Weekly Photo Challenge : Up on high.

Be careful walking under the she oak trees when they are full of nuts. They are also full of Galahs tucking in and dropping the shells on unsuspecting passers-by who do not look up…

Notice how spiky those nuts are?

Galahs are very cheeky, I think he is grinning, he has just scored a bull’s-eye on a tourist!!!

Of course one of the most beautiful sights to be seen when you look up is the ever-changing sky.

Keep looking up! I learn from the past, dream about the future and look up.

There’s nothing like a beautiful sunset to end a healthy day.

Rachel Boston

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So many people walk around with their eyes downcast.

This week Nancy tells us to look up.

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Thursday Doors : The outback pub in a Ghost Town

Along a red, dusty road in the outback of Western Australia this door leads into the tavern. It is all that remains of the town of Broad Arrow. A simple corrugated iron shack.

The town was gazetted in 1896, and at its peak during the gold rush, it had 15,000 residents, eight hotels, a soft drink factory, two breweries, a hospital and a stock exchange. By the mid 1920s the rush was over and the town was virtually abandoned.

The walls are covered in names and messages, some recent and some dating back to the early 1900’s.

Come inside…

It’s rather dim and gloomy but it still serves beers and a basic roast meal if you are hungry and it offers accommodation. But, thankfully, we had our own travelling accommodation with us.

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Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing it, between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time) 

Thursday Doors : Through the glass doors…

I visit the Murwillumbah Art Gallery quite often. The most recent visit I show cased Margaret Olley and her amazing art and the studio she worked in.

But the building is also a delight to walk around and as I passed these glass doors the beauty of the light and the shadows the late afternoon sun created I thought was also a work of art.

Stepping outside on to the deck the stunning scenery of the Tweed Valley unfolds before me and has me trying to capture the picture perfect art of nature.

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing it, between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time)

Wordless Wednesday : Up, Up and Away…

Garden Photography Challenge : Essence of Summer

In early summer, October and November in this part of the world, summer is heralded in with the glorious, flamboyant display from 2 trees, that to me, shout “summer is coming”.

Neither are natives, but they have been planted as street trees in many areas.

The lovely lavender shades of the Jacaranda mass planted are a joy to behold.

The display is only short-lived. Often wild winds will devastate the display and a carpet of leaves are all that is left.

The town of Grafton, about 300 kilometres south of here, is famous for its streets lined with these beautiful trees and each year they have a Jacaranda festival in early November. This year I am going to be there and have pre-booked accommodation. Expect many more Jacaranda photos then…

As the Jacaranda fades the vibrant Poinciana takes centre stage.

Our local shopping street has them featured. I also have a young one in my garden. As yet it has to come into full flower, maybe it will this year, it is now about 10 years old.

June has slipped by and this is the last of the “essence of summer” challenge from Jude, “earth laughs in flowers”. I have enjoyed remembering summer as winter is now biting down under, but the shortest day has been and gone and we are now on our way back to summer…

Next month we will be looking at the “edible garden”.

Randomly chosen partners…

Beauty and the beast

Lorikeets are partners for life

Traditional Korean wedding outfit

Jiving with your partner on the streets at the Tauranga jazz festival

Another random selection for this weeks WP challenge “partners”

Thursday Special : Mirroring…

It’s summer, surf’s up and time spent with friends is priceless at Burleigh Beach

Sacred cows mirrored in still waters in India

Queenstown, New Zealand botanic gardens

Southern Alps New Zealand

It is the reflections mirrored  in water that often catch my eye. So when Paula challenged us with the theme “mirroring” I came up with a gallery of random images I have captured  during my travels and of course at my beach…

Thursday Doors : Cat Nap…

In the village of Ebor, along the waterfall way in New South Wales, we stopped for a coffee.

With a name like “Fusspots” I could not resist stopping at this combined post office/grocery store/café.

It was a sleepy little village of 160 people and at least one very sleepy cat…

Some crafty, imaginative folks live here too. Notice what they have created from horse shoes…

Pushing the green door open the bell tinkled to let the owner know he had customers.

After a delicious, home-baked Devonshire tea we went on our way to explore this scenic area.

To come with us for a drive through the waterfall countryside click here.

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Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing it, between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time)

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I have also linked with The Daily Post discover challenge.

Thursday’s Special : Here and There

A tricky challenge from Paula this week, “here and there”. How can we be here and there at the same time and what photo can I use to show this.

Well I’ve slept on it, I hope you don’t mind Paula, but I have twisted it a bit…

So here is my interpretation…

Here it is…

How to hold boomerang

There it goes…

and here it is again…

A few years ago Paul Clancy would come down to Burleigh Beach to demonstrate and sell boomerangs he had made. Jack bought one and Paul gave him some lessons. Jack made this shaky video of Paul in action. Believe me it is a very difficult art to throw one correctly, but more importantly, to have it come back and then catch it.

We took the boomerangs to the grandchildren and they had some fun, until it sailed into the top of a very high tree and as far as I know it is still there…

 

Garden Photo Challenge : Essence of Summer.

The absolute essence of summer is the scent of the frangipani.

The delicate perfume pervades the air, especially at dusk as the sun goes down.

A perfect time to sit in the warm tropical evening after a day in the garden and share a glass of wine. This is summer in my part of the world.

But that is just a memory.

It is now mid winter and the frangipani have dropped all their leaves and the bare branches reach for the sky.

But look closer, 2 very confused buds are just opening…

Like the world over the plants are quite confused with the seasons. It is supposed to be winter and  our dry season and temperatures should be cooler. But it has been the warmest April and May on record and now we are having record rainfall.

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Jude at “earth laughs in flowers” hosts a garden photography challenge and for June she says…

“This month I want to see what summer means to you. Still focussing on the garden or parkland let your photographs tell me your story of summer-time wherever in the world you live.”