Cappuccino at the Grand....

The Cappuccino strip in Bunbury where I live is lined by old buildings and flowering trees. This is the old Grand Central Hotel built in 1900. This glorious old lady now houses speciality shops - boutiques, jewellery, handbags shops etc, and of course a cafe.
In the background of the third pic you can see a modern highrise. Old and new blending together....

and a cappuccino
and pear and blue cheese tart..........


I hope you all have a wonderful weekend with time for cappuccino with good company.

Corella pears - sweet & crunchy with every bite!

This is a delicious new pear variety, Corella, (well new to us) that we discovered at the Bunbury Farmers Market recently. I am going back to buy more. It is absolutely delicious, sweet and crisp. And such a gorgeous colour! I just had to take it out and photograph it before we ate them!

There are some new varieties of pears principally come from crosses between Corella, Guyot, Rogue Red and Butirra Precoce Morettini.

You should try them if you see them in your market.

This has been my contribution this week to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House. To see the beautiful work of Mary and other contributors please click on the link here - http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/

Thank you for looking. I look forward to hearing from you.

Umbrellas of sunshine

Joanna, a Flickr friend from New Zealand, described this photo of Chrysanthemun as "The Chrysanths look like umbrellas of sunshine" - so I wish you all happy sunshine days over the weekend.


Do you ever have a day where the whole day disappears while you "play around" with your camera? On Wednesday I had a day off work, and before I knew it the end of the day had come and my husband was walking in the door. I had spent the whole day taking photos and updating my blog! At least I had put the washing on the line!

This is one of my photos I took - a chrysanthemun. They always flower this time of year in time for Mother's Day. I have a big bunch picked from my garden in the house. I took this one with the light coming through the windows through the petals.

Wish I had a macro lens! This is taken with a "close up" filter on my lens.

Food photography in my garden

I have had a day off work today, and so have been playing around with some food photography. Here are some of the results all taken in natural light - the only additional light being from a silver reflector to throw some additional light into the picture.

I have been trying to learn as much as I can about food photography and have been inspired by the work of several food photographers and their web sites.

Here are Cardamon pods in an old food scoop given to me by my mother-in-law

Eggs in an old serviette embroidered by me when I was a young girl - note the cross stitch!

I like the morning glow on the eggs.

Snow peas in two old enamel mugs - the green one at the front is an old mug that my mother always used to put gravy in and kept hot on the wood stove while the roast was being sliced. Or to keep a left-over in the fridge.

Star anise - these sure did smell devine when I was photographing them!

Thanks for looking everyone. If you would like to comment I would love to hear from you and would really appreciate your feedback. Thank you.

with love on mother's day

I am sending a special mothers days wish and love to my dear mother, mother-in-law, my sister,
And to my daughter-in-law and her sister, who lost their mother a few years ago.
And to our dear friend who lost her mother recently.
And to all our friends who are mothers.

Every precious moment with our families should be treasured, as time and the years slip by so quickly. May the love and joy of family always be yours.

Yesterday I spent a wonderful day with my family, including having a mother's day lunch with three generations of mothers, and our fathers, husbands, sons, grandsons and great-grandsons.

My sister was staying with us for the weekend, and last night we watched the "Mamma Mia" movie on DVD. It is a wonderful feel good movie.

One song in particular always makes me cry and I want to share some words with you - it is particularly relevant to me at the moment, and it is a reminder to savour every moment, and to not let these precious moments "slip through our fingers"....

Slipping Through my Fingers - by Benny and Bjorn

.....Slipping through my fingers all the time, I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time......
I let precious time go by........
Whatever happened to those wonderful adventures
The places I had planned for us to go
Well, some of that we did but most we didn't
And why I just don't know.
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers.......


Thank you for visiting my post which is my contribution this week to Mosaic Monday. Please join Mary and the other wonderful contributors at Mosaic Monday - by clicking on the link - http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/search/label/Mosaic%20Monday

I look forward to hearing from you. Take care.

The Pinnacles, Western Australia

We have just returned from a camping trip up through the wheatbelt and then down the new Indian Ocean Road from Dongara to Perth.

Here are a few photos of the Pinnacles just south of Cervantes.

The Pinnacles are located in the Nambung National Park, about 200km from Perth. The limestone spears, several metres tall, were created over millions of years as seashells were broken down into sand and then eroded by wind and water. They have been repeatedly exposed and covered again by shifting sand. Best time for photography is late afternoon.

There is a walk trail through the Pinnacles or you can drive the 4km loop trail, and get out at various pull-over points.

We were there in the golden light of late afternoon, and my daughter-in-law & I had a wonderful time taking photos. It is difficult to represent the scale of the place.

Don't forget close up details when photographing in the Pinnacles.

The Pinnacles at sunset overlooking the Indian Ocean.