Posts tagged ‘blue mountains’

Enjoying the Mountains

I’ve spent pretty much all of the Easter break (which has been very long in these parts!) at my bench, working hard on my new range of jewellery.

However, I did manage to get out and about in the Blue Mountains at the end of last week during a couple of sunny days. So I thought I’d share just a few of the lovely things I saw both in Mt Wilson and Bullaburra.

Autumn leaves in Mt Wilson.

Golden pea flowers.

Walking in Bullaburra. Street in Mt Wilson.

Snake flower.

Around my garden

Today was finally a gorgeous day at my place: clear blue sky, a comfortable temperature and a lovely breeze. It made me appreciate having taken a chunk of time out recently to work in my garden – which very badly needed some love and attention!

So while I was taking a much-needed break away from my bench I decided I’d nip outside and take some photographs of garden happenings – and I’m sharing some of them with you here.

Pansies growing in my garden.
I planted the yellow pansies a while back – just two tiny punnets of them … which have taken off and now take up a big chunk of this garden bed! The larger purple and yellow one grew from one of the seeds I threw in a while back.

Some of the photographs are of plants I’ve put in myself since moving in. Others have been here for a very long time, I suspect – and many have managed to surprise me without any effort whatsoever on my part.

Raspberries harvested from my garden.

These raspberries are a perfect example of that. I’ve just ignored them, thinking that nothing would grow on them and if it did the possums or birds would get to it first! But right now every day I managed to harvest a few absolutely delicious raspberries – just enough to stand next to the garden bed and snack on them.

Raspberries growing in my garden.
Soon these will be ready for eating – can’t wait!

Blue Mountains native violet in my garden.
This little violet is native to the Blue Mountains. I picked it up from the Blue Mountains Conservation Society recently – along with some other seedlings – and hope that it will eventually fill in an empty space, along with a collection of other violets.

Climbing rose in my garden.
Sadly climbing roses are a bit of a pest in this part of the world – a weed, in fact, as they grow so easily that they escape gardens and crop up in the wilderness. My driveway is full of them – they’ve almost certainly been growing here for many, many years. And in spite of their ‘weed’ status, I enjoy looking out of my studio window at the wall of pink flowers just now.

Hydrangea flowers in my garden.
I have quite a few hydrangea bushes in the garden and these are one of the plants doing perfectly well without any help from me! The flowers will be really lovely shortly once they are in full bloom.

Gardens can be scary too!

While I was outside photographing things today, I found myself being much more wary than normal. Yesterday I was sitting on the back porch having some breakfast and coffee. While watching the butterflies and listening to the birds, some unexpected movement caught my eye.

And there, just a metre or so away from where I sat, was a brown snake wriggling its way across my lawn! I sat there stunned for a moment before hurriedly picking up my bowl and cup and racing inside! It was only about half a metre long, but these are the second deadliest snake in the world, so I doubt the fact that this one was young would have helped much if it decided to get cross with me!

Given the type of garden I have and the fact that it’s not too close to the wilderness (it’s a few minutes walk away), I didn’t imagine there would be snakes lurking around in it. But apparently there are! So from now on I’m going to need to be a lot more careful when outside on warm days – especially when digging around, weeding or moving rocks, which I’ve been doing a lot of lately … eek!

You can find more garden photos on my Flickr – but none of the snake (I didn’t have time to get a shot of it!).

A little journey to Mt Wilson

At this time of year more than any other I tend to be in work mode pretty much non-stop. And then it gets to Christmas and I fall into a heap of exhaustion! Which is not terribly sensible, so this year I’m trying to take a bit more time out during the silly season.


Driving into Mt Wilson

This week I fairly unexpectedly managed to take a little journey not too far from home, but in an area I’d never been to before. My fellow explorer and I were heading for the beautiful Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens which is to the north of where I live (but requires a big semi-circle of a drive to get there!) when we decided to take a little detour to have a quick look at Mt Wilson, a little town which is also part of the Blue Mountains.

And it was wonderful! We felt a bit like we’d arrived in heaven – and we never did get to Mt Tomah in the end.

We meandered around the streets of the very pretty town, spent time exploring the church grounds and tiny cemetery, wandered through the Cathedral of Ferns and even managed a little bushwalk through the wildflowers out to Du Faur’s Rocks lookout where we had a stunning view over the Wollangambe.

So seeing as we had such a lovely, relaxing day at what is normally a completely crazy time of year, I thought I’d share some photos with you.


A number of the graves in the church yard at Mt Wilson have beautiful tiles on top of them – something that definitely caught my attention!


These truly gorgeous little native boronias were dotted all around where we went bushwalking. The subtle scent from them is wonderful! I wanted to bottle it.


Left: View over the Wollangambe from Du Faur’s Rocks lookout, Mt Wilson. Right: Inside the Cathedral of Ferns (which is mostly difficult to photograph well!) at Mt Wilson.


Glimpse of Mt Wilson church seen through the garden along the fence. This lovely little church is made of fibreboard!


Left: Gorgeous waratah flower spotted while bushwalking. These enormous flowers were everywhere in Mt Wilson! Right: Wandering through the ferns. The ones at the bottom were around chest height!

I can’t wait to get back there again for more of a look – and once again feel grateful that I live in an area with such beauty.

There are more photos from our little trip on my Flickr.

Much needed time out

I took a whole day (mostly) away from work yesterday. And I spent part of it walking in the wilderness with a friend. I’ve been struggling with some health issues in the last few days and decided I need to do something inspiring to help me feel a bit better – and as if I’m not just a work machine!

So we headed out for a brief exploration of Butterbox Point near Mount Hay in the Blue Mountains, a few kilometres away from where I live. I’ve been wanting to go to this spot for about a year now after seeing some beautiful photographs of it.


Butterbox Point – also called the Hay Monolith, I believe. To give an idea of scale the cave seen at the base of the rocks to the right is almost as tall as an average room.

To get there requires a relatively slow drive of 15km along a narrow, winding and hilly dirt road, which for about 90% of the way is surrounded by nothing but beautiful wilderness. After a fairly scary (and very slow!) drive along a slippery and uneven section of cliff face, we soon came to the end of the road, with the top of Mount Hay looming in front of us and a walking track heading off into the heath.

Right from where we left the car the views are spectacular, but of course they got better the further we walked. And the landscape surrounding the track is very beautiful. Even on a grey day in winter it looked very pretty and there were plenty of wildflowers – in a couple of months time I imagine the area will be carpeted in them.

We walked out to Butterbox Point which is perched on the edge of the Grose Valley and around to the back of it, where we sat for a while and enjoyed the amazing views down into the huge valley wilderness below. There wasn’t a soul to be seen apart from ourselves and it was very still and quiet, apart from some birds singing.

We pondered a memorial carved into the rock for someone who had died in 1997 and wondered if they really had died at that very spot (the drop into the valley is a few hundred metres from that point and there is no fencing). And then we turned back, feeling that what we could see of the rest of the track was a bit too exposed and covered in a few too many loose rocks to feel especially safe.

So by the time I got home I did feel better. And I’m feeling very keen to go back out there again to do some more serious exploring – and much more serious photo taking (I had my camera on the wrong setting and the photos I did take are mostly terrible!).

Things that make you go ‘hmmm’

At 1am on Saturday morning I found myself standing outside for an hour or so in the near freezing temperature wearing fairly light clothes I’d thrown on in a hurry. Why? Well, I was watching a neighbour’s house burn to the ground in a ball of incredibly fierce, white-hot fire.

I first went outside in my PJs to investigate some strange noises. As I reached my driveway I was confronted with an enormous wall of bright red and yellow – clearly a big fire and very close (just one backyard away). I ran inside and got the phone – and then made myself go outside again to double-check what I’d seen as I couldn’t quite believe it! I called emergency and was told that the fire brigade were already on their way.

The thing that scared me most at first was noticing big embers blowing directly into the huge pine trees right next to my house. Realistically it was probably too cold for them to catch alight, but in the shock of seeing it my first thought was that I needed to evacuate. If it had been summer instead of the middle of winter, that would have been very necessary.

But I calmed down and decided the first priority had to be to go and make sure neighbours were awake, check if anyone was hurt and to find out if there was anything I could do.

A few people were there already when I arrived, including a couple of boys hosing down the roof next door which was very close to going up in flames. The hose was making little difference and the first house was too far gone – just minutes after the fire had started – to be saved. At that stage I could only just make out the shape of the lovely old house through the flames which completely engulfed it.

I asked someone if everyone was okay and she told me that the family who live in the house were away, the people whose house was almost on fire seemed not to be home and the people the other side were away too. There was nothing I could do, other than keep an eye on whether there was any potential for my own place to be seriously at risk.

Finally the fire brigade arrived, much to everyone’s relief as by then the fire inside the front of the house was white hot and there were numerous explosions inside – for a few moments it seemed like the entire front of the house was going to explode. Because the first house was clearly well beyond saving they focused immediately on saving the second one, which thankfully they were able to do.

It took about an hour for the fire people and their five fire trucks to get it under control, by which time a lot more neighbours had woken up to the sound of sirens and had come outside into the cold with stunned looks on their faces.

By the time the fire was controlled there was nothing much left of the house. The frame had collapsed and burnt. When I went back in daylight the next morning to have a look it’s clear that the owners have lost everything, apart from their picket fence which is still standing there as if nothing has happened. At the front where the fire was most intense there’s just a blackened rectangle on the ground to indicate that there was ever a room there.

So it’s been making me think a lot about possessions and what they really mean. And about risk and that sort of thing too. I live in a similar wood-framed house and it was stunning to see just how fast, fiercely and completely such a house can burn. Also I know that the first neighbour to call emergency did so only a minute or two after the fire started, yet the house was still entirely lost.

But also it’s been making me think about chance. It’s incredibly lucky that the family were away – it was late at night and they have young children, so its hard to know if they would have made it out safely. And it’s also very lucky for everyone nearby that this didn’t happen in summer. That part of the street is considered ‘indefensible’ in a bushfire and all of the houses and trees nearby could have easily gone up in different weather conditions – including my place with the wind blowing in the same direction.

The other thing I have been giving some thought to is that based on what witnesses told the police on the night, the fire was considered to be suspicious. If that’s backed up by other evidence, it’s definitely a cause for concern. It makes me glad I go to bed so late and that I have so many external doors to my home!

Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is that everyone should be in some way prepared for something like this just in case. I’ve given a lot of thought as to what to do if there are bushfires threatening my town, but not so much to a regular house fire. It’s something I’ll be thinking more about now.

Time out in the Blue Mountains

Bridal Veil Falls at Govett's Leap.I have to confess that I basically suck when it comes to taking time out!

But living in the Blue Mountains is definitely helping to motivate me in that regard as it’s easy for me to head off for beautiful walks or to take in gorgeous views or to explore a town I’ve not really looked at before.

Today was one of those days when I felt inspired to take some time out to enjoy a perfect blue sky day with incredibly crisp, fresh air (which is also very cold!).

After a pleasant breakfast I headed up to Blackheath – a few towns further up the Mountains from where I live – to go to Govett’s Leap lookout and take in the spectacular view over the huge Grose Valley, including of the very pretty Bridal Veil Falls.

There were a handful of people there from all over the world taking it in with me and it made me happy to think that I can come and enjoy it whenever I like!

Govett's Leap view over Pulpit Rock, Mt Hay and Butterbox Point.
View over one of the labyrinth-type areas of the Grose Valley, taking in Pulpit Rock, Mount Hay and (I think!) Butterbox Point where I plan to go walking very soon.

I took a few photos, gazed at the view for ages, took in lots of fresh air, wandered to different spots around the lookout and wished I was wearing my walking shoes to do a bit more exploring (next time!).

Now I’m home again I thought I’d share what I enjoyed.

Plants clinging to the cliff top at Govett's Leap.
Remnants of some flowers clinging to the top of the cliff.

To give an idea of scale, you have to remember that the carpet of green in the valley is made up of full size (ie. very tall!) gum trees. The tops of the cliffs can be up to 500 metres above the bottom of the valley floor.

Grose Valley view with Bridal Veil Falls to the right.
Grose Valley view with Bridal Veil Falls to the right.

I’ve got more photos from today and lots of other photos from the Blue Mountains in my Flickr if you’d like to see more.

The weather!

Oh yes, I’m going to blog about the weather. But with good reason!

Big hailstone picked up next to my front door.
This big hailstone is one I picked up next to my front door – there were bigger ones but it was dangerous to go out and get them. I got bruises just from trying to cover my car!

In recent weeks the weather has been taking up an enormous amount of time and headspace as I clean up puddles of water inside my house, strategically place containers to collect drips also inside, deal with damage from enormous hailstones (including to my new car … excellent), deal with the real estate agents re the leaks and doors and windows that no longer open and close properly … and generally cower in fear wondering when the ceilings will collapse or the roof will fall apart!

It really has been that bad where I live. Despite being the middle of summer – and what we were warned would be a long, very dry and dangerously fire-prone season. Instead it has rained and rained and rained, stormed and stormed and stormed.

View of the rain from my front door.This has been going on since Christmas, but in the last fortnight has been unbelievably bad. People who have lived in this area for 30 years or more say they’ve never seen anything like it.

Nearby there have been mudslides and rock falls closing roads and train lines – there was even a train derailed. A house not far away had lightning come through a window and set curtains on fire! A gas pipe exploded after being hit by lightning as well. There have been many fallen trees, dirt roads (there are plenty of those around here) have fallen apart and sealed roads now have enormous potholes in them. Then there are all of the car accidents, power outages and other issues!

On the upside, drought conditions are suddenly looking better and our dams have had an enormous amount of desperately needed water go into them. And my garden looks greener than it did at the end of winter!

But all up it’s been very disruptive and there appears to be more to come, starting this very afternoon.

In addition I’ve been dealing with a few issues to do with my housing situation, which is currently less than happy. I’m working on sorting that out at the moment, which is also fairly disruptive.

I am getting orders out generally within the usual timeframe, unless the weather is so severe I can’t risk going out or if the power is out at the post office! However, I am a bit slow on the communications front at the moment, so please bear with me.

In the garden

Grevillea flower.Today I took some photographs in my garden – part of researching for new jewellery designs, but also just because the flowers are so beautiful now that spring is in full swing. So I thought I’d share some of them.

Not sure which – if any – will make it into new handmade jewellery pieces, but you never know! The garden here is certainly inspiring, but so is the national park at the end of my street, where I go walking regularly. I’ve been taking plenty of photos of plants in there too.

You can find more on my Flickr.

Cornflower.
tea-tree
nasturtium
Chive flower
pinks

Little inspirations

One of the things I’m particularly enjoying (and planning to make use of!) about my new location is all of the little inspirations I’m finding in nature up here in the Blue Mountains.

Snowflake flowers from my garden.

Whether it be in my fairly densely planted cottage garden or out walking in the national park, there certainly are a lot of them. Also nature seems to constantly evolve fairly dramatically here as the year moves forward, at the moment most notably in terms of flowers, with some disappearing and new ones appearing.

Yellow flowers in the national park.

At some point soon I’m hoping to start working on some handmade jewellery designs incorporating some inspiration gleaned from my new surroundings.

Australian native - a seedpod of some sort I assume.

So I thought I’d share just a few little inspirations with you. You can find more from the area on my Flickr – including from a long (and exhausting!) walk we took last weekend through some gorgeous rainforest in a ravine not far from home.

Back to the studio

Finally last weekend (which was a long one in Australia) I was able to get back to my jewellery bench, now set up in the studio space in my new home.

Sterling silver blossoms

I spent the weekend completing an order for the National Portrait Gallery shop in Canberra, along with making some urgently needed jewellery for my own supplies seeing as I’ve been badly running out of the jewellery in my shops.

Above are just a few of the little silver blossoms I cut out in sterling silver on the weekend. Each of them were then soaked to remove the paper (with the shape drawn on it), sanded, filed, tumbled and then finally turned into finished jewellery which was then tumbled again.

I seem to spend half of my life making these little blossoms as they form some of the most popular jewellery pieces I sell, so it was no surprise to spend my first weekend of making since moving doing yet more of them!

My jewellery studio.

As for how my new studio is working out, well so far so good! The space is almost fully set up, but there are a few loose ends to tidy up.

The only issue I found on the weekend was that the three large windows let in so much light (in spite of the room being painted so dark) that heating or soldering metal can be difficult because I can’t see what I’m doing! All I need to do is remember to pull a blind or two down before I start and it’s fine, however.

This is not going to be set up as my ‘dream studio’ seeing as I’m still renting and things like fume extraction, heavy equipment which should be bolted to the floor or heavy furniture, etc. are currently out of the question. But soon enough I hope to be working towards just that!

A time for change

I have now moved in to my Blue Mountains cottage with its very pretty garden. There is still a lot of organising to do after the big move, but at least all of the boxes are unpacked and the rooms are each generally serving their intended function.

Flowers from my Blue Mountains garden.
Flowers from my garden.

I feel this is a much-needed fresh start for me in a new place. It remains to be seen how it goes as I settle in and become accustomed to a very different environment to the city.

In the spirit of a time of change I’ve also taken another big step this week, which is to resign from my four day per week job with an organisation I’ve been working for in some capacity for over a decade now. I will be continuing a relationship with them by way of a limited amount of contract work, but this still means I will finally be fully self-employed: something I’ve been working towards for years now.

So it also remains to be seen how that goes! It is a risk, especially given the current economic climate. But I feel that for me the time is right. I very much needed to change how I work and ideally work for fewer hours per week while still bringing in enough income to make ends meet and build a future – something that’s hard to do when working for a tiny non-profit organisation with a huge workload and minimal resources.

As for what I’ll be doing with the freed up time, well there are so many things I could be doing. Every year a myriad of opportunities come my way in relation to my handmade jewellery business as well as the other side of my career – web design and production. Much of the time I’m so busy I struggle to find the time to even get back to people to say I can’t do the work! Hopefully from here on in that will change and I can actually make something of many of these opportunities.

Finally, if you’re interested in seeing my new abode (or at least how it was before I moved in), there are some photographs on my Flickr. Once I feel a bit more sorted out I’ll take some more photos of how it looks now.

Handmade jewellery on the move

Photograph of rose ring.As mentioned in previous blog posts, I’m moving home and heading for the hills.

But it’s not just my personal life that is being impacted by the move as I am also moving my studio and my office, given that I work from home.

So if you’re considering purchasing handmade jewellery from me in the near future, please be aware that currently all items listed in all of my shops are in stock. However, it may take me two to three business days to post your order, particularly between 9 and 18 May.

Also I am now in the process of packing up my studio. This means that if any items are sold out they are unlikely to be remade for several weeks – it’s better to get in quick than risking the item you want being out of stock later.

I am now also unable to undertake any custom work, beyond changing the length and colour of necklaces as indicated in some of my jewellery listings.

But the good news for customers is that when I’m finally set up in my new home I should have two much more functional working spaces, which I’m hoping will lead to being much more efficient. And I’m very much looking forward to being inspired by my beautiful new garden and surroundings!

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