I live somewhere beautiful. It’s surrounded by water except where it’s surrounded by undeveloped bush. There are roads through the bush and coming home at night you often have to use high beam at nights. That was exciting when I first moved here.

Blackwall Mountain is next to my house. It’s a long low flat-topped hill, which, because it’s in Australia, qualifies as a mountain. It’s like Ayer’s Rock in miniature but covered in very green, unbushfire-proofed bush. One side is waterfront and because the mayor used to live nearby, there’s a big white water tank on top of the hill. Because it’s dry, cars aren’t allowed up. You can stand up there and look at rows of little houses, with backyards and the occasional swimming pool, but up on the hill where you are, it’s completely silent.

On one side of the hill, the land drops, then rises again like a saddle on a horse. At the bottom of the saddle, where a rider’s bottom would sit is a road. It goes under an overpass into a suburban area with big waterfront houses. At the back of the saddle, there’s a bridge over a rip in the land where the water has flowed in. It’s called the Rip Bridge and one of the streets near me is called Rip Street though it’s about a street short of the bridge. On the other side of rip there’s more hills like Blackwall, marching across the land to the sea. It’s mostly bush, with houses clustered round the water and jetties, where people like to fish. There’s gardens too and some horse ranches and unfinished streets which merge into people’s front yards.

My house is on the Blackwall Mountain saddle. It’s a tiny house on a triangular handkerchief of land, rising over the road with a giant cactus right at the corner. It looks like one of those big Mexican tequila plants. I call that side of the property my jungle because things just grow there and there might be wild animals. Well, wild spiders and snakes, not to be sneered at in a landscape full of poisonous ones. If I stand on that side of the house and look sideways, I can see water. If I build up, I can make a balcony with a water view but I haven’t got any money and besides, I’m getting too old for a two-storey house. When I’m downstairs, I’ll hear people walking around upstairs and when I’m upstairs, especially if I’m sleeping, I’ll wake up and hear prowlers downstairs. Or I might get dizzy on the stairs.

There’s a long drive around the waterfront and places where you can park your car and sit, listening to the waves crashing on the beach below. The windier it is, the louder the waves and the more you see windsurfers flying around. The waves ripple in from the ocean and turn over as they reach the shore, showing white foam. You can look over Broken Bay to the heads or towards Lion Island reclining in sunshine and covered in grey-green bush. That’s why it’s called Lion Island, it looks like the back of a reclining lion. Beyond it are the hills and bays of Northern Sydney, red rooftops surrounded by bushland. I visited a house there once, the deck had a view of the ocean similar to the one I’m enjoying now. I could imagine sitting there all afternoon, occasionally reading my book.

There are lots of people where you’re parked in your car. People take their daily exercise, walking from Ocean to Ettalong Beaches, talking about inane but important things that people like to talk about so they forget they’re getting exercise. I like staring at what exercise clothes people like to wear. Some wear shorts and sexy tops revealing lots of skin. Others wear baggy T-shirts. Weight has nothing to do with people’s choices. Some people have no idea what they look like and other people simply don’t care. I like the people who aren’t self-conscious though I suspect I’m one of those who doesn’t know what she looks like.

People chat without the walking or lean against the fence and stare at the bay. Others gather in groups or polish surfboards to take to the beach. Little birds flit around and land on bushes, or fences. One landed on my rear vision mirror once. Another time, a man sat in the car next to me, playing a harp.

I mostly work in the city so its nice coming home to this.