Blue Mountains Journal

I popped out to the garden to take this picture of the red autumn leaves -- my token of rememberence for the day. Because we have the remnants of the bug, today I am watching the Anzac march on TV rather than weathering the rain. Words to walk with: The sobering thought is that wars are always fought near someone's home. Range Finding by Robert Frost. "The battle rent a cobweb diamond-strung And cut a flower beside a ground bird's nest Before it stained a single human breast. The stricken flower bent double and so hung. And still the bird revisited her young. A butterfly its fall had dispossessed A moment sought in air his flower of rest, Then lightly stooped to it and fluttering clung. On the bare upland pasture there had spread O'ernight 'twixt mullein stalks a wheel of thread And straining cables wet with silver dew. A sudden passing bullet shook it dry. The indwelling spider ran to greet the fly, But finding nothing, sullenly withdrew."

Everyone in the household has the cold and flu bug that's going around. It's slowing us down a bit. I spotted this lovely bug in the garbage bin when I was taking out the rubbish. There's lots of rubbish because we're still entertaining hordes of visitors -- certainly not being treated like Typhoid Mary (see today's Words below) Words to walk with: From Winter Complaint by Ogden Nash "Now when I have a cold I am careful with my cold, I consult a physician And I do as I am told. I muffle up my torso In woolly woolly garb, And I quaff great flagons Of sodium bicarb. I munch on aspirin, I lunch on water, And I wouldn’t dream of osculating Anybody’s daughter, And to anybody’s son I wouldn’t say howdy, For I am a sufferer Magna cum laude. I don’t like germs, But I’ll keep the germs I’ve got. Will I take a chance of spreading them? Definitely not. I sneeze out the window And I cough up the flue, And I live like a hermit Till the germs get through. And because I’m co...

The rain we were waiting for came and washed the yellow brick road and my car clean. Then, with a final puff of yellow, the pine cones dropped to the ground ... yes it is pine cones, not a plague of caterpillers. Words to walk with: From A Litany in Time of Plague by Thomas Nash (1567-1601) "Adieu, farewell, earth's bliss; This world uncertain is; Fond are life's lustful joys; Death proves them all but toys; None from his darts can fly; I am sick, I must die. Lord, have mercy on us! ... Haste, therefore, each degree, To welcome destiny; Heaven is our heritage, Earth but a player's stage; Mount we unto the sky. I am sick, I must die. Lord, have mercy on us!"

At this time of year our pines puff pollen. The driveway becomes a yellow brick road. The plants, cars -- everything -- are covered in gold dust. We are waiting for rain to wash it off. Photo: Pine trees, my garden (not a native plant) Words to walk with: The Wizard of Oz follows Dorothy's travels along the Yellow Brick Road, who concludes on her return, "I learned that, if I ever go looking for my hearts desire again... I shouldn't look any further than my own back yard."

The jewel of my early Autumn garden are the tiny cyclamen flowers that flower under the pine tree. Photo: Cyclamen, my garden (not a native plant)