Mireen Avenue

(Davistown walkies #5)

Fog this morning, laying thick over the ridges and hills. Inversion fog I think because we got cloud later.

Went back to Davistown. Got the Saratoga from Woy Woy across to Lintern Street Wharf and wandered East from there and into Mireen Avenue.



An old creek or relatively new storm drain. (Sometimes they're both.) Full from the recent rain and providing a lovely calm vista at the T junction of Emora Avenue and Mireen Avenue.

Mireen Avenue is one of the old streets of the old Yow Yow Estate, flogged in 1908 by Henry F Halloran who was a native Sydneysider and mover and shaker in coastal real estate.

His great-granddad was transported for being a fake priest, amongst other things, and was mates with Simeon Lord and John Macarthur.

Lord was an ex-convict who owned one of the largest houses in the colony of Port Jackson (Sydney). Lieutenant Macarthur of the New South Wales Corps (marines-cum-prison wardens who accompanied the First Fleet convicts in 1788) started sword-fights, started Australia's lucrative wool industry, established Elizabeth Farm, went off his nut and died in 1834.



'Inala' Mireen Avenue. A Bungalow front on an earlier house, probably 1900s. Icecream colour scheme, old rose bush, deep shaded backyard. A comforting house to look at.

There's another 'Inala' at Pearl Beach, one of those holiday houses. Pearl Beach fascinates me. Half the houses are holiday cottages and the place is like a fucking ghost town outside school holidays.



Natty fifties house. Well looked after and painted not that long ago.

The pot plants and what might be native lillies in the garden aren't yer classic fifties plants but they look smart against the white and blue of the house.



Ducks. Found out the breed then clean forgot it. Mallards? Something like that. Anyways, they're the common-or-garden variety for southern Australia.

The males have the most beautiful shades of purple and blue and green under their wings and on their necks. The colours change with the light as they move.

This lot were poking about for snails in the shady bits of someone's front garden. Wish they'd come round my place. Planted a geranium last week and it's been eaten down to a stalk.

It's another warm autumn afternoon here in Woy Woy and a couple of mynahs are sitting on my balcony railing peering in at me as I type. They're inquisitive birds and like to know what you're up to. They often sit and watch me put sunblock on then nod at each other and fly off.