! Photo: Lizard, Minnamurra rainforest

Remnants of rich rainforests are in the coastal hinterland. Minnamurra Rainforest, part of Buderroo National Park is a delightful spot to visit where an elevated boardwalk meanders through the trees. Minnamurra is an aboriginal word meaning “plenty of fish”. Photo: Fern and palm, Minnamurra rainforest Musing: Minnamurra Rainforest has 90 species of ferns (astounding!) from tiny filmy maiden hair fern, to bracken and giant tree ferns. Two thirds of the known species of ferns in NSW are said to grow here.

Surprise! I bet you didn’t expect me to get a haystack picture at the beach. Photo: Hay field, near Gerringong

Photo: Kiama Musing: From The Surfer by Judith Wright “He thrust his joy against the weight of the sea; Climbed through, slid under those long banks of foam”

Photos: Seven Mile Beach, Gerroa Musing: From The Shell by Alfred Lord Tennyson "See what a lovely shell, Small and pure as a pearl, Lying close to my foot, Frail, but a work divine, Made so fairily well With delicate spire and whorl, How exquisitely minute, A miracle of design! What is it? a learned man Could give it a clumsy name. Let him name it who can, The beauty would be the same."

Photo: Seven Mile Beach, Gerroa The silver grey trees on the dunes are banksias. While I have written of banksias quite often in my Blue Mountains Journal, these are a different species, not in flower at present. I learnt something new from the signs at the national park that borders this beach – aboriginal people swished banksia flowers in water to make a sweet drink. Musing: From Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold (one of my all time favourite poems) “Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in.”

Hibiscus is the quintessential flower of places warm, humid and holiday – conjuring up the twang of island music on the sea breeze. Photo: Hibiscus flower, Gerroa

Photo: Rock pools, Gerringong

Rockpool is an up market restaurant in Sydney – a gourmet’s delight. This rock pool was even better – a photographer’s delight! Photo: Rock pools, Gerringong

The local birds -- we don't see these at home. Photo: Seagulls, Kiama

Photo: Norfolk Island Pine, Kiama We have spent the past several days camping at Gerroa on the South Coast of NSW The hills are of the greenest green, seas of the bluest blue, sand silver white and the sun warm and golden. But I am ill at ease photographing it – the sea is not in my psyche. How do I capture the spirit of this beautiful place? What can I find in mere moments when I usually visit familiar places to delight in intimate detail? Wayfaring is stretching me. Musing: From On the Sea by John Keats “Oh ye! who have your eye-balls vexed and tired, Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea; Oh ye! whose ears are dinned with uproar rude, Or fed too much with cloying melody, - Sit ye near some old cavern's mouth, and brood Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs choired!”

The Paterson’s Curse is good for something! Photo: Beehives, near Oberon Musing: From To Autumn by John Keats “… to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells” P.S. We have been wayfaring in a new place for most of the past week. I’ll start on that story tomorrow.

Trimmed lawns, roses growing in profusion by neat fences, dahlias staked and tied. People who smile hello just because you are there. Quiet streets to meander without looking for cars. I am surprised there is no sign at the gateway to Oberon bragging “Tidy Town Winner”. Musing: From A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns "O my Luve's like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June; O my Luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune. As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a' the seas gang dry:"

Photo: Hay field on Old Shooters Hill Road, Oberon I adore hay fields -- expect to see more of them in this blog. When I said this, my husband quickly quipped that it had already been done. Musings: Monet started his haystacks series of paintings in 1890. For the next thirty years he concentrated almost exclusively on haystacks, poplars, waterlilies, Rouen Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament.

Photo: Roadside grass, Oberon At the moment the roadside is gloriously sprinkled with flowers -- blue Paterson's Curse , white daisies , yellow paper daisies , and the usual muddle of fluffy grass heads, dandelions, wild herbs and escaped garden plants. Musings: Oberon speaking in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;"

Photo: Farming land, near Oberon. Oberon is king of the fairies on Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Nights Dream". The Oberon we visited on our first wayfaring adventure is a town west of the Blue Mountains and though it's midsummer the weather was very cool. Also this photo taken just a little way out of town is quite fanciful as barns of this style are not at all Australian.

We went of Bathust for Boxing Day. I love the broad horizons and agricultural land in the flat country beyond mountains. This field is a favourite of mine, taken some time ago. Now there are cattle grazing on lush green pasture. Photo: On the road to Bathurst