This week Donna from Windkisses is hosting Lens-Artists Challenge with the theme “Over the Hill”. This phrase is most used for people getting on in life but it can also mean what is over the hill. Is the climb worth it you think standing at the bottom, and so you start to climb and often when you reach the top there is another hill, tantalising you to keep on climbing.
I searched my archives for hills climbed and for hills driven up, the views are incredible and worth every step from my aching legs.
As the challenge from Sofia at the Lens Artists Team is urban, I thought I would take you on a tour of my home town. It’s not a large town by any means but is filled with cafes, restaurants and shops. I tend to go two or three times a week for food, a bit of retail shopping, lunch and dinner. It has a large shopping mall where two grocery stores are located but it also has small laneways off the high street filled with quirky shops.
Claremont Quarter
Looking through Maude Jackson Walk
A street off the main high road
I took these photos today as I was doing a shop and I was amazed to find some wonderful murals, sculptures and new coffee shops. I tend normally to drive straight to Claremont Quarter and back again. I did have to dodge a few rain showers though as we are having some storms at the moment.
On the side of the bottle shopThe above two murals are painted by Fintan Magee and titled Road to Nowhere, depicting displaced people during the Brisbane Floods of 2015
I had to take two shots of this brilliant mural above by Dipesh ‘Peche’ Prasad to capture it all. It was only after I looked at the photos I realised there was a man painted there. I could not see it from the street. It features Walt D. Drabble, the lane is named after him too. He was a painter, signwriter and ironmonger and established his business in 1865.
Highs and Lows by Kyle Hughes-OdgersColourful sculpture in the High StreetMetal elephant sculpture outside jewellers
Claremont Post Office, built in 1896 and is now a heritage listed building
Claremont Railway Station established in 1881. This is still a working railway station and trains go to Perth City
Bellissimo’s Restaurant has been here longer than we have and still has the same owner/manager. We visit here at least once a month. The menu doesn’t change that much but you can always be guaranteed a fantastic dinner and service. There is no booking, you just have to wait in line, but in all the times we have visited we’ve never been turned away.
Corvo is a relatively new restaurant and we have been once. Great vibe and service but the menu wasn’t to our taste. There have been many restaurants in the 18 years we have been here.
This sushi place is extremely popular and has only been open a short while, but there are always queues outsideA new coffee shop I found! Will have to try this soon.
Claremont is home to many high end boutiques, very expensive and also a bit too fancy for my taste and probably don’t do my size anyway!
This lane leads to another coffee shop and a cute little book shop. Around the corner there is a huge gardening and hardware store where we go and buy all our garden paraphernalia.
I fell in love with Claremont when we first came for a visit 20 years ago and I still enjoy going there. I hope you’ve enjoyed visiting my home town with me.
I took these photos yesterday walking the Yarra Trail in Melbourne. We are here for a short break visiting Laurence and Maddy. I thought of Patti’s Challenge of pictures in motion.
Dwight’s Falls, Fairfield, Victoria
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” – Rumi
Sarah from Travelwithme has challenged us this week to show our three favourite photos. What a difficult challenge for everyone. It will test everyone’s ability to decide, and they must be three different genres as well. Here goes!
My first favourite would have to be my gorgeous two munchkins, Lachie and Rosie. Although this isn’t the best I’ve ever taken, it is one of my favourites. It is so natural and not one where they pose and say cheese. I asked Rosie to give Lachie a cuddle, she leant over and just rubbed her head again his shoulder making him scream with laughter. They are the best of friends.
Sai Kung, New Territories, Hong Kong
A man watering his plants amongst the rubble of the surrounding dwellings.
I love the colour in this photo and also the way it shows this man creating something beautiful outside his small apartment. It doesn’t look very sturdy but he carries on oblivious to the danger!
Hong Kong Harbour
I took this photo of Hong Kong Island sitting outside a cafe on Kowloon side. Showing the ship “Star Pisces” setting sail for one of its popular cruises. You can just make out The Peak in the background.
These are just some of my favourites over the years, not necessarily the best but the ones I feel have character in them.
Two for one with these challenges! Cee has challenged us for black and white heads and facial features and Aletta has asked for our treasures for the Lens-Artist challenge.
It was hard to choose one topic for treasure as I have so many, but my two fur boys, Rufus and Zac, are my daily treasures. I treasure my time in the morning with them, drinking my coffee and doing Wordle, while they sit patiently on the couches waiting for their treats. They are very photogenic, but then again I am biased.
Patiently waiting for a chipYou’re my one and onlyJust a couch potato
This week’s Lens-Artists Challenge is from John @ John’s Space and the theme is humour. Looking back through my archives I see I have plenty of funny ones. I love taking photos of signs that seem to make no sense apart from the person who wrote them! I’ve also included a gallery of my naughty dogs.
First a joke!
Who got this the first time? Not me!
Sadly did not see Tommy Shelby
Expensive rice and porridge to the right
Please wear the long
My family is used to me by now getting them to do all sorts for a photo, although my son wasn’t too impressed when I asked him to pose for the one of the right.
The various poses of Zac trying his hardest to get comfortable
“Who did this?”You can hide but you can’t run
Rufus wins the prize for the naughtiest dog, guilty or not guilty?
A couple of puns to finish off and I have to say I am still laughing! Please tell me you think they are as funny as I did
The challenge from Leya for this week’s Lens-Artists is all about curves. I found some curvy buildings in my archives from a visit to Seville a few years ago.
The featured image is Puente de Triane.
Convent of the Incaceration, SevilleGate to ForgivenessA curvy apartment blockSeville Cathedral
~ Everything is really about lighting ~ Robert Denning
This week’s Lens-Artist challenge is all about low level lighting. When I first read this I was intrigued and have looked at a few examples from fellow bloggers and of course Sofia’s to find out the general idea. I realised I had quite a few from my archives and some recent ones. They are only taken on my S10 phone camera but I really liked the general effect of the light at that time of day.
This tree looks like a silhouette
“For those searching for the light, never stop” – A. Meredith Waters
The Bell Tower in Perth, WA with the streets in shadow
Overlooking the River Crouch, Essex
Lights above South Molton Street, London
I enjoy a challenging challenge that intrigues me enough to research it further!
This is the second post showing murals from the town of Basildon. There is a market area with many different stalls and small cafes and dotted around are miniature murals of the various stallholders. They are very cute and I managed to get a couple of photos of the actual people.
All Those Who Wander are not Lost Mr Bigg
Marta and Kay from Marta’s Chimney Cafe. Such a gorgeous little cafe where I enjoyed a delicious home made Chicken and Veg Soup. In the summer they dress up in these cute red dresses.
This week’s Lens-Artists’ Challenge is from Ann Christine who has invited us to post one image for each story.
“Please wait your turn”
On our trip to Hyderabad a few years ago with my son and his girlfriend, we did a few day trips. We were quite surprised on a number of these outings that we were the only Western people at each location. As you can see from the photos we were quite the attraction, well mostly Maddy!
Golkonda Fort
One of the palaces we visited, the girl on the left is getting ready for her phone to be used.
Ramoji Film Studio. We were all stopped several times here, but Maddy had a queue of mostly young men. I did have to say no more after a while as we would never have seen anything. Everyone was so friendly in each location and we had to retell our story many times as to why we were visiting. Hyderabad doesn’t seem that popular but we had an amazing week there.
