I am wallowing in the daily delights of my mountain, after too long away. Tassie is a permanent seductress for me, but so is home. Even the wet days have been a treat, as I am snug and warm in the cabin, with the slow combustion fire on and banked right down. The mud brick [...]
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I’m loving being home for a spell, especially as the weather is so beautifully verging on Autumn. Here it’s green and fresh and clear and the wallabies and I are fully appreciating it! All the ‘garden’ trees, like the Chinese Tallow Tree, look happy. For some reason the Lemon Ti-Tree is only flowering on one of [...]
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After almost two weeks away, I am greatly relieved to be back here on my mountain. Woodford was a visual and auditory overload, so back home I am appreciating small details once again, like the vines that wind their way up any handy prop. It is the silence I most appreciate, just a wind whisper [...]
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Having been away from the mountain for a few weeks with the latest book tour means that I was prepared for the worst, like bush fires, or trees blown down and across the track, when I returned. I wasn’t prepared for the best, which is what I found. The winter jonquils were finished, but Spring had [...]
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There seemed to be too many ears in the lolling wallaby silhouette I could see from the verandah. I couldn’t work it out, so I walked closer. Then I could see that it was two adults cuddled together and a joey in the pouch of one. Of course I went back for the camera. Coming [...]
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I finally stole half an hour to pull out some old tomato plants and onions add a bit of compost to the vegie garden — and look what I uncovered. Damn, I thought, more plastic that got into the compost and didn’t compost. But I couldn’t recall what on earth it might have been the [...]
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After all the initial rushing about and media interviews for the new book — ongoing and more to come — I was glad to have a few relatively peaceful days at home with my fellow inhabitants. As I am still without 240v power until my solar system’s inverter is fixed, I am to-ing and fro-ing [...]
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Even without stirring from my verandah, I have a world of nature in view. The wildlife comes to me, and this time I don’t mean rose-climbing possums or gate-leaping wallabies! These are mini-inhabitants, easy to miss, and easy to admire. One dull day I spotted a strange blob of white on the corner verandah post. [...]
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When I wake up to a white world it’s not usually because it has snowed — although that has happened — but because a cloud has decided to descend and join me, poor earthbound being that I am. At such times the only bright colour is in close things, seen sans veil of finest white [...]
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Despite heavy prunings at ground level by the wallabies and hence a slow start until I netted the base, the Glory Vine has excelled itself this year, and run the whole length of my western mudbrick wall. In doing so, it has shaded all the windows – which was the intention. I never feel any [...]
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I can’t help rushing out with the camera on the rare mornings where light overnight rain or heavy dew coincides with a brighter morning. It can’t be too sunny, or the precious jewels thus revealed will have been dried up. Then all I’d see would be a spiderweb, miraculous in itself, but more common. On [...]
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Each summer these powerful plants re-shoot, sending up thick stems metres into the air in a race to the roof with the Glory Vine. I do have to tie them to the verandah railings before they become top heavy, as dozens of burgundy pods explode into these elegant blooms. Beautiful as they are in cream [...]
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Here's the cover of my new book — Rich Land, Wasteland — How coal is killing Australia — which is now in bookshops.
A candid meander through my life up here on my remote mountain wildlife refuge, answering the oft-asked question 'Why do you live way out there?'
Stories about the wild things who allow me to share their living space — and a plea to look after them before it's too late.
