Places in Western Australia
The theme for Monochrome Madness this week is birds, hosted by Elke @ Eklastic. We have so many birds here in Australia and all so colourful and it would be a shame to take away that colour. So I’ve opted for black or white, or both with just a touch of colour.
This little outing was taken during the last school holidays and it’s also just down the road from me. The Claremont Museum is somewhere I’d never visited even though we’ve lived here for 20 years. I thought I would check it out with my two munchkins.
The building was actually a school once upon a time, called Freshwater Bay School opening in 1892. It was subsequently used for a place of worship, a boarding house for young men and also a police station.
There is no entry fee which was surprising and when we entered the kids were given clipboards by the lady in charge with photos of tiny lego men which were hidden all around the museum.
After spending a good hour in here we wandered down to the small river beach and as it was a hot day, they decided to have a paddle and build sandcastles.
Sand and water provide endless entertainments for kids.
After I had taken this photo I zoomed in and was taken aback at how creepy and ugly these mini sculptures were!
“Kids, hallowed be thy youth. Enjoy it while it lasts.”
― DON SANTO
Oh! to be young again is many a lament you often hear from old people, but I’m not sure I would want to be a child again. I’m very happy I don’t have to go to school anymore, especially not hundreds of years ago anyway.
“No matter if you’re 14 or 90 years old, you’ll never be this young again.”
Matt Purcell
Tina from Travels and Trifles is the host this week for Lens-Artist and the topic if you haven’t guessed is “To be young again”.
At the beginning of the month I had an overnight stay at the Crown Perth with my lovely friends. The hotel sits right by the Swan River and even though none of us had taken the correct walking shoes we still managed to have a wander by the water.
I was happy to see some sculptures along the way too.
Willem de Vlamingh was a Dutch sea captain and arrived in Perth during the late 17th century. He named the Swan River after the large number of black swans he saw. He and his crew first landed on Rottnest Island and saw numerous quokkas (a native marsupial), and thinking they were large rats he named it ‘t Eylandt ‘t Rottenest (“Rats’ Nest Island”).
The reason for our stay was to have our last girls’ hurrah before the lovely Lisa departs for good back to the US. A few photos below of the fun we had.
Having our own rooms was a luxury.
Next was a swim by the pool and then off to the casino to try and win some of our luxury stay back! Sadly we didn’t hit any jackpots.
Then some fun in our rooms before checking out.
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With school holidays on at the moment I thought I would take the munchkins to Heirisson Island where there is a kangaroo sanctuary. It’s not far from us but never having been there I asked Anthony along to be the driver. We easily found a carpark and proceeded along the river in search of kangaroos. Rosie didn’t bring shoes so all I had to offer was an old pair of Lachie’s wellies, which were a tad tight! After walking for ten minutes she started to cry saying her feet hurt, so onto Anthony’s back she went.
With the extreme hot weather Western Australia has been experiencing, everything was very brown and scrubby.
We walked along the river for a while and there was a lovely breeze blowing off it, but once we were in the middle with no shade it was fairly hot.
Still excited and not too tired yet!
We finally found a bench to sit and have some snacks but no kangaroos had been sighted.
Thinking we would have to walk back we came across another family who were looking at their phone. I went up to them and said have you seen any yet, and was informed that the husband had found a group but we had better hurry as they were bounding away.
They were hard to spot, being camouflaged by the brown grass. As you can see Lachie was very happy that we finally found some.
Heirisson Island was named after French midshipman François-Antoine Boniface Heirisson in 1801. It was once home to the Nyoongar people.
Also linking to Jo’s Monday Walks
“Water is the driving force of all nature.“
~ Leonardo da Vinci ~
The challenge from Lens Artist this week is “Water in Motion” by Sophia @ Photographias.
Who doesn’t take photos of water? Everything about water, sea, rivers, lakes and waterfalls is just waiting for a photo. Here are some of mine over the years.
I would love to see this in Perth right now! It’s just another day in paradise here but in dire need of rain as trees and plants die, as huge branches fall heedlessly to the pavement below.
“I’ve seen your stormy seas and stormy women,
And pity lovers rather more than seamen”
~ Lord Byron ~
“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It’s always our self we find in the sea.”
― e.e. cummings –
A funfilled week was had last week, starting with Bank Holiday Monday and a trip to the zoo. As you can imagine it was packed, but Elena holds a zoo pass so you need only spend a few hours each time.
We were lucky enough to see a Tree Kangaroo with her baby, who just happened to stick his head out for a photo. Also a sausage tree in bloom!
On Wednesday I spent a lovely morning at the beach viewing the sculptures which I’ve already posted about.
With the weather getting cooler in the mornings I’ve been able to go for a walk around Lake Claremont.
“There are plenty of difficult obstacles in your path. Don’t allow yourself to become one of them” – Ralph Marston
It wasn’t that long at all, just a 40 minute circuit around the lake!
Sunday afternoon we had a drive out to one of our favourite wineries in Bickley Valley. We had a table on the terrace overlooking the vineyards and shared a bottle of wine and a charcuterie board.
Next Postcard will be from Seminyak, Bali for a short break!
Linking to CWWC (Cee’s Challenge on Which Way) and Sunday Stills (This week Terri is asking for Green).
It’s that time of year again for all those innovative sculptors to exhibit their wonderful creations upon the shores of Cottesloe Beach, Western Australia. I went with a friend yesterday to walk along the beach and upper grassy areas to view the fantastic pieces on offer. Many of the photos also work well with John’s Lens Artist Challenge this week too, which is all about light, shape, texture and form.
We started along the top grassy area and then walked to the end of the groyne. We both had swim suits on under our dresses and the water looked so good, we had a swim before proceeding to see the rest.
The focus on the photos above are circular shapes and different textures. The name of each piece did not seem to correlate with the sculpture and seemed to be random words selected from a hat! Everytime I tried the last photo a small boy kept looking through and saying hello!
A view through the sculptures
Tall and skinny ones and mirrored images
All the pieces looked completely different depending on which angle you shot from, making them all the more interesting.
My favourite out of the four above would be Florb, the texture was amazing to touch. Some of the sculptures allowed for touching. There were hoards of school children swarming around, some too young to read, so therefore lots of touching going on!
“The Top of the Balance” edited by me!
The above are also two of my favourites. How cute is the “Moon” and look at the intricate detail. I also love “Dave” standing loud and proud.
Textures, shadows and shapes
I made up the above titles!
I hope you enjoyed this walk along the sands with me to view these wonderful sculptures. This is one of my favourite events of the year.
Also joining Restless Jo for Monday Walk – although my walk was Wednesday!
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This week for Sunday Stills, Terri has asked whether we edit our photos or not. I like to edit most of my photos as the software these days is fantastic. An ordinary photo can be transformed into something worth showing.
These are just a few I’ve had a play around with.
The original is on the left and the right is edited. I used two different editors. BeFunky which is a free one for a painted effect, but was then left with a watermark. So I exported to Google Photos and used magic blur. Somewhat time consuming but good to know!
Two white cockatoos chatting to each other down by the river. As you can see my original image definitely needed editing. Using my iMac software for this.
I don’t think a camera phone is the best to take a semi-full moon photo. This was taken the other night. I think it shows better in black and white. Google Photo Editor.
I had the most fun with the above photo as it was the first time I have used an AI type software, from Canva. I’m still trying to get to grips with this website, so spent a long time – too long on this! The first photo is the the original but I thought it looked a bit boring, so I’ve added a few attributes!
Thanks to Terri for all the information she has shared about editing on her post, I’ve certainly learnt much more about different kinds of software.
This February has been one of the hottest here in WA for decades, so I decided to get myself off to the beach most days. The sea is always chilly to start but you slowly get used to it, or maybe you just go a bit numb! Most days have been between 37 and 43! Everybody has the same idea so before 9am or earlier is the best time. The water has been like a mill pond and absolutely wonderful to swim, or water walk.
It’s also school swimming month and the sea fills up pretty quickly with small bodies. My own swimming lessons were a far cry from this, and if you are English and reading this you will know what I mean. Having to get on a bus for a 30 minute ride, changing in a communal room and those funny wooden pallets all over the floor. The overwhelming smell of chlorine still to this day brings back memories.
I met two of my friends on some of the days and after we treated ourselves to breakfast.
I’ve been lucky enough this week to have dinner out twice, once for a friend’s birthday and another night to our favourite restaurant.
These three are my wonderful group of friends, I can always rely on one, two or three to join me in most outings. So very blessed to have them in my life.
La Pizza is like a Woman,
you have to look after her, tend to her, check on her…
I saw this in the restaurant the other night as I watched the chef lovingly shape and pat the pizza dough.
On Saturday Elena and the munchkins came for a sleepover which Anthony and I always love. After fun and games in the pool we came in and played more games. At 3 and 5 it’s great to be able to play a proper game like memory.
Today – Sunday – we went to the beach again. I think all of Perth had the same idea. We spent around 45 minutes driving along the coastline to look for a carpark. The rangers were out in force and I saw many cars already had tickets for parking illegally. Finally we spotted one at the “dog beach”. We parked and walked down to the beach. I don’t think I’ve seen so many dogs jumping in and out of the water.
I’m very fortunate that I live so close to some fabulous beaches and have changed my habits a little by getting up earlier to avoid the extreme heat later.
Well that’s my week over and done with, the next week is going to be much the same weather wise, hopefully I can get down to the beach on a few days.
Posted also for Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share and Sue’s Weekend Traffic Jam
This month’s words are
Far Reaching
Panoramic
Scenic
All Encompassing
Wide-ranging
Simple, but tricky! I’ve searched through my archives and here’s my pick.
Thanks to Paula @ Lost in Translation for this fun and interesting challenge. It’s great to see other bloggers selections too, which I had a peak at first to get inspiration before I did mine!
