After hauling myself up the steepest street I've struck so far and spending several minutes cursing the incompetent cartographers who made this year's map of Tascott, I realised I was on the wrong street. How embarassment, as Effie is wont to say.
That was Kateena Avenue. The views were not bad. Along the tracks and the road from Tascott station back towards Koolewong and some views over to Woy Woy and Saratoga. The powerlines got in the way a bit but it's always good to see the view from a new angle.
It was another muggy morning. By the time I'd hoicked myself up that hill the sweat was trickling into my eyes and down my spine into my undies. Rather distracting but such is life. It was a beautiful grey morning. Soft grey clouds of every shade sat low over the hills and ridges. The water was a hundred shades of silver and the ridgesides were misty green with the promise of rain. Between Brisbane Water Drive below and the water there were a dozen jacarandas in full bloom. They looked good against the dull green of the paperbarks and the grey of the water.
It was about half past seven. The birds were twittering and screeching and carrying on like they do on rainy days. A brush turkey was stalking along the side of the road and an elderly dog wandered out to stare at it with menaces and to nuzzle my hand and wag its stumpy tail. I gave it a scratch and soldiered on. The ups and downs of the weather seemed to have sapped everyone's energy plus I was tired from staying up to watch some crap after Queer As Folk. God, that Brian bastard wants slapping. That cute twink he lives with should snip off his other ball while he's asleep.
I plodded along, swiping flies and catches glimpses of the view as the road curved and dipped and climbed. There was some blue flower and one of the climbing species of jasmine along the fence beside the railway line. There was a tiny tiny breeze and I could smell the jasmine.
Where I used to live there was a night-scented jasmine on a fence nearby and its warm perfume would drift in my open window on hot summer nights. No idea how many species of jasmine there are. I've spotted maybe a dozen, a few not scented, the rest with perfumes varying from beautifully light to headache-inducingly heavy. I like the lighter ones.
There was four light-scented bushes outside the Pizza Hut in Woy Woy. Opposite the library, where that new chemist with the green roof is. I'm bloody glad the Pizza Hut's hideous seventies roof is gone but I miss the gentle scent of jasmine as I come out of the library. There was more jasmine on the fences along Brisbane Water Drive near Tascott station and also a pleasant bush with small trumpet-shaped flowers that came in pink and white on the same bush. The orchids are coming out now as well and the rhododendrons. Though some of the orchids may be rhododendrons and vice versa. I'm the first to admit my flower-recognition skills are pissy.
Along Glenrock Parade and Brisbane Water Drive there were plenty of forties houses and quite a few from around 1900. Most of Kateena and Melaleuca were seventies with some recent places in the best view spots. There was a seventies house at 15 Melaleuca and no sign of the "graves, Scott family ... 1903/11" on my hist list. Long covered over and forgotten perhaps. Waterview Crescent was eighties to now. Though there might've been a seventies place on the corner. It's a tiny dead-end between Brisbane Water Drive and the water with views from Gosford to Woy Woy. Which is from the north end of Brisbane Water nearly to the south end.
There's a roundabout at Noonan Point. Noonan Point's on the hill that has Point Clare at the north-east corner of it. Brisbane Water Drive comes through the roundabout and over the railway line and from just there you can see Lion Island. There's a narrow but clear line of sight just squeezing past the tip of Koolewong, over the Peninsula (Woy Woy) and past Green Point at Pearl Beach to Lion Island and Whale Beach behind it. Whale Beach is the Pittwater side of Palm Beach and Palm Beach is right behind Barrenjoey Point.
Finished at nine. There was a nice breeze coming up in the last few minutes of my walk and it's coming in my windows now. I've got the telly on to watch the Cup, a bottle of something open and I'm wearing a funny hat. That's right peeps. It's the first Tuesday in November.
P.S.
The changing of the guard title thingy is about the mozzies. Went off at seven this morning and there were still mozzies (mosquitos) about as well as swarms of flies. It must've been there change-over time.
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