Spring Day in The Bush

What a wonderful spring day last Sunday. Father’s day and my son took me and his three kids (my grandkids) to the Muogamarra Nature Reserve. The word “M..” is Aboriginal for “preserve for the future”. The reserve is only open for 6 weekends a year at the start of spring and the wild-flowers there are spectacular. Here are some of the many Waratahs just bursting into bloom

And here are some of my favourites: the Eriostomon Australis (the local wax flower)- beautiful soft pink blooms; and the Gompholobium Latifolium… you can just taste the rich sensual yellow of this flower as you say the word… the mouth almost bursts as you try to fit in the syllables (GOM-PHO-LOB_I_UM!!!)…. this amazing yellow pea flower starts out as a little black spot and then on warm spring days it just B ___U___R____S____T_____S into a riot of yellow excess (double-click the picture twice for a full-screen close-up):

And here is my eldest grandson Alexander (pandy/pandy) excited by the fact that his grandfather has just asked him to try to say the word “Gompholobium”- next to which he is standing!

And here are the three grandkids (Alexander, Josh and Leeara) with their father, David, who has just done a backward flip into the prickly bush:

And here is the crew, complete with 16 year old daughter Helen… who came into the bush with us today too….

What you see in the background here are the upper reaches of the Hawksbury river going all the way up to Wiseman’s Ferry (Solomon Wiseman’s country)- about whom we have been reading in “The Secret River”….
By the way if you want to go to Muogamarra then you travel along the old Pacific Highway through Cowan and it is just before you get to the road-side cafe called “Pie in the Sky”… a bikie hang-out… great day… it will be open for 3 more weekends this year….
MG