Last week, after a week of sustained rain (and fortunately not too much more flooding), Sydney’s dam levels got to 50%. The last time they were that high was May 2004*. For the past three years, Sydney has had ever increasing levels of worry about our water crisis. People haveContinue Reading
Today’s book review is The Thunderbolt Kid, by Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson is one of my absolute favourite authors, mainly driven by two quite different books: Neither Here nor There (a story of backpacking around Europe) and Mother Tongue, which is his history of the English language. So I hadContinue Reading
I think I’m one of the few people in Sydney whose spirits rise at the site of a grey ghost (parking police). I live in an area which is mixed – about 50% of my street is businesses, mostly advertising agencies and design studios. The whole street is residents parkingContinue Reading
We’ve been watching a depressing British TV show called Bodies – set in a hospital with an incompetent senior obstetrician. The storyline of the first series follows the various ways different doctors deal with the incompetence – from ignoring it, to trying to stop it happening subtly, to reporting itContinue Reading
My grandmother had a wonderful tree in her garden – a pohutukawa. The pohutukawa tree, native to the north of New Zealand, is the tree I would design, if I was given the job. It grows along the edges of the sands of most beaches in its range. It branchesContinue Reading
This time from Jennifer (ponderosa). Think of the plants (trees, flowers, etc) which grow within 50 yards of your home. Which is your favorite? Port Jackson Fig, Ficus rubiginos. This is a big tree (as tall as our three story house) that grows in our very tiny backyard (big enoughContinue Reading
From Charlotte via (un)relaxed dad: . What do you for the birds and the bees? According to the report in Newsweek, we need to plant a pollinator garden to counteract the effect pollution, pesticides and habitat destruction are having on birds, bees and insects. Bees, for instance, like yellow, blue andContinue Reading
One of our favourite weekend excursions is to walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and take the ferry home. It’s been a while, so we did it again today, even though rain was threatening. So picture us – three adults, with three small boys. They’d been cooped up a bit inContinue Reading
I have yet to see the movie Happy Feet (which of course, given the name of this blog, I must). But I’m interested to see that it’s already come under attack for being “environmentalist propaganda”. As I understand it, in spite of the poles being more likely to warm upContinue Reading
Last Friday, we were having our work Christmas party that afternoon – casual, outdoors, in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, but sunny. Unfortunately, I had an important meeting, so I couldn’t go casual, as most of my colleagues did, but I thought aContinue Reading
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