Blue Mountains Journal

Wattle is flowering everywhere along the roadsides and their fragrance fills the air. On the road to Lennox Bridge there were other yellow shrubs also flowering profusely. I stopped to see what the flowers were like and discovered they were pea flowers. I thought they might be Dillwynia but have discovered there are heaps of different pea flowers -- Jacksonia, Pultenaea, Dillwynia, Daviesia, Bossiaea, Gompholobium and several varieties within these. It's no wonder I'm confused. Either way, the yellow display is lovely. Words to walk with: From When I in Gardens Walk by Dame Mary Gilmore "When apple blossoms bud. And wattle fills the hollow With scents that waft in flood, Where light the winds do follow, When at the rising sun Long shadows shield the grass. And dewdrops, waking, run To hold him in their glass, As these I note and scan, So near and none aloof, Then do I ask why man, Sits prisonered by a roof!"

A couple of days ago I showed a purple swamp hen. Today is it the purple pea flowers of Hardenbergia that I found near Lennox Bridge. Photo: False Sarsaparilla ( Hardenbergia violacea ) Words to walk with: From the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful by Cecil Alexander All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all. Each little flower that opens, Each little bird that sings, He made their glowing colours, He made their tiny wings ... The purple headed mountains, The river running by, The sunset and the morning, That brightens up the sky ... He gave us eyes to see them, And lips that we might tell, How great is God Almighty, Who has made all things well.

From Glenbrook Lagoon we drove on to Lennox Bridge. This is the oldest bridge on the Australian mainland -- which means there are older bridges in Tasmania. The bridge, which was built in the 1830s using convict labour, helped to make the ascent up the mountains less steep. David Lennox was the master mason and bridge builder. Photo: Lennox Bridge, Glenbrook

These are my last photos of Glenbrook Lagoon but it is also worth mentioning that tonight there is a lunar eclipse -- the moon has been shining red Words to walk with: From Of Wonders by Dame Mary Gilmore "And lifting up my eyes have marked, afar, The gleaming whiteness of a star. And I have watched the moon slow pace The age-long path where heaven has set her face, And looked upon the flower -- Love's beauty radiant for an hour -- And, then, with sudden longing turned, Back, where the homely hearth -fire burned. But I have been drunken on The beauty that has shone Where the Incomprehensible has deigned to write!"

Photo: Purple Swamphen ( Porphyrio porphyrio ) I found this water bird wading at the water's edge but as I crept closer to get a better shot she flew away.

If this picture had sound you would hear the bop-bop and creeeek of frogs in the pond. Photo: Glenbook Lagoon Words to walk with: From In The Swamp Now by Harley Matthews "And songs? Its alphabet could never spell One syllable Of the frogs' poem at midnight, or the paean Of silence after."

We went to Glenbrook Lagoon today. This is natural feshwater lagoon edged by forest. It was wonderful to be out and about in the bush again. Photo: Glenbrook Lagoon, Glenbrook Words to walk with: The first Europeans to see Glenbrook Lagoon were Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson who arrived at 'a large lagoon of good water full of very coarse rushes' on 12 May 1813.