Of all the places I have ever lived my little flat in Eagle St, Alderley was perhaps my favourite.

At the time I sold it, it was by the far the place I've lived the longest, in a life where I think I worked out I lived in 30 places by the time I was 30.  This view is out to mountains from where I would sit in my study.  So many hours spent there, listening to the birds, sometimes watching them cross my deck.  Kookaburras, Tawny Frogmouths and other amazing birds were regular visitors. 

White crown snakes lived in the walls of the place, I think in the spaces time and a termite infestation from before I lived there made for them.  A large python who I only saw once, but heard tell of many times, lived around the property, along with a large blue tongue lizard before the body corporate had the trees cut down and it was never seen again.  At one magical part of the year, late spring, the flowers of different coloured trees would mingle in a carpet on the ground, and butterflies, drawn by the remnant warmth of the sun on the brick wall, would group together slowly flapping their wings.

Looking out from here you would think you were in a smallish country town situated in a valley, yet you re a 20 minute bike ride from a city of a couple of million people.  Indeed at the end of the street was Banks St Reserve.  Perhaps the most central bit of quasi wilderness in Brisbane, where I spent many hours walking, riding and enjoying.

It is with some melancholy I look back on it, but hopefully I find some combination of city and country again which I will like as much.