I’ve been going on some wonderful walks lately. In August I walked with the Upper Blue Mountains Bushwalking Club to Blackman’s Crown near Cullen Bullen. I wrote this:

Under this lookout
shale mining tunnels -
we stand on honeycomb

But somehow I don’t think it’s quite right. Maybe it’s one of those haiku that needs to be expanded? What do you think?

I think this stands on its own:

At last she’s laughing -
gropes for a foothold
falls towards a tree



After a wonderful walk along the tops of the Crown, viewing Capertee valley and all the country to south, west and  north, we headed back to the vehicles which were parked beside the Castlereagh highway.

 
Bits of smashed-up car -
a violet flower
twines along the cutting

SEPTEMBER

I took a lovely walk through Empire Pass in Lawson,with two friends. I wrote a haiku about the wind, but it needs expanding. Here’s an attempt at growing a poem from a haiku.

The power-lines groan
with September wind -
a tiny bird cheeps -
Roar!
We small organic things
eat sandwiches beside a waterfall,
wonder about wattle

way above our heads
a high-voltage tussle.

Not long afterwards, I walked up Donkey Mountain of which I’ve heard so much.

Conversation -
and I walk into a wall -
Ow!

There are all kinds of nooks and crannies on this stand-alone mountain - it’s like Korowal, in the Kedumba valley.

Pole-dancing vine
twines up another vine
in the “green room”.

OCTOBER - Elders’ yatra

Sunday dawned warm and sunny for the Elders to walk out along Lawson ridge. Boronia floribunda was flowering  along the rocky spines of the hills - how divine is that scent? Years ago I lived near Armidale and went out for a walk one day, in the bush on the farm we lived on. That day I encountered this plant in flower, and the sensational scent. I didn’t know what it was at that time. Surely one could put up with many trials in life, if you could fill your nostrils with that fragrance every spring?
There were other delights:  Caroline saw a skink on the rock platform - the rock under our bare feet felt warm and alive -  in the swamp I saw a large dragonfly - and the quail which flew away from me on Monday, was back on the track again, in the same place. These are all the simple things of being alive, in this place, at this time, that bring joy to me and others.

In the far valley
a black cockatoo calls,
“Where are you?”

Yes, what is in front of you right now?

My friend Kate - always a great companion when I need to do a reccie.