If there's one thing you get used to by the time you reach my ripe old age, it's being making errors. Being mistaken, getting the wrong end of the stick, failure to comprehend -- I've had a wealth of opportunities to do all these things. Let's avoid all the truisms about failure being the path …
You can't spend too much time away from a Willie Wagtail's brood because by God, they grow up fast. It's five days since we noted the joyful arrival of the chicks -- and scrawny, bald and unappealing little scraps they were, too. So we took a turn down to Commonwood this lunchtime to catch up …
'Tis the season to procreate, and once again the flora and fauna of Braidwood and surrounds is having at it with gusto. We've been fortunate to witness the courtship and subsequent shacking-up of a number of feathery species, and rather late in the day, it occurred to me that this would make interesting 'content' (to …
I'm sure I've mentioned previously that one of the great hazards to Australian cyclists is the swooping Magpie. The males do this to protect their nest when their eggs have been laid. In other words, in spring. In other other words, now. And if you look at that beak, you can see why being subject …
There’s an age-old question that has taxed the minds of history’s greatest thinkers: who would win in a fight between a bear and a gorilla? (Or endless variations thereof). Well, we had our own version last week at Corner Cottage – and it’s done nothing to satisfy that ancient question. I may have mentioned in …
It started in the spring this year: we’d had a long and rather turbulent winter, with the stressful move from Canberra to Braidwood where Corner Cottage was sitting empty and neglected. The garden was wild: a protracted drought and very little care had left it forlorn and weed-infested – but it fascinated me. Venturing down …
Traversing the King’s Highway on a routine Canberra run today, I was suddenly seized with a sense of desperation. Maybe because on the last day of the school hols for many, the road was chokka with utes towing caravans and boats, impatient overtakers risking life and limb to gain a few seconds’ advantage, and highway …
You know, I’ve never really gone in for new year’s resolutions. Call me old-school, but there seems to be little point to making pronouncements about some kind of commitment that you’ll break within a week or two. Yes, you may be shamed into sticking to it a bit longer if you’ve told the world your …
Now that the left-over turkey has been consumed, the decorations are looking a bit last year, and the dyspepsia has rendered us regretful and peevish, let’s talk something basic: something fundamental, grounded, in touch with the very earth that bore us. Let’s talk boots again. Being here in Braidwood where men are manly, work is …
Well, with the holidays upon us and peace and goodwill reigning all around, it seemed a great opportunity to post up a short meditation on something meaningful. I did think about bashing out one of those deliberations on the true meaning of Christmas, but we were too busy eating and getting drunk to really focus …
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