Posted in Nepean High School, Riverside Rd, tagged Blue Mountains, East Blaxland, family embarrassment, Fire Trail walk, Old Bathurst Rd on December 18, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Fire trail, nature walk
Winding up the mountain
Emerging at East Blaxland.
Follow regular road back down
Through residential zone
Down steep sharp curves of Old Bathurst Road.
Reports back to Mum.
Spied your son walking Old Bathurst Road,
Dressed to lead a funeral procession.
Love my hat, cane, & coat.
Wearing my hat, someone poking me with my cane, … that’s a different coat (my robe chinoiserie)
Posted in Nepean High School, Riverside Rd, tagged Blue Mountains, Drive, Jamieson Valley, Katoomba, Paragon Cafe, Protected, Scenic Railway on December 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »
The World’s Steepest Railway
Lazy Sunday, friends together.
Trip west, Katoomba,
Take the steep rail
Into the valley
Some warming alcohol.
Recovery refreshments at The Paragon.
Drive home, the Great Western Highway
Winding its way, eastward, downward.
In winter – fog in the air & ice on the ground.
Treacherous.
Safely home – protected, once again!!
The Paragon Cafe Katoomba
Posted in Nepean High School, Riverside Rd, tagged Bellbirds, Blue Metal, Blue Mountains, Emu Heights, Emu Plains, Gravel, Nepean River, Quarries on November 11, 2012| 1 Comment »
Moving …
Across the River
Emu Plain’s northern extreme.
River winds around to meet Blue Mountains
Our new home.
Riverfront & on mountain slope.
On the mountain slopes, banks of the Nepean and land stretching out to the East.
Isolated.
Silent – save bellbirds & ducks.
Dirt bush road.
Solo neighbour.
Looking east, beyond blue metal & gravel quarries,
Flat fertile land stretches away
To distant suburban then urban landscapes.
Posted in 138 Station St, Nepean High School, tagged Blue Mountains, cinema, Glenbrook Theatre, hippies, Richie Havens, Woodstock on October 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Glenbrook Theatre
Small cinema, small Blue Mountains village.
Unprecedented crowds in
Numbers & character.
No seats, bring cushions,
Cinema floor fills with
Young people relaxed, colourfully robed,
Atmosphere aromatic, communal, sharing.
We are here, now, together
Absorbing 3 hours of sound & vision
Hoping for our piece of 3 Days of Peace & Music.
Extra:
There’s so much extra I could put in here but I can recall being unexpectedly stunned by the opening performance.
Posted in 138 Station St, Nepean High School, tagged Blue Mountains, Canned Heat, Hitchhiking, On The Road, On The Road Again, Penrith region on September 6, 2012| 2 Comments »
The challenge of teenage transport.
Local area is big
From Warragamba to Warrimoo; Castlereagh to Cambridge Park.
Walking, cycling – distances prohibitive.
Too young to drive
Public transport spasmodic, non-existant
Parental transport ok … sometimes.
Sometimes unavailable, sometimes undesirable!
Only real independent transportation
Romanticising, imagining
On The Road adventure:
Hitchhiking.
Mum frowns.
Extra:
* This song reminds me of hitch-hiking around the Penrith/Blue Mountains/Warragamba region. I think I must have sung it while pointing the finger towards my destination … I don’t think I ever used (or ever saw used) a thumb to “thumb a ride”, it was always the index finger.
What about Al “Blind Owl” Wilson’s voice … and the harp playing from “The Bear”.
Posted in 138 Station St, Nepean High School, tagged Blue Mountains, bushfires, care, empathy on June 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Sky blackened by by smoke
Mountains glowing
Glowering.
Raining charred gum leaves.
The heat is oppressive
The atmosphere chilling
Eerie.
Everyone silent or sobbing or
Silently sobbing.
A rare sense of unity, care, emerges
Perhaps the flaming mountain,
A common enemy unites factions.
The bells ring, many can’t go home.
Posted in 138 Station St, Nepean High School, tagged Blue Mountains, Glenbrook, school transport, train tunnel, trains on June 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Another exit after final bell
Across the fields
To Emu Plains Station.
The Mountains kids
File across the fields,
Orderly and civilised …
compared to the kids on buses, headed across the river.
Civilised until …
The Tunnel.*
Where demons get released.
I hear The Tales of the Tunnel
Forbidding and fascinating.
Note:
* Between Lapstone and Glenbrook the train passed through the tunnel.
365 Short Memories 