Out here in the boondocks, all it takes is a couple of days' sunshine and we're assailed with massed lawnmowers, whippersnippers, and hedge trimmers roaring, revving and farting in glorious surround sound. Of course, the Corner Cottage versions of these tools are all electric -- if all of Braidwood went the same way, we'd reach …
The old saying, "one swallow does not a summer make" is undoubtedly true. You'd think so, too, given that it can be traced back to Aristotle, pretty much the father of western thought. Or possibly another even earlier ancient sage. The point of the proverb is that a single instance of a phenomenon doesn't necessarily …
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 …
Let it not be said that this blog confines itself to a narrow, repetitive series of topics. Or if you must say it, don’t say it around me, because sometimes it’s quite difficult to come up with fresh material. Then again, returning to certain themes or motifs is the mark of a writer with conviction …
It seems about time to relieve the tension, release you all from those tenterhooks, and deliver an update on the whole butterfly situation. When last the lepidoptera featured here, it was with some frustration that I had to report complete failure in fashioning a lure to bring the district’s butterflies flocking to the Corner Cottage …
If you’re coming here for words of wisdom – and who could blame you if you are – I have a doozy for you today. And that is that nature moves fast. Now I’ll be the first to concede that this message has been subtly embedded in a lot of the stuff that passes for …
Call me butter 'cause I’m on a roll . . . The bird-feeder project that started a few days ago as a swift piece of DIY using odds and ends of this and that found here and there is now assuming the epic proportions of an Amish barn-raising. Once again, the rabbit-hole principle rears its …
Seems our celebrating the arrival of spring over the weekend was a few days premature – yes, the weather is still full-bore spring, but today is the official first day of the season. So what does it all mean? To be honest, for my first quarter-century or so, I didn’t really have much of an …
It’s been a while since I’ve been on the tools, mainly due to the weather -- all that cold, rain and mud aren’t conducive to outdoor exertions. But there’s been a particular task weighing on the old mind and today was the day allotted to completing it. Remember the weeds in our lawn? Well, both …
Living out here in the NSW country, free of the rigid limits of that 9-5, five days a week existence, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between the days. That’s really OK, most of the time, but sometimes you do wake up in the morning and struggle to remember whether it’s a weekend or not. …
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