Bascule bridge.....

I took the bottom photo in 2007 and you see here that the boats can come around the seawall and straight into the harbour. Shortly after this shot was taken in 2007/8 design and construction of a boardwalk began, to join up the North side of the Marina where the boat ramps are located to the South side where the permanent pens plus restaurants, cafes, shops and much more are situated.  The Bascule Bridge (Bascule bridge) or the 'drawbridge' as I like to call it.. much more romantic..castle's moats etc... was incorporated to allow the yachts that are berthed in the inner harbour to pass through. It has been a highly successful development linking the two sides of the marina into a hugely popular venue for both locals (moi!!) and tourists alike.....!

Life's not always black and white.....!!

                                          There's high contrast too.....
                                          Do you ever get those kind of days.....?

    There's something much more colourful on billsdiving today (billsdiving)...pretty.....!!                                                                                                 

Spring Festival King's Park II et fini.....!!

When you see one Bird of Paradise flower it looks so different and very exotic, I think when you see a large group of them together with their heads sticking up this way and that, they look like an alarmed herd of 'alien creatures' searching for the right direction to flee....In the second image I wanted to show how lovely the wildflowers look against the lush green lawns in Kings Park and the third picture is  simply because the mass of sunshine yellow daises just makes me happy.....Hope you have a happy day too.....!!

He, she and me.....!!

As we were heading home from yesterdays 'Outskirts' markets we came across this rather enticing window design going under the name 'Salon de Salope' described thus.. 'live window displays, fashion parades, performances, photography, sexy, sassy and a little bit cool' and it really was..!!  It was a little hard to tell the reflections from the real, even looking at it afterwards I'm not sure if the guy was inside or out, the model was gorgeous sitting there serenely  reading her book, and then there is moi, clutching my bunch of Ranunculus...I would have liked to take more shots as there were a few more glam models in the window, but it felt just a little bit 'voyeuristic'.....!!

On the outskirts.....!

Excellent way to spend a Sunday morning.. Aimee (ma belle fille) and I went into Northbridge which is just over the bridge from the city centre to a special market day called 'Outskirts'... 'pop -up' stores and events held in streets, laneways and local shops all along James Street. Aimee found a few 'vintage' bargains and tried on and bought a  'facinator' (above), I on the other hand bought a gorgeous bunch of Ranunculus and arrived home with my purse 'intact'!! All in all not a bad sort of day.....

Spring Festival King's Park 1.....

I thought after yesterdays rather 'icky' post something pretty was called for on this Sunday morning... Every year in September King's Park hosts the Spring Wildflower Festival (festival) and there are huge displays of wildflowers and plants from all over the world. I really should take more note of the names and where they originate, but somehow get caught up in the beauty of it all and forget the details....just a few of the flowers above are.. Everlastings, Kangaroo Paws, Boronia Blue Leschenaultia,Gilliam Bells, Wattle, Banksia and Bottlebrush....the smell as you walk through is blissful, the Boronia and Wattle smell just like.... Spring, funny that.....!!

Not for the faint- hearted.....!!

Honestly, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes and actually snapped each stage as it happened I wouldn't have believed it possible.....!! I'm not sure where he found the bone, maybe from a bin, he managed somehow to drag it off the road onto the grass. He flipped it like a 'Top Chef' to get a better angle and so started probably the most bizarre scene I've witnessed for a while! It only took him roughly five minutes to somehow get that huge bone down his gullet, he looked around with a very satisfied expression, and took off.....HOW !!! I can only imagine how long it would take for something like that to digest, if at all.....!! Hope your weekend is a little less 'weird'.....

Under the boardwalk.....

                                             Down by the sea  yeah
                                             On a blanket with my baby
                                             That's where I'll be....           The Drifters....
                                                                                           Sorrento Quay.....
                 
                                                                                          

             

Nimbus clouds over Sorrento Quay.....

The weather in Perth was fabulous yesterday, we had so much rain which hopefully will have topped up the reservoirs a bit for the coming summer.  In one of the few breaks in the early evening I dashed down to Sorrento Quay to see if I might catch a dramatic sunset but the cloud cover was pretty intense..in fact only a few minutes after I took this first picture it pelted down, luckily I could see it coming and made the 100 yard sprint back to the car in gold medal time....!! The second pic is me waiting at the traffic lights on the way home, no reason for this except that I liked it and felt the need to share.....!! Have a great day.....

Dib dib dib dob dob dob.....!!

Well it's not really a wood as such but there are a lot of trees in Perry Lakes Park, and when I was there a few days ago I came across this sculpture which brought back a few memories.... It's a sculpture with the fleur- de -lis symbol commemorating the 15th Asia Pacific/17th Australian Jamboree held here in 1979, I had to refresh my memory as to why Lord Baden Powell, founder of the scouts in 1907 had used this as the emblem and was interested to see how it has changed over the years (Scout Emblem).I remember it because it was in late December 1979 and a few weeks later in early January I had my son David, and also because my husband was a Scout Master at the the time and participated in the event with his 'troop'.  It was quite an amazing scene with over 10,000 young lads camping, and engaging  in 'scout like' activities and getting to meet fellow scouts from many different parts of the world..how amazing to think that one person's idea could take momentum and become such a huge world wide tradition.....!

Did you ever get that feeling.....!!

A short while ago every time I went out into the back garden to hang the washing I had the distinct feeling that I was being watched and it wasn't unfounded, this beautiful pure white cat had found a 'sun spot' and was often lying there when I went out..it didn't take me long to realize that it wasn't actually me she was watching, it was my bird family who started to get very 'skittish' when they spotted her..thankfully she didn't hang around too long and now it's back to just the Peregrine Falcon they have to keep a beady eye out for... it's all going on out there.....!!

Was that a tent flying by.....!!

Yesterday I went with mon amie Marie to an Antiques and Vintage clothing market at Hillary's Boat Harbour and although the skies look blue in the above photo you can see by the palm trees that there was a gale force wind blowing making the decision to hold the market in a marquee rather an 'exciting' choice.....!! The young lady in the first picture was a fabulous example of how to work the 'vintage look' from head to toe, she was very cool and has her own website (vintagechic). The young lady in the second picture is the beautiful grand- daughter of mon amie Marie who was running her own very popular vintage stall....We left the marina at noon and the marquee hadn't taken off at that point, it's not that I'm disappointed, but just think of the photo THAT would have been.....only joking.....!!

A touch of Sweden in the heart of Perth.....

After traveling the world Miss Maud (Maud Edmiston) landed in Perth, fell in love with the people, weather, beaches and never left, but there were certain things she missed about her homeland, Sweden, and thus the first Miss Maud's cafe in Perth was opened in 1971 and following on it's success with the Perth public, Miss Maud's Smorgasbord Restaurant on the corner of Pier and Murray Street in the heart of the City was established (now with a Miss Maud's Boutique Hotel next door) . Since those early days there are now 15 Miss Maud's at different shopping centres around Perth. Who would have thought Perthites would fall 'hook, line and Gravlax' for Swedish food, mind you the pastries and cakes are pretty special. I'd say Miss Maud definitely picked the right place to fall in love with and the mutual admiration is still going strong.....!! Very wet and blustery here in Perth this morning.....

Saturday morning shopping reflections.....!!

Now come on.....seriously, who wouldn't have liked to be pushed around the shopping centre in one of these fabulously fun little cars when they were little....!! Heck I wouldn't mind having a go now except that the seats are designed for 'le petit derrieres'  and one has to be realistic.....!! Hope you find your 'inner child' at least once today.....!! Happy weekend.

Rough swell.....!

We're back to a touch of wintery weather, not too much and we really need the rain... This fisherman is standing next to a 'no swimming' sign, methinks in this weather it should be 'no fishing' as well, those rocks can get slippy... one big wave and he's out of there...or maybe that's just me being a bit of a  'wuss' (roughly translated 'scaredy cat' in Aussie slang).....!!

Heaven scent.....!

For me the smell of Freesias is the quintessential smell of Spring, I love it and always try to have a vase of them in the house for as long as they're in season. Not far from where we live we have an area of bushland called Pinneroo Heights, Aimee and I often pass  through there on our evening walks, as we did yesterday just as the sun was setting.  Every Spring it's like walking through a magical, wonderfully scented garden, there are huge spreads of wild freesias with the odd wild orchid here and there, did I mention the scent....!! It's against the law in Australia to pick wildflowers thank goodness, it leaves them pristine to enjoy as you pass through and anyway it's only a few dollars to buy the commercially grown flowers...Is there a particular flower that reminds you of the different seasons.....? Rain in Perth today, excellent we need it.....

Bringing it on home.....

The sun is going down over Hillary's Marina and once again the Whitfords Volunteer Rescue comes to the aid of a sailor in distress, they operate 24/7, 365 days of the year in every type of weather condition. The service is made up of two vessels the 'Stacy Hall' a 12 mtr launch, call sign Green 1 and the 'City of Joondalup' a 11.5 mtr launch, call sign Green 2  both capable of rough sea rescues! Their area of operations is bounded by a line due West from City Beach in the South and  a line due West from the Alkimos wreck in the North and approximately 30 nautical miles out to sea and is run by a dedicated group of sailors who don't receive any remuneration at all.. pretty special I'd say.....!!

Looking left and right, North and South.....!!

When you stand at the viewpoint in  Kings Park and look to the right as in the top picture you see the Freeway heading South over The Narrows Bridge towards Mandurah, here where the Swan River widens is where many of the yacht clubs hold their regattas. Along both sides of the South foreshore are much sought after apartment buildings with fantastic views. When you look left as in the second picture, there is the City of Perth and the Freeway system heading North, that's my direction and it heads up to some of the best beaches in Perth, including Cottesloe, Scarborough and Sorrento..I thought it was about time I showed Perth, the big picture, in the daylight, what do you think of her.....?

So much more than the girl next door.....!!

The Regal Theatre in Subiaco, one of Perth's older suburbs, was built in 1936 in the Art Deco style and was named for King George V1 who had taken up the throne at that time.  It was originally a film theatre but was converted to live theatre in 1977 and is one of the few remaining small theatres in Perth, it seats 1074. There has been a great diversity of shows held here, running at the moment is  'Burn the Floor' (video), cool little video gives you an idea of the energy of this show, coming up The Freddy Mercury Tribute, Festival of Russian Ballet and Doris Day - So much more than the Girl Next Door...who doesn't love those old Doris Day and Rock Hudson movies, fantastic.....!!

High rise living.....!!

, 

I was out and about on Friday when a friend rang to ask whether I'd seen the nest of swallows at the local shops and that if I wanted to take a few pictures I'd better make it pronto because in his opinion they were about to flee the scene. I called in on the way home to have a look, and was fascinated to see where they'd built their nest and reared their young.. high up on a security box between the bakery and the supermarket the two young swallows peered down at the many people passing in and out of the shops obviously feeling quite safe. They did look very sweet up there and I took a few shots, went home put them down on the computer, not so happy with the lighting, thought I'd nip down and try again, all in the space of about 15 minutes...have to say my friend knew what he was talking about....gone, vamoosed, not a feather in sight, he knows his birds does Bob.....!!

If you look closely.....!

I mentioned that this years City to Surf walk/run was a little different for me as I wasn't walking with my 'friend and sometimes mentor' in our usual state of 'indifferent' but  actually mega competitive zeal!! As you can see in the reflection to the left side, the masses of people striding on by, normally this wouldn't be an acceptable situations for me, but I had spotted this double sided reflection of the flame tree and sidetracked in to take this shot (yup there I am on the stairs!), hopefully the pictures I've shown so far from this day were worth the inner vexation of  coming over the finish line 7,703, next year it's all on, seriously.. I'm not that competitive haha!.....!! Happy weekend reflections....!!

Superman....the early years.....!!

                                   Before life became soooooo complicated.....!!
                                   A touch of the 'whimsical' as we head into the
                                   weekend.....



                                  
                              

Industrial 'carnival'.....!!

The first views you get of Fremantle when driving down the beach road from Cottesloe are not the most attractive.. The coastal entrance into the beautiful old harbour city is very industrial, with the massive silver fuel tanks and the many cranes working steadily in the vast container yards. Fremantle has been the busiest port in Western Australia since the late 1800's, cargo ships from all over the world dock and unload their containers, cars from Japan and other places, in fact everything you could imagine arrives here and is prepared for it's final destination somewhere in WA....The big grey building in the center  of the picture is the Fremantle Port Authority building and the colourful building in front of the tanks is a surf life saving club, if you pull the image in you'll see the valiant group of surfers heading for the water on this cold day.....!! Looking at it again, it seems to have developed a sort of  'fairground' charm, it's doing a job and you have to appreciate it for that.....!!

Frilly round the edges.....!!

I know that there are many horticulturists working away in garden nursery's all over the world pollinating and cross pollinating plants of all different species to create the next flower with the 'WOW' factor.....!! I'm not sure what they've crossed with this gorgeous Pansy I bought recently to get the pale lavender frilly edge, but it certainly makes me happy when I step out in the morning.....!!

Le petit Pavlova's .....!!

A good friend of mine asked me to take pictures of her grand daughter during a parents and grandparents visit to her ballet school, these mornings are organized so that the parents can see their children's progress with their classes.. it was an absolute delight. All the mini ballerinas were adorable in their pink and lilac dance tunics and the grandparents were totally enchanted.....as was I, even though there were some moves that would have made Mikhail B 'wince in his tights' .....!!
Thanks so much for the 'get better' wishes yesterday, I think they're working.....!! p.s. 'The dreaded Lurgy' (The Goon Show) 1954.