Sandstone Childhood
My childhood ways
ran along the great stone tops
until they fell,
in tumbling blocks and slabs,
down ragged sandstone steps,
to the water’s edge.
Grass trees swirled
momentary eddies,
in steep rivers of scrub.
And thin pockets of eucalyptus mulch
were taloned to the rock
by hard-skinned, small-flowered bonsai plants.
My heart is in the sandstone country
the land of the Eora people:
the place of their clans,
the Gadigal, Wanegal, Cammeraygal,
and all the other sandstone clans,
and we late comers,
who also, now, belong
to the sandstone land.
Sandstone Life
(Above) Eupoecilia australasiae lives the sweet life, feeding on the nectar of flowering gums. Called the ‘fiddler’ beetle, because of its markings…
(Below) Punctate Flower Chafer: Neorrhina Punctatum
Grevillea and Persoonia…so many species. Pine -leaved Geebung (Persoonia Pinifolia) and Pink Spider Flower (Grevillea Sericea)…
miniature flowers everywhere, and here and there great displays…
(Below) Angophora Hispida (Dwarf Apple)
Kuringgai Chase NP:
(Below) New Life…
After heavy summer rains, much new life, even out of season…
Pultenea Stipularis; unidentified, but common, butterfly; jewel beetle (of which Australia has approximately 750 species), (unidentified beetle in Pultenea.)
(Below) Thysanotis Tuberosus, (Fringed Lily); Leptospermum Squamosum (Pink Tea Tree); Persoonia Laurina (Laurel-leaved Geebung) – In flower December, in Kuringgai Chase, after heavy summer rains…
Blandfordia Nobilis
(Christmas Bell)
More wildflowers of the sandstone country…
inigo rey 
Some beatutiful photos of your sandstone country and your poems are very good. Why dont you blog one at a time with a photo so each can be featured? I link to dverse poets but there’s also poets United on blogspot, I think. Well worth sharing your poems.
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Thank you. I think blogging them one at a time might be a good idea. I follow Dverse poets now, thanks to your earlier tipoff, and enjoy it. I’ll take a look at poets united. Enjoy the frost while you have got it. We just had the hottest 2 months since thermometers were brought to Australia, and the longest run of hot days.
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Oh, sounds bad. Here the summers seem to have got hotter but st least there is a cool contrast here and when the sun shines such beautiful light, hence the name Anda lucia, land of light!
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Such a privilege to live in this beautiful part of the world. Love this poem.
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