I used to live Strathfield, a suburb situated 12 km away from Sydney city. The nights were bright, the shops were a mere 5-minute walk away, and the sound of trains could keep you awake till midnight. But life changed once I moved away from Sydney CBD, to a beautiful residential suburb 40 km away.
Creepy Crawlers
I wake up to the sound of songbirds in my backyard, although only once or twice have I been able to spot them among the tall Gum trees surrounding my house. Come summer, and they will be replaced by different species of Parrots; Rainbow Lorikeets being the prettiest of them all. You can easily spot them flying across the backyard, a flash of brightly colored plumage searching for food. Thankfully, there are no Cockatoos around my area, else waking up to a bunch of screaming Cockatoos is no fun. The summer is notorious for Bats. You will find them swarming above your head in the evening. Their wingspan long enough to stop your heart.
One of Australia’s most iconic reptiles has found a home among the rocks in my garden – the famous Blue Tongue Lizard.
A shy little fellow often found basking in the sunlight, among a lounge of Penny lizards (also called Common Garden Skink). Out of all the species, these tiny lizards are the ones that give me heebie-jeebies. But they mean no harm, in fact, they are good for the garden.
Garbage Day
You may forget your swimming class, but don’t forget the garbage collection day, unless you want to live with another week of kitchen wastes rotting in the bin. The garbage collection trucks drive by once a week, on an allocated weekday. Usually, the residents place their garbage bins outside the house the night before. And that is how I remember to put mine out because I have to walk past rows and rows of garbage bins while returning from work.
A quiet place!
Life in Sydney suburb is quiet. I mean really really QUIET. At night you can only hear cicadas singing a rhapsody in the moonlight. The sky is clear enough to trace the tail of Scorpion in the sky.
It’s been over 3 years since I moved to this suburb and I still haven’t heard my neighbors. The only time I heard a human voice, it was the sound of a girl singing Karaoke two houses away from mine. The sunny weekends are filled with the noise of lawn mowers trimming an overgrowth and cars/driveways being washed by Gerni. Still, no sound of humans, unless they walk past you and wish you a cheerful “Good Evening”.
Can you imagine a train station devoid of human chattering? Sometimes all you can hear is the sound of footsteps, marching up and down the stairs. You will find me and my husband talking in whispers while waiting for the train. 😛
All the suburbs have their own parks, schools, medical centers, and shopping complex. One major disadvantage of living in the suburbs is the time it takes to reach work. You spend a lot of time on public transport during weekdays. I chose suburb because I had always wished to own a house with a backyard. It reminds me of home and my childhood days.
I love wide spaces and the sight of trees and beautiful flowering plants along the pathway. But most of all, the parks. During summer, when we receive daylight till 8 pm, a nice walk in the park is all you need to unwind after a long day at work.
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Related Post – Girls day out in Sydney
Linking to camera critters, our world tuesday, image-in-ing, jeshstudio,wordless wednesday, skywatch
Wow the photos are absolutely beautiful! It’s so relaxing to be awaken by birds in the morning. But where I stay I don’t really hear that guess it’s too busy haha😀
This looks absolutely stunning! I have to visit this part of the world someday! You really have a wonderful ability in storytelling and your writing is so captivating.
Please tell me you’re planning to write a book one day, Rajlakshmi. Your posts evoke so many thoughts and feelings, your writing is so beautifully descriptive, you can make a simple topic like living in the suburbs come alive. And those images are gorgeous too! Thank You for your musings. It’s such a pleasure getting to know you and your world.
I love your suburban world… so quiet, so peaceful and so beautiful. The Jacaranda trees add to the beauty and serenity. Guess, all this would be so welcome after the exposure to 24×7 noise pollution here.
Just yesterday, I saw blue tongue lizard on TV and today I am reading about it. Great pictures, as always!
Wow! The suburbs of Sydney sound superb. I would love the quiet. I do not like the city because it is so noisy and the lack of privacy but this sounds right up my alley. Although I would never live in Australia because of all the deadly animals lol I’m an arachnophobia big time.
Is it true about the crazy scary spiders and reptiles there? Or is that more out of the metro and in the country areas? Idiot American here 😛 love your pictures!
I adore those flowering trees. I have a blog friend from California who posted some photos like them.
Great and beautiful photos! Ps: Yes, That are pollen on Bee’s legs 🙂
Thank you for this tour, Raj! Such a beautiful place you live in! I too like quiet places, where all I hear is birdcalls and the sound of wind. 🙂 The place where we stay now is pretty quiet. A railway track runs some distance from our building, so that’s one sound I hear. Otherwise, I hear the birds and the gentle lapping of waves below…A huge mangrove spreads behind our building, so it’s really a feast for the senses right from morning.
Beautiful place! Glad you are enjoying your home near Sydney!
Cool looking lizard! Love the shot of the jacarandas against the beautiful sky. Have a nice weekend!
Dramatic sky shots
Gorgeous skies and a sweet lizard – perfect
Pretty sky captures! Lovely photos. Enjoy your day, have a happy weekend!
Thanks for sharing such beautiful pictures of your part of the world, Rajlakshmi! It is absolutely beautiful and almost like a dream to be living in the midst of such flora and fauna! You are truly blessed, dear girl and I hope you enjoy your stay in such a pretty neighbourhood creating beautiful memories!
Lizards give me the heebie jeebies too. Loved your surburb narration – sounds like the suburbs here too.
Your suburb is beautiful, Raj. I can only imagine how calming it can be and I think it will be a great place for your little one to grow up in. I also dream of a house with a backyard but it’s next to impossible with the property prices in Bangalore.
I remember Strathfield though. It had an Indian store from where I shopped for groceries when I lived on Epping Road. There was a mall too, if I remember correctly where I used to spend a lot of my weekends alone, roaming, eating and shopping.
Sydney is beautiful and the peace and quite often reminded me of the North East. Maybe I was just homesick 🙂
Your neighborhood is beautiful, Raj. Suburbs are quieter than the downtown areas. Here too. We were living right in the downtown until a year ago and after moving here, it’s different in a good way. It’s not very quiet but the traffic situation is much much better. I would love to get a house with backyard and a small garden when we get our own place. 🙂
Love the description and photos of where you live. It looks lovely. Here in America, we have no native parakeets or parrots – although they are sometimes kept as pets. It would be awesome to see them in the wild.
Beautiful photos, as always! 👌😍 Australia has more colourful vegetation and more interesting critters (those lizards would make me run! 😮 ), but my suburban Toronto town (also ~40 km from the city) is otherwise similar to yours. Thankfully, no commuting for me and hubby has a short drive along the highway, to a smaller city. Suburbia is the best of both worlds! 🙂 Less crime and grime than the city, but still close by. And, there’s nothing as serene as enjoying your own backyard on a warm summer’s day.
Such beautiful photographs and what a lovely place to live, with birdsong and time in nature and a backyard to boot! Perfection!
Great photos.
I love the place where you live and the one I love most is your back garden going by your photos on the Insta. It must be absolutely lovely to sit out in the open among varied fauna sipping out morning and evening tea.
So beautiful! And I hear you. I recently moved from a noisy neighborhood to a community that is situated in the middle of a defense area and totally surrounded by trees. I barely hear any noise and I’m still trying to get used to the quiet.
Chirping of birds and the croaking of frogs is a constant, but thankfully I haven’t seen any creepy crawlers yet!
Sydney is so pretty. I completely get the suburb bit to have a larger house. We did the same here though we don’t have a backyard but a tiny lawn. But of course, commute is a nuisance. Loved the beautiful shots . Somehow, as an Indian, I love to be surrounded by people and some bit of noise and human contact.
WOW! Such gorgeous photos! Sounds like a lovely place to live in!
Thanks for the interesting information about Sydney. Sounds pleasant but maybe too quiet. My oldest niece moved to Australia for a for years and hard time adjusting and came to love it and in fact married an Australian guy and they eventually moved here but they go back a lot to visit his family.
It sounds like heaven to me! What gorgeous street scenes and lovely narrative 🙂
It’s great to see you at ‘My Corner of the World’ this week!
My Corner of the World
Wow! The place looks so lovely. The flowers, the trees, the lake – all make it look like a fairy land. I too wanted a place with a backyard and a garden but that is too much to ask for in Bangalore.
Lovely look at your part of the world.
I do not know how an Australian lizard ended up here in Texas, but I had Lizzie, a blue-tongued skink for over twelve years.
Lovely shots! I like the jacaranda.
The residential area in the Sydney suburb looks so lovely in your photos and with your words. I understand how you love the place you live.
Thanks for sharing beautiful pictures of your suburban world. I’d love to be awakened by the calls of songbirds in the morning. Sounds heavenly.
My post features a hike at Mount Rainier Natl Park.
Lovely images. Have a good day.
Worth a Thousand Words
Many thanks for the gorgeous view you linked to All Seasons! Love water and have lived most of my life close to the ocean, In Europe, as well as in the USA.
Looked at your art. You have much talent. Even though you have a child (I assume) I had 3 when I came back to painting. It’s really doable! Here’s my website for art – the actual reason why I started blogging. http://artnots2016.wordpress.con
Welcome to the Crew/Bunch and hope to see you back at All Seasons! (it is weekly – except for next week when I am in Los Angeles for an art show).