On the Bird Front: Not much to report this morning, except it was obviously National Bird-Scolding-Birdwatchers Day, i.e. lots of them telling me off for being around (I apologised). The “worst” offenders were, of course, the scrubwrens, but the thornbills were doing a pretty good job too. The crimsons rosellas enjoy dropping seed pods on my head (fair enough), and the Kiosk Kookas laughed at me on my way out. Heard whipbirds, black-faced cuckoo-shrikes etc. I STILL can’t see one bird at the Cliff View Lookout which has a lovely loud call (probably 2cm long). Amazing how LOUD these little birds are. Are they all voicebox?
On the Walking Front: This afternoon, I made it around the (shortened) "Round Walk" at Katoomba Falls. For me, the direction's important, viz. DOWN the Furber Steps (not scary) and UP the metal staircase past Juliet's Lookout. In the morning, it was the Prince Henry Walk to Echo Point. I love it. No monarch (bird) today (the other one's in Canberra), but a myriad of beautiful calls, and of course, THAT superb vista. Away from the cool air by the waterfalls, it was actually WARM, and this was before 7am. HUH? Again, the weather's been fabulous. What a joy.
It’s Day Three of the Chainsaw + mulcher. This is the slowest tree removal I've ever seen. Where's a storm?
On the Writing Front: I've improved one thread by "drip-feeding" information as Marele has suggested. The trouble was finding the best place to insert the (small) flashback and have it still make sense. It meant removing one scene but hey, I can live with that. I'm about to rework that opening chapter.
And I must mention the azaleas. Katoomba is LOADED with the most magnificent display of azaleas I've ever seen. Back home, they burn off in a week, but here, there seems no end to their flowering - and the colours! I took the photo (below) in the front garden at Shelton-Lea B&B; I'll add the beauties from Varuna when I take some photos tomorrow (thought I'd done it, but I haven't).