Summer sunsets

 Hi everyone. I hope you and yours are doing well. 

I am enjoying my little blogging break, but I just wanted to share with you a few sunsets. When we walk in the mornings during autumn, winter and spring we walk along a couple of bushland paths near us, particularly when the wildflowers are out. We have a few options, including two very close to home along the Collie River and the Manea Park Reserve. 

But in summer as it is here now in Australia, it is way too hot to walk in the mornings, so it has become out habit to walk after dinner, on a circuit that takes us along the Leschenault Estuary only a few minutes from our home. We have seen some beautiful sunsets. 

If it has been a very hot day like yesterday, there is a cooling breeze in the evening coming off the Indian Ocean just beyond the sandhills on the other side of the Estuary. It really is a lovely place to walk in the evening. That is part of the Bunbury Port facility you can see in the background of this image. 

It is a popular place for family picnics and also for people to go scoop netting for crabs or take their dogs for a walk or swim. 

I usually just take my phone, so I can't expect anything too spectacular, but sometimes I take my big camera and play around with some shots. 

That's it from me today. I hope you are yours are doing well and staying safe. Remember to smile behind those masks - people can see it in your eyes when you do. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 
I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

MosaicMonday at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf
Sharon's Sovenirs 
Our World Tuesday
Pictorial Tuesday 
ThroughMy Lens 
Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera 
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity. 
       and Little bird - Pienilintu
Thankful Thursday 
Welcome to Nature Thursday
The Lovin' Life Team over at: Deep Fried Fruit

Hello there! I love reading your comments. If you scroll down to the bottom you can comment too! I would love to hear from you.

Little blogging break...continued....

 Hi everyone. I hope you are doing well in these worrying times. Last week I told you I was having a little blogging break? We went down to our south coast to Albany so I could do a contact print ecoprinting course at summer school (more on that later) We had a great week, but life conspired to throw us something left field that we have to put our energy into dealing with. Nothing that cannot be handled, but I am just taking a little while to get all my ducks back in a row - ie get myself organised....

So..... little blogging break continued for this week.....

Stay safe everyone and keep smiling behind your masks - it will show in your eyes. 

Little blogging break this week

 Hi everyone, I am taking a little blogging break this week. See you next week. Till then stay cool if you are in Australia or warm if you are in the northern hemsiphere!

2021 - And that's a wrap

 I everyone, I hope you have all had a safe and happy Christmas season and New Year. I wish you and yours all the very best for 2022 and thank you for visiting my blog over the past year. 

And so we come to the end of 2021. Like 2020 it has been a mixed year of anxiety, some people have been sick or lost loved ones, many have been isolated and restricted in what we can do. Rules have been placed on us by our governments in order to keep our population safe from Covid 19 that is running rampant across the world. 

As one year closes and another opens bringing with it new opportunities, I take this time to look back on the year that was 2021. It is a great opportunity for me to look back and remember the past year - so easy to forget isn't it? I hope you will indulge me as I look back.... or at least look at the pics! (smiley face)

January - Clockwise from top left - I took photos at the Forza dragon boat club's hosted regatta in Bunbury, we watched the South West Opera Company's SWOCC on a truck in the park, I made my first masks, we enjoyed some beautiful sunsets as we strolled along the estuary at sunset after dinner, I attended a watercolour workshop with my sister in the Stirling Street Arts Centre in Bunbury, and I made tomato and grape chutney. 

I was still doing my Covid photo-a-day project and I see I also had my first attempt at paper making, and of course there was also fun at the beach. 

February - we went to the Chinese lantern festival for Chinese New Year, visited Wellington Dam near Colllie to see the completion of the dam wall mural, went down to the beach during a summer storm, attended a natural pigment making course with Helen Coleman in Mandurah, photographed the glorious red-capped gums, and enjoyed lunch at Green Door winery in the Ferguson Valley. I also danced with Sol y Sombra Spanish Dance Company at the Multicultural Festival. 

You can see more of February at my Covid photo-a-day project. 

March - I eco-printed some upcycled shirts in preparation for the Tree Street Art Safari, exploring the Sculptures by the Bay in Dunsborough, we had an amazing dolphin experience when out in our boat in Koombana Bay, I had a very successful day at the Tree Street Art Safari in the beautiful Tree Street area of Bunbury (many thanks again to my wonderful host Maggie in Banksia Street), we visited  Denmark on the south coast to visit my elderly aunt (these are karri trees in the pic), and photographed the beautiful pink Rosea marri tree. 

See more at my Covid photo-a-day project, which was a 12 month project I completed at the end of March. It really was a great way to record the year. 

April - I had a very successful market stall at the Dardanup Art Trail with 3 other ladies, remembered our fallen on Anzac Day, enjoyed local daily walks, explored the Collie Mural Trail, resurrected an old Easy Money game to play with our grandsons (an alternative to Monopoly), and photographed banksias in our bushland 

oh.... how could I forget....I was thrilled to win the photography section of the Dardanup Art Spectacular with my photo of a ghost fungi taken at our son's block. 

May - seems like May was a quiet month as we slumbered into winter. 

However we did take our caravan down to Northcliffe where we enjoyed the Northclliffe bush walk art trail, and bushwalked in the towering Karri forests. Our son had the drive way laid into his block, I attempted to photograph the lunar eclipse, and I attended a natural ink making course with Helen Coleman in Mandurah. 

June - we relaxed by the Bunbury waterfront, started enjoying oranges from our back-yard tree, photographed the pincushion Hakea, enjoyed a lunch in Busselton, photographed sunflowers in my garden and took a walk along the river in Donnybrook while my husband was visiting a school for work down there. 

And I danced with Sol y Sombra at a Western Australia Day event in Bunbury. (that's me far right in this pic) 

See more from June here - Random days of June

July - Part way through July, to escape the winter, we hitched up our caravan and headed north for about 6 weeks up to the top of Western Australia. I have just remembered I haven't shared that trip with you yet, so I will have to make amends with that in the coming months. Until then, here is a snap shot - 

We walked on some gorgeous sunset beaches (this is 100 mile beach), saw some amazing wildflowers (these are mulla mulla), hunted for dinosaur footprints in Broome, went on a boat trip to see the waterfall reef at Cygnet Bay,  had a perfect almost beachfront camp at Gumbanan bush camp on Cape Leveque and saw the staircase to the moon for the first time over the low tide mudflats - truly wonderful. 

August - our trip continued - we saw some amazing country (this is a Millstream National Park), saw some stunning wildflowers (the Sturt Peas and the wildflowers were exceptional this year), saw brolgas dancing on Pardoo Station, saw a dugong in the wild for the first time at Shark Bay, gorge walked at Exmouth  (unfortunately the weather was no good for snorkelling on the Ningaloo reef while we were there), and finished up seeing amazing canola crops at my nephews farm in the wheatbelt. 

What amazing camping sunrises and sunsets we had. I feel so privileged to be able to travel about our stunningly beautiful and varied country. 

September - We held a 40th birthday celebration party for our youngest son in a function room at the Dolphin Discovery Centre - such a wonderful day. Spring is the time for wildflowers and we went hunting for wild orchids and wildflowers whenever we could, we went to the annual Blooming Art Exhibition at the Bunbury Art Gallery held by the Flower Designers Club of Bunbury - always gorgeous. 

and we attended the 30th birthday celebrations of the Forza Dragon Boat Club - here I am cutting the cake with the two other life members. Sadly the guy on the right side of the pic below, Grant, the founder of our club, died suddenly from a stroke only a few weeks later. Which goes to show you need to do whatever you can, as you just never know. 

October - In October we spent a few days in Nannup and went bushwalking on several trails in the area. That is a huge karri tree along one of the trails, a rattle beak orchid, and a tavern we went to in Nannup for dinner one night where we had a delicious curry.  I, along with others from the Photography Group of Bunbury, took photos for the Bunbury Triathlon Club event. The blue flower is a Blue Lady orchid in our local Manea Park Reserve, our lemons were fruiting so I made lemon butter. 

November - my main event for November was being awarded runner up at the Photography Group of Bunbury for points awarded for images presented to their monthly exhibitions during the year ..... for the third year in a row....

December - The year finished with a final walk out to Manea Park to see the slipper orchids which flower in summer, I held a successful pre-Christmas market stall (despite it being a very hot day!), the red flowering gums are looking spectacular, I received a package from Creative Native who used my quandong image on the front of their cookbook and on their quandong Christmas pudding, I made some little Christmas puddings (so easy and no cooking), and it was so hot on Christmas Day that my grandson fried an egg in a pan on their driveway. 

We had our booster injections last week, but I feel we are still vulnerable to the virus, but hopefully the affects will be milder because we have been fully immunised. We have been very fortunate that our state, Western Australia has been very safe from the pandemic over the last two years, but with our borders opening at the beginning of February, I fear that the virus is just waiting to jump over our doorstep. I am not looking forward to that and fear for those I know who are unvaccinated. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. As the sun sets on 2021, I hope 2021 has been good to you, and 2022 will be safe and happy and productive for you and yours. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. Take care. 

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!
   
MosaicMonday at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf
Sharon's Sovenirs 

Our World Tuesday
Pictorial Tuesday 
ThroughMy Lens 
Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera 
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity. 
       and Little bird - Pienilintu
Thankful Thursday 
Welcome to Nature Thursday
The Lovin' Life Team over at: Deep Fried Fruit

Hello there! I love reading your comments. If you scroll down to the bottom you can comment too! I would love to hear from you.

Christmas in Australia

 Hi everyone, I hope you all had a happy and safe Christmas. 

It was so hot on Christmas Day that our grandson fried an egg in a pan on the driveway. On Boxing Day we measured the temperature under our patio - 43C (109F)  and over 50C (122F) in the direct sun! - thought we had better bring the thermometer in before it exploded! 

A lot of people here go to the beach, but we elected to stay home and relax most of the weekend. Far to hot outside for us. 

It got me to thinking about Christmas past when I was a child and we lived in a weather-board house with no insulation and no air-conditioning. And my Mum cooking a Christmas roast dinner on a wood stove in over 100F heat! 

Here are a few lines taken from a poem of memories I wrote recently...

Do you remember sister.......

Laying reading on the cool passageway lino on hot summer afternoons.

The Secret Seven for me and the Famous Five for you. 

The delights of push-up ice-creams,

with luscious strawberry syrup at the bottom.

Fruit Loops eaten straight from the packet.  

Cordial iceblocks in a plastic cup. 

And Dad buying bucket icecreams with little spoons at the drive-in. 

                                    (this one below says chocolate, ours were strawberry)

Summer holiday cottages at Palm Beach and Safety Bay.

Doublegee prickles in the yard,

the enclosed verandas looking out to Penguin Island.

Swimming lessons at Palm Beach,

I was too scared to lift my feet off the bottom.

Burning hot sand and rocks at the beach.

Jelly fish as big as dinner plates at Como beach swimming lessons. 

                                    (some old pics of my sister & me from the 1950s-60s)

Evening walks on the jetty

watching the crab nets being pulled.   

Dad stringing Christmas lights in our pine trees,

the Salvation Army singing carols under our corner street light.

 Laying on a tarp on the back lawn on hot summer nights

gazing at the stars and playing I spy.

Grape vines on the trellis,

and making grape jam on the wood stove in the heat of summer,

squishing the grapes in my hands for their juice.  

Running under the sprinkler

and playing in the bath on hot summer days,

sliding down the sloped end,

flooding the floor with water.

Simple pleasures

I remember them well.

Do you have simple pleasure from your childhood? Perhaps you would like to share them in your comments. These days summer holidays seem to demand more zip and going places and doing things and whiz-bang. Perhaps I am getting old, perhaps I just yearn for the simpler days when we kids were content with less. 

But whatever the decade or age - there must be icecream and a cold drink and somewhere to relax in the shade with a good book. 

Wishing you and yours a very safe and happy Christmas spent with those you love. 

Here is a little summer Christmas video for my friends in the northern hemisphere:

(ps - it starts with Maori New Zealand counting)

Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Stay safe and have a wonderful week. 

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!
   
MosaicMonday at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf
Sharon's Sovenirs 
Our World Tuesday
Pictorial Tuesday 
ThroughMy Lens 
Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera 
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity. 
       and Little bird - Pienilintu
Thankful Thursday 
Welcome to Nature Thursday
The Lovin' Life Team over at: Deep Fried Fruit

Hello there! I love reading your comments. If you scroll down to the bottom you can comment too! I would love to hear from you.