From the category archives:

Winter

Magical Mallacoota

It was just on dusk when I reached Mallacoota, 23 km east of the highway. A stunningly beautiful spot, and quite a large village, but, as I discovered when I drove to the inlet foreshore, its population must explode in summer. What I thought was just a pleasantly green and tree-edged park proved to be [...]

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Victorian gold

At Devonport, waiting to board the night boat, Tasmania farewelled me with rain, as it had greeted me a fortnight before, then withdrew its forces to the now familiar lowering dark clouds over its mountains — and turned on a perfect double rainbow. Day or night, Tasmania, your wild skies have won me. In the [...]

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Sun streaks

It’s a late winter dawn, too cold and too early to get up really, but, since I’m awake and I have a million things to do — I toss back the covers and start the day. By the time the kettle has boiled, the first stripes of sunlight are fingering the tops of my gum [...]

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My winter roses

This being August, it’s still winter. Yet there’s plenty of flowers: the wattle is out, the jonquils are in full bloom and the first daffodil has opened to the spring-like warmth of the sun. Unfortunately it’s woken up the snakes too, as I have seen my first black snake — sunning itself on very short [...]

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Winter sunrise

In winter my morning policy is not to arise until the sun is in my house, but I was forced to do otherwise when this was the first sight of the day. Knowing how quickly such skies change and fade, I leapt up, threw on a thick dressing gown, stepped into my oversize fake ugg-boot [...]

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Fleshy blooms

There are few flowering plants in bloom now. The wattle is almost ready but as yet is grey-green with just a promise of gold. Most of the bulbs have shot through the grass but only one or two isolated jonquils have opened their scent to the light and air. And yet from the damp edges [...]

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Tree light

As Autumn becomes Winter, under perpetual grey skies, the intermittent thin drizzle keeps the saturated ground weeping down the hillside. In all the dimmed-down garden and bushland, one light shines each day to greet and cheer me with its brightness.   My Liquid Amber tree is incandescent with warm colour, from yellow to purple and every [...]

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Final winter flurry

As August came to an end, the season decided to show a bit of properly wintry snow. Not at my place, unfortunately, although I’m just high enough at about 1000 metres, but opposite me in the Wilderness Area, where the range is about 1500 metres. It was cold, 2 degrees, which is about as low [...]

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Rainbow rays

I’m being given the gift of many rainbows this winter, but they’re not in the sky. On my mountain, low cloud rising and and low sun setting makes for some spectacular combinations. This striped beauty lasted only seconds before the last fine drifts of misty cloud dissipated. Being stuck too much at my desk at [...]

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Haildrops

Although it’s winter, when sleet or snow would have been more normal, we’ve had a surprising number of summery-type storms, where small hail falls. Not for long, but often. The horses don’t like it, but it doesn’t do any actual damage, so I just enjoy the visual effect while it lasts. My naturalised snowflake bulbs [...]

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Winter morning

Mist rises from the mountains opposite as morning light grows stronger. It reveals light snow has fallen overnight up there at 5000 feet. That’s in the wilderness area, so only the wallabies will be marking the snowfall with their prints. But the sun is rising too, and the mist begins to glow, tinged with rose [...]

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