Blue Mountains Journal

I rather liked this shot I got of an adult King Parrot last week. Even though he isn't doing anything he is looking very impressive.

Meet Megan one of our attendants on the Great Southern Rail train The Overland which runs from Melbourne (current tennis mad because of  the Aussie Open) to Adelaide. Rolling along a railway track through gold, wheat and sheep country reading the recently published anthology  The Words that Made Australia - How a Nation Came to Know Itself  seemed like a pretty nice way to spend the day to me ...  up there with the best of them. Celebrate Australia day with others in the CDP community here.

Following on from my Festival of the Belly Button post I am trying to capture more action in the birds. This is a juvenile King Parrot.  The whole family was visiting the cherry tree this morning.

Shooting club I was surprised to find a shooting club at the end of the road. That's it for this road.  The next one Forty Bends Road is at the foot of the mountains in the west. I will be showing it over at Sweet Wayfaring .

Bushland I was not at all surprised to find that the road ended in bushland.  Most roads in the mountains do.

Older home Not all of the homes in the street are modern.  Some have a very nice art deco type of charm.

New Year's resolution I've noticed a lot of walkers out and about recently.  I've already reneged on my plan to do some work in the garden each day ... how about you?

Waiting for the heat wave Our love of winter snow and icicles for Christmas is rather amusing, given the intensity of the recent heat wave.

Modern home This home has something increasingly found on Australian homes ... solar panels on the roof.

Summer flowers in Bee Farm Road Those who follow my Sweet Wayfaring blog will know I have started a new project in 2013 .  Each weekend, wherever I am, I will choose the road that beckons simply because of its name.  Sometimes I will be in the mountains and post here other times I will be further afield and post over at Sweet Wayfaring. So we found ourselves in Springwood, one of the mountains more substantial towns. Looking at the map the roads that beckoned were Picnic Glen and Bee Farm Road ... I settled on Bee Farm Road where I found a rather pretty and quite typical suburban street with summer gardens in flower but I didn't find a single bee or a farm.  Come walk it with me to see what I did discover.

x Silver Eye June 2007 Red Whiskered Bulbul November 2012 I am fascinated by the birds that frequent our garden and fortunate to be able to photograph them through the windows of our home.  In the beginning the main challenge was getting the camera to focus on the subject rather than the leaves. Since then I have learnt several things 1. To get shots with a less distracting background 2. The importance of the birds eye being clear in the image 3. To value of a bigger lens 4. Knowing their calls so I can jump up from my desk and be ready for shot. I still have a long way to go. One thing I know is that birds doing things make more interesting photos than still shots. I am going to work on that. Eastern Spinebill September 2011