Blue Mountains Journal

While I am on the topic of close-ups, here is one I took in the herb garden at Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens . Photo: Fly on herb flower, Mt Tomah Words to walk with: The Fly by William Blake “Little Fly Thy summers play, My thoughtless hand Has brush'd away. Am not I A fly like thee? Or art not thou A man like me? For I dance And drink and sing Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing. If thought is life And strength and breath; And the want of thought is death; Then am I A happy fly, If I live, Or if I die.”

One of the fascinating things of macro photography is the detail that is normally not noticed. Each fluffy wattle flower is tied with a tiny yellow bow. Photo: Wattle up close Words to walk with: From Wattle and Myrtle by James Lister Cuthbertson "Gold of the tangled wilderness of wattle, Break in the lone green hollows of the hills, Flame on the iron headlands of the ocean, Gleam on the margin of the hurrying rills. Come with thy saffron diadem and scatter Odours of Araby that haunt the air, Queen of our woodland, rival of the roses, Spring in the yellow tresses of thy hair."

Australia’s national flower is wattle. There are many different types. Native Plants of the Blue Mountains by Baker and Corringham lists 19 in the mountains. Various varieties flower throughout the year but perhaps the most welcome are the golden blooms of Acacia terminalis that cheer cold winter days. Photo: Wattle ( Acacia terminalis ) Words to walk with: From Waratah and Wattle by Henry Lawson “Australia! Australia! so fair to behold While the blue sky is arching above; The stranger should never have need to be told, That the Wattle-bloom means that her heart is of gold”

I hugged my coat around me and waited a little longer. The fierce red faded leaving the clouds grey against a backdrop of pink sky as the lights from houses on Kings Tableland began to glimmer. Night was approaching so I walked to my car. Flocks of Cockatoos squawked in the pine trees and flashed white against the darkening sky where early stars glinted like ice crystals. Photo: Dusk, Jameson Valley Words to walk with: From On Australian Hills by Ada Cambridge “Oh to be there to-night! To see that rose of sunset flame and fade On ghostly mountain height, The soft dusk gathering each leaf and blade From the departing light, Each tree-fern feather of the wildwood glade.”

At the top, I tarried at the lookout to watch the sun paint the gathering clouds. Photo: Sunset over the Jameson Valley, Wentworth Falls Words to walk with: From Colour by Dorothea Mackellar “Great saffron sunset clouds, and larkspur mountains And fenceless miles of plain And hillsides golden-green in the unearthly Clear shining after rain”

On the Undercliff track there were tantilising glimpses of the late afternoon sun glowing on the eastern rock faces and the rush of white water flowing over Wentworth Falls. I scurried back to the top as I didn’t want to be caught out in the dark. Nights are closing in very early now with the shortest day of the year this weekend. Photo: Cliff in early evening, Wentworth Falls Words to walk with: From Wentworth Falls at Evening by Mark O’Connor “Droplets in the late sun, a shower of silver coin into the dark valley.”

I took a brisk late afternoon walk along the Undercliff Track at Wentworth Falls. The air was cold, underfoot was slippery, and water drip, dripped from above which it does even in dry times. Photo: Undercliff track, Wentworth Falls Words to walk with: From The Bush by James Lister Cutherbertson “Give us from dawn to dark Blue of Australian skies, Let there be none to mark Wither our pathway lies … These are the haunts we love, Glad with enchanted hours, Bright as the heavens above, Fresh as the wild bush flowers.”