Music magic

If you've been to the Oregon Bach Festival, you know that magic happens pretty regularly during the Festival's two-week run. Now I've added the  three-day folk/blues/roots festival in the Blue Mountains of Australia as another place of music magic. What a venue! Imagine a town half the size of Ashland and twice the altitude: Katoomba is at 3,336 feet with a population of about 10,000. Place 10 stages into every nook and cranny of the hilly town, indoors or out under tents, and invite 45 soloists and groups, and be prepared for some wonderful music-making. It was cool and rainy or misty by turns, so Sydneysiders and performers from the Seychelles and Africa were whingeing about the cold, but the guest artists from Scotland were as happy as sheep in the rain. The many ops shops (used clothing stores) were selling out of hats, scarves, polar fleece and mittens by mid-day on Saturday.

I volunteered for the festival (I can't work for money on my visa for Oz) and was lucky to be partnered with a young woman from Katoomba. We managed the blues stage in the local RSL club (Retired Service League) for two days, indoors, thank you. The last day we drew one of the outdoor stages but the music kept us more than warm. Music ran from world music to jazz, blues to folk, funk to fusion, rock to country.

The best magic moment for me was on Sunday when John McCutcheon took the stage with his collection of stringed instruments, his sense of humor and his spontaneity. You may not be familiar with John's music, but you know at least one of his songs, the kindy anthem, as he calls it. I think every kindergarten graduation has featured this song, The Kindergarten Wall. Here's part of it:

When I was a little kid not so long ago
I had to learn a lot of stuff I didn't even know
How to dress myself, tie my shoes, how to jump a rope
How to smile for a picture without looking like a dope
But of all the things I learned my favorite of them all
Was a little poem hanging on the kindergarten wall
    CHORUS:
Of all you learn here remember this the best:
Don't hurt each other and clean up your mess
Take a nap everyday, wash before you eat
Hold hands, stick together, look before you cross the street
And remember the seed in the little paper cup:
First the root goes down and then the plant grows up!

John had no more begun the first four words of the verse when three Year Four girls in the front row piped up with all the words and the tune. He called them up on the stage, Stella, Grace and Jeanette, and they sang right along, all the verses, all the chorus, word perfect. He was delighted, we were all delighted, parents were delighted, flash cameras were popping off like popcorn. They called themselves "The Johnettes" and after the concert while having a proper meet and greet with John, told him that their music teacher at Katoomba Public School taught them the song and the whole school knew it. The girls had been hanging out at the festival venues all weekend in hopes of meeting John.

More magic with Dougie MacLean, my favorite Scottish singer/songwriter, who put on three shows during the weekend, the last of which was just perfect. Especially because I got to be stage manager for that one! John wanted Dougie to come up for a number; they rehearsed it for about two minutues backstage and it too was just right. Dougie then took another two minutes to get Josh White Jr in on the tune, and away they went.

I know there were some all-night sessions after the scheduled concerts, as is usual at festivals, but I was way too tired at the end of my days to enjoy those sessions too.

I stayed at the YHA Katoomba hostel, another of Australia's fine youth hostels. Because of the festival, there were a varied bunch of guests: concert goers ages 20 to 80, families, and young backpackers all mingling happily in the big, clean kitchen and relaxing in the art-deco lounge. The only potentially unhappy campers were the folks who were going to participate in the Six-Foot Track Marathon along the 45 kilometers of the Blue Mountains trail early Saturday morning. Late-night blues jams don't mix with early-morning marathoners. Ooops. Pays to check out what else might be going on if you want a peaceful night at a youth hostel! I, on the other hand, can't wait till next year...I'll come back to this festival.

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More heat downunder

As if it's not hot enough some days, a glass bead making studio where students work on flaming torches can up the temp even more. I've always wanted to make my own glass beads for jewelry, so when I found Goglass studio near me in Newport, I figured it was time to learn. It's been terrific! The artist/instructor is called Gail too, so even better. She's a gifted artist and teacher.

She has taught us how to take rods of Italian glass, heat them in the flames of a dual-head torch, and form beads. There are amazing beads just lying around the studio, ones Gail has done, or other students' creations. Any one of them would make a great piece of jewelry.

I am still coping with trying to keep things reasonably round but it has been great fun to learn. Students keep their beads on wire stringers, so they can see how they've progressed.

My string isn't too fabulous, but Abby thinks they're fine. We go over them after each session to see which ones she likes best.  I seem to be leaning towards the blue end of the color spectrum. Only two more sessions before I return to the US.

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A quick bushwalk, some cheetahs, oh, and one last botanic garden

Ku-ring-gai National Park is very close to our house so it makes a great place for a quick bushwalk, with the hope of some kangy sighting. On a muggy gray afternoon, Donna, Dan, Jack & I walked through the Kalkiri Discovery Center with just that hope. Although we had fun spotting other flora and fauna, no kangies were going to show themselves this day.

I thought this was a genteel way to urge visitors to stay on the track, not wander off into the scrub.

The bloom on the left, perhaps a Catherine Wheel, is from one of the grevillea group, a huge bunch of Australian native trees and shrubs. The big bloom on the right is definitely one of the banksia group. The banksia leaves all look as if they've been carefully trimmed with pinking shears, or for the more current description, a scrapbooking fancy scissors.

 

 In Dubbo, in the center of New South Wales, we took time for the Toronga Western Plains Zoo, a division of the Toronga Zoo near Sydney. It is a drive-through zoo, spread over a huge area, but drivers can stop and park their cars at different animal groups; the animals are in huge paddocks. Visitors can also rent golf carts to zip around the drive. On weekend mornings, intrepid volunteers lead walking tours through the zoo, starting at 630am, a great way to go behind the scenes. Our group leader was really great and after our three-hour walk, we had a chance to sit over a cup of tea with her, her husband and another volunteer and visit about the zoo and Australian life in general.

Donna had a chance to talk with the passionate cheetah keeper and an up-close look at the zoo's two teenage cheetahs. The zoo has a very successful breeding program.

The meerkats at WPZ aren't as numerous as other zoos I've visited, but as always, their antics and social life are wonderful to see. Graceful native black swans have made their home in the ponds at the zoo; our morning guide told us that many native species are returning to the area as the zoo has increased appropriate habitat. The focus on conservation is a given these days in Australia.

Among the native vegetation is the native Australian iris, found mostly in delicate cream colors. For my taste, they are just right, not the overblown look of the bearded iris we see in the US.

All in all, WPZ is worth a trip from Sydney. The Roar and Snore overnight program puts campers in tents near the main pond the zoo for a fun night. Wish I'd thought of it. Our motel in Dubbo was pretty basic and I think the zoo would have been heaps more fun!

OK, one last garden, the Hunter Region Botanic Garden at the mouth of the Hunter Valley, the wine growing region north of Sydney. It was really too hot to think about visiting a vineyard, and I was driving anyway, so we had a look in at the garden instead. Maintained by volunteers, the garden is a showcase of regional native plants. Thank goodness no snakes were on the tracks the morning we went. It was blistering hot, hovering around 100F and very muggy.

The cactus garden is new since my last visit, and very well done.

Aside from the vicious and totally relentless mozzies, the only moving wildlife we saw was this great stick bug. It was a pleasure to escape into the screened cafe for a refreshing devonshire tea.

By the time we got to Denman, at the head of the Hunter Valley, there was definitely no desire to head into the heat for wine tasting. We settled for a nice long soak in the motel pool, and the next morning, a stop at Pulkara Olive Groves where we bought some fun food items.

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Move over, Jamie

I went to a talk on eco-friendly backyards the other night; guest speaker Jamie Durie was up on the soapbox I've been on for a while, so we'll share the space! Jamie is an Aussie telly presenter who worked on Backyard Blitz downunder and is now seen in the US on Victory Garden and The Outdoor Room. Attendees pretty well filled the room at the Long Reef Golf Course, which has a view out over the beach; all the floor-to-ceiling windows were open to let in the gentle evening breeze and the sound of the waves. He mentioned that only a few years ago there would have been four or five people there; two of them would have been Seja and me! Jamie showed slides of some cutting-edge rooftop and vertical gardens, then went on to focus on local issues. I loved his message! Get rid of water-guzzling, fertilizer-gulping lawns; plant natives or site-appropriate exotics; harvest rainwater with a tank; reduce or eliminate the use of chemicals in the garden; grow your own food and compost kitchen scraps, all for starters. As he says, have a think about what you're doing in your garden space, whether it is an apartment balcony or a suburban yard. He pounded home the history of bad horticultural choices made in the early years of Australia's foundation, when English flora were planted at the expense of native vegetation. We pay the price for this folly today as Australia faces a terrible problem with salinization of former bushland; the native vegetation kept the balance and introduced species cannot. If you have to constantly feed it, pamper it and amend the soil around it, perhaps it's the wrong plant for the site in your garden.

The National Botanic Garden in Canberra is very focused on the issues of appropriate vegetation and preservation of native flora, so I was interested in how the Royal Botanic Garden at Mt Annan would present the message. It is on the way to being a showcase of Australian flora, presently displaying around 4,000 of the 25,000 known plant species of the continent. Planners are re-designing many of the spaces to encourage home gardeners to use available plant materials in their own gardens.

 

This acacia, for example, is easy to grow, available in nurseries, and can replace introduced species in the home garden. The blooms are delicate and a magnet for native birds and small marsupials.

There's no need to rely on English imports to give that coveted "English cottage garden" look. Native Australians can do the job perfectly! The gnome is waiting patiently for the area around his bench to be filled in.

Eucalypts inhabit almost every flora niche in Australia. Their dainty blossoms and interesting nuts are food  for a myriad of birds and animals. One is the citronella gum, and walking under it on a warm day is to be enveloped in a delicate lemon frangrance. Oh, and the mozzies won't get you under there either.

There are squillions (a very scientific measure) of bottlebrush varieties in Australia as well. Tough as can be, and there's bound to be one that suits any garden. It will attract Australia's flying flower, the lorrikeet, in huge numbers when it blooms. The birds absolutely savage the blossoms to get at the honey at the base of each flower, squawking their joy in the feast. You may not be able to see the birds at first, but you can certainly hear them.

Who wouldn't want one of these lovely shrubs in a garden? It's bound to nearly take care of itself, sip (not guzzle) water, and delight the gardener with blooms about 8" across.

I adore whimsy in a garden, and Mt Annan did not disappoint. This is actually a dead blue gum, but not its true color. Gardeners painted it blue so it would be visible from afar. The lesson is that in the bush environment, dead snags are wildlife havens, where birds & mammals can nest in safety and are necessary for a balanced landscape. Good fun!

The garden covers a huge area, 410 hectares (1013 acres) and is an amazing space for native species. Visitors can drive their cars through the gardens, like at Wildlife Safari, only here the displays stand still. There are also tracks through the bushland for the more hardy visitors. Most impressive!

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Fitzroy Falls

There's been a massive amount of rain over New South Wales this summer, thank goodness, and it makes for some spectacular falls runnng in spate. Donna and I made a stop in the Morton National Park to have a look at Fitzroy Falls, just one of the many falls in the Southern Highlands. Even though the hills of the Southern Highlands have the look of the Coburg Hills about them, there are surprising escarpments over which amazing falls leap to the bottom of a heavily forested canyon cut by a stream millenia ago.

From the visitors' center high atop the escarpment, two tracks wind along the edge. Along the tracks there are overlooks which gave Donna and me a jolt of vertigo. Silly, but with the outlook deck cantilevered out over the abyss, the sense of no support is intense.

The Blue Mountains have a similar topography: steep canyons cut into the limestone, but Morton Park is further south than the Blues. Along the track, you can look right over the top of the falls with no idea about their length untill you walk further down the track for a view back into the head of the valley.

The valley stretches to the south, and due to the rain, things have greened up considerably. It's a wow!

The Southern Highlands are neither very far south nor very high, but the rolling hills and big farms are close enough to Sydney to attract weekend holiday makers, as well as those who want a hobby farm. The little town of Berrima has a main street of a few shops and tea establishments. Lovely tea, actually.

We stayed in the little town of Moss Vale, at a very well-tended caravan park which also has several tidy cabins. Wandering around Moss Vale, I spotted a healthy community garden. Hurray!

Moss Vale hadn't even been on our potential itinerary, but because of the rainy conditions, hopping over to the coast for a look in at Jervis Bay didn't sound appealing. But it was a lovely couple of days. Next stop: aah, yet another garden, this time the second of the three Royal Botanic Gardens, this one at Mt Annan; the first we visited on day one of Donna's trip in Sydney. In the rain.

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