Some observations from my recent wanderings.

• Spotting a unicycle in the back of a ute.
• Stray beanies left on the steps of a shopfront. A sign that spring is on its way?
• Smiles. Lots of smiles.
• Standing quietly and feeling a tangle of languages and moments and experiences wrap around me. ‘When I was in Spain …’ ‘Have you seen …?’
• The click-clack of luggage being hauled along by tourists across the paved footpaths.
• Hissing buses taking tourists around the sites, their faces smudged against the glass.
• Backpackers carrying what seems like their own body weight on their back, foreheads covered with bright scarves.
• Phones and cameras wielded with enthusiasm at the many look outs and beauty spots, as well as along the main streets in the villages.
• Long term locals identifiable by their easy walking gait up the steep stretches of Katoomba Street.
• The elasticity of time. People completely relaxed, with all the available time in the foreseeable future, or in a rush, trying to jam as many experiences as possible into a tight timeframe as if on a manic kind of quest.
• Changeable weather. The high clouds sometimes dart across the sun providing shade before moving on and a blinding light follows.
• A feeling of acceptance that is difficult to define. An attitude that whoever you are, that’s okay.
• Sighting a recorder (the musical woodwind instrument, that is) lying in a display of bright spring blooms. I thought later that I should have taken a photo for #MyISpy but when I went past the next day it was gone as someone else must have spotted the musical potential.
• An assortment of tantalising aromas from the wide range of restaurants and cafes.
• Murals tucked into the many alleyways, just waiting to be discovered.

What have you spotted, heard, smelt or felt in your neighbourhood lately?

[Photo: Butterfly Walk, Katoomba]