Tonight was the last night to breathe in the smells of loamy soil and listen to the sounds of the night chorus. A chorus of birds, frogs, cicadas and other creatures that greet the night. I’m on 6 acres of fertile soil here in the  northern rivers region of New South Wales in Australia. It’s about a 10 minute drive in from the coast. Yep, it’s glorious here this time of year.

I’m leaning over the balcony of this beautiful bush retreat. There’s bush all around and a series of ponds making their way down the hill toward the road. I’m taking in the dusk and ‘gobsmacked’ at just how loud it gets. I thought the road noise in Sydney could get bad! Check out the audio and you’ll see what I mean. Pictures just ‘dont do it justice’.

I wanted a more full bodied memory this time round just in case I can’t get around ‘this neck of the woods for a bit. Sure you can take a ‘bucket load’ of photo’s on your ‘hols’ but those sounds, ‘they take the cake’. Then there’s the damned ‘mozzies’ that seem to love the flavour of my skin. Feel like I’m getting eaten alive! Where’s the bloomin’ Aerogard when you need it?

Hard to believe it was ‘dry as’ 9 months ago here. The dams were almost empty. No sounds like that back then she says.  My friends were keeping an eye out on the fire updates in case they had to flee. I guess that poem Dorothy MacKellor wrote in 1906 was spot on…”I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of rugged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains…”

Phrases and idiom meaning

• Gobsmacked – amazed
• Don’t do it justice – it’s  more complex, more to it
• Mozzie – mosquito
• Aeroguard – brand of mosquito repellant
• This neck of the woods – here
• Bucket loads – alot
• Hols – holidays
• They take the cake – outstanding