My Bright Field

Another stunning image from Katoomba Street Art Walk. Participating in  Sami's Colourfulworld Monday Murals .

OK a book doesn't belong on the window sill but it was a way of combining this week's book with a view of the flowering cherry outside the window. A book I have read recently Having read the Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood  very recently  even though it was written 30+ years ago, it was a surprise to find a sequel has just been released with much fanfare. It was a good read but for me lacked the power of the original. It left me wondering whether I really needed it.  I liked the inconclusive ending of the first book and I am not sure I was ready for the redemption of the terrifying Aunt Lydia in this one.

The crab apple down the back garden at Burnbrae is looking gorgeous at the moment.  I did the first mow for the season yesterday and also took advantage of the recent rain to pull weeds while the soil is still soft.  At the moment the whole garden is lush and green with the trees dressing themselves in leaves again. I am keen to get out to Kandos soon to see how things are going out there.

As promised I went up to Katoomba Street Art Walk on the weekend to capture some more of the beautiful images.  This one by Brazilian Muralist L7M is my favourite. Participating in  Sami's Colourfulworld Monday Murals .

Bird watching in the city takes a totally different perspective.

Even though we had the best part of a week in Sydney the most exciting thing we did was catch the new Metro train.  It has a very different seating configuration ... reminds me of the London Tube. I noticed one thing of real difference from the country is the number of mirrors in the city.  They are everywhere, in lifts, in shops, reflections in building glass, wardrobe doors.  All of them showing my full length profile with nowhere to hide and convince myself I am not putting on weight.  Crikey, at the hotel there was a full length mirror opposite the clear glass of the shower ... not an encouraging sight.

I spotted this cute little street library near the eye hospital. A book I have been reading recently I borrowed from our local library the book Wanting by Richard Flanagan - another one from the Australian list. I found it a bit hard going, the characters just didn't engage me.  Anyway, I decided to give it one last chance and packed it in my handbag to read on the train when we went down for Sydney for some pre-op tests. I got to the station and found the book wasn't in my handbag.  I got home and it wasn't on the table. I searched the house, searched the car, even looked in the fridge!  In the end I decided I was just going to have to pay the fine. I checked the library website tonight and find it is no longer signed out to me. I must have dropped it and some kind person has returned it to the library ... hooray.  I won't be reborrowing it.

My husband had an eye operation last week and the doctor said we should not return to the mountains altitude for 3-4 days so we were stuck in Sydney just as our mountain garden was beginning to unfold its spring display. We are home now and spring is being typically fickle with 20+C one day and snow the next. We found the trees looking a little bowed down with rain. See how green the grass in the background is. The rain is very welcome but I understand that very little (if any) has made its way over the mountains to the west so I guess our Kandos garden is still sad and brown.

Things are springing along on our gardens, we have even had a welcome sprinkle of rain recently. Spring is behaving in its normal fickle way - warm and wonderful one day and cold the next. At Kandos some of the fruit trees are blossoming, freesias are starting to flower, as are sweet peas, poppies and other spring bulbs.  The roses are also shooting out leaves. In the mountains the daffodils are nearing their end, camellias are still powering along, the maple leaves are unfurling, the crab apple trees are building up their buds and the cherry blossom is still a little while away.

Windermere Dam has actually gone down only a further .5% since my last photo  but at this tail end of the lake the signs of the continuing dry are showing.

This is the "lawn" at Rose Orchard Haus (Kandos) as it is today.  I wonder how long it will be before I am complaining about having to mow it.

Today I am participating in the City Daily Photo theme day .  Thinking of Red in this part of the world it's hard to go past the beautiful plumage of King Parrots. And in the forest majestic red Waratah flowers will be coming out soon.