Winter is upon us! But the Bush is still a fabulous place to enter…

Made it to the top of the ridge above Galston, early on Saturday morning. The air was fresh and there were beautifully icy mists swirling up from the Gorge to the valley tops (click on all images to get stunning resolutions): 

On the ridge tops there was an amazing array of winter flowering plant life: Hakea Sericea, Banksias of all kinds,Lambertia Formosas. So this is Sydney where winter is filled with spring flowers!

But the most exciting find was the scarlet Grevillea Punicea, there was a whole area filled with these brilliant rider spider flowers, here striking against a background of “port wine” Banksias:

The scribbly gums all along the top of the ridge are miraculous, both in the colour and texture of their bark and in the extraordinary way they survive being burnt: twisted shells of trunks intertwine and create swivelling art works still pulsing with life:

And on the way down again to Galston Gorge itself the mist has wreathed all the thousands of spiders webs in the hakeas and the she oaks, bringing their existence into focus:

Now we have reached down to the level of the Gorge as it twists its way towards Crosslands and Berowra Waters….