ANZAC Day - 25 April 2015 - 100 years centenary - We will remember them

On 7 September 1914 Norman Albert Clayden, a 19 year old Mercantile Clerk, originally from Pingelly where he had gone to school, his current address listed as C/- Hill & Hill, Wagin, Western Australia, enlisted, as did thousands of other young men from across Australia, only a month after the declaration of war on 4 August 1914.

Norman was a Lance Corporal and was assigned to the 11th Infantry Battalion AIF, H Company, a rifle company.

Following a period of training at Blackboy Hill Camp, Northam, the Unit embarked from the port of Fremantle, Western Australia, on board Transport A11 Ascanius on 2 November 1914.
The Ascanius formed part of the convoy of 38 troopships carrying approximately 35,000 Australian and New Zealand troops destined to join the Imperial Expeditionary Force. They reached the Port of Alexandria, Egypt on 2 December 1914, where they spent the next nearly 5 months before being deplored to Gallipoli, Turkey. 

Norman was shot in the head and killed on 2 May 2015 at Wire Gully on the Gallipoli Peninsula, only a week into the Gallipoli campaign.  

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Bushwalking at Hoffman's Mill, Harvey - Western Australia

Do you like bush-walking? Do you have a favourite walking track? 

I enjoy bush-walking when conditions are not too hot and the wildflowers are blooming. It is always a peaceful way to escape from our usual work-day lives. 

I also like to take photos of wildflowers, and I have always said you can always find something flowering in the Australian bush somewhere. And autumn is no exception.

Last Monday the rain eased and the sun welcomed a beautiful autumn morning. We hadn’t been bush-walking for a while as summer down here really is too hot, but with the arrival of autumn and a rare day to ourselves, we decided to take the opportunity to visit Hoffman’s Mill.  


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Raindrops on roses

Raindrops on roses I think have suited my mood this past week, and there they were in my garden, like silvery glass baubles glistening on the leaves in the autumn sunlight seeping through the grey clouds.


Autumn has come to my part of the world in Western Australia, and with it has come the rain that we have desperately waited for. It rained in a steady drizzle for several days, a good soaking rain, breathing life into our dry gardens and land.

I used a macro lens and shallow depth of field like F/5 to blur the background. Remember to protect your camera from the rain!

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Lunar Eclipse, Western Australia, 4 April 2015

On Saturday night 4 April during the Easter period I was thrilled to be able to photograph the lunar eclipse.  We were out in the central Western Australian wheatbelt visiting my family who farm in the area, so conditions were going to be perfect with absolutely no ambient light from towns, highways, factories etc. 

The total eclipse was due to be at its peak around 8pm. Early in the evening the clouds started to roll in, but I was able to get some photos during the early phases of the eclipse.  In simple terms the lunar eclipse occurs when the earth passes between the moon and sun creating what they call "the blood moon".

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Autumn arrives in Western Australia

Autumn has arrived in the south west of Western Australia. Although our Australian native trees are evergreen you can see autumn colour starting to appear in the imported tree varieties that are dotted throughout our towns and countryside.


On the weekend I celebrated the arrival of autumn by joining a water-colour workshop run by Marguerite Aberle at Lyndendale Gallery on Crooked Brook Road just out of Dardanup, about a half hour drive from my home. I had been promising myself to attend one of Marguerite's workshops for a couple of years, and what a joy it was to finally attend. The theme for the workshop was autumn colours.

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Continuing my 52-2 project

My regular readers may remember that in 2014 I completed a 365 project - one photo a day for a year. If you go to the link you can see my 2014 year in pictures - 365 project  It was a huge undertaking, but I found it hard to stop when the year ended so I embarked on a new project - 52-2. This is a project conducted through the Western Australian Photographic Federation and is encouraged by our local Photography Group of Bunbury. You can read more about it here - WAPF - 52-2 project

The brief for the project is to take two photos a week - one colour and one mono for 52 weeks. It is actually a great way to get into the habit of experimenting with mono images. I introduced my project to you on a blog post in early February - A new photography project for 2015 and I thought today I would bring you an update

PS - I did finish this project - and printed a book at the end - for some reason I haven't shared with you.  Sorry! 

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Melting Moments & Hydrangeas in the garden

Do you sometimes have a day when you set out to do something, and then it ends of as something completely different? That's how my day was today.

Inspired by a recent photo I had seen of afternoon tea in a lavender garden I made a batch of Melting Moments from my Mum's recipe that I used to help her make when I was a child. It is a happy memory I have from my childhood, pressing the top of the biscuits with a fork to make the pattern.

While the biscuits were in the oven I set up the chairs and table in the garden. 
It's nice to use pretty cups sometimes don't you think?




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10 things to do in Yallingup without going to the beach! - Western Australia

Some people would think it would be impossible to go to Yallingup without going to the beach. But trust me you can.

The Yallingup-Margaret River region in Western Australia's south west corner is well known internationally for the great surf.

In fact in April  "The top 32 ranked male and top 18 ranked female surfers in the world will descend upon the Margaret River Region to surf its world-class waves in April for the Drug Aware Margaret River Surf Pro. The event is expected to see thousands of spectators flock to Surfer’s Point in Prevelly to watch the world’s best surfer’s take on the famous Margaret River Mainbreak". Click here to read more -  Margaret River Surf

But what if you are not into surfing? I know I’m not. I never did master being comfortable in big waves. Give me a quiet sheltered cove like Meelup Beach any day.  

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Sol-y-Sombra and Flamenco at the Multi-Culutral Festival Bunbury

This last weekend in Western Australia we have had a Labour Day long weekend - 28 February to 2 March.

One of the events over the weekend where I live was the Multi-Cultural Festival held on Saturday evening. This is a family based free event showcasing cultural dances from around the world representing the fabulous mix of cultures who live in our region. There was also a fusion of wonderful international tastes sold at the various food stalls around the event.

I am involved with the Sol-y-Sombra Spanish Dance Company and School of Dance. This year they danced the "Fire Dance" at the festival.  Below is my favourite image from the night. This is our teacher Nicole. Don't you just love the swirl of those "fire" shawls?

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A forest of sunflowers

Today I have some creative writing for you - a writing group exercise this week.
My grandmother did have a huge vegetable garden, and there was a man that lived over the lane we used to visit, but I don't remember his name, and I don't remember any sunflowers, so this story is partly true and partly fictional.

A Forest of Sunflowers

There is a forest of sunflowers at the bottom of my grandmother’s garden, up against the back picket fence between the chook pen and the outhouse under the weeping trees.

The sunflowers are so tall that when we stand amongst them we can only just see over the top. We crouch down on the dusty dry red dirt amongst their stiff scratchy stalks. The sunflower heads are so big they form a canopy shading us from the hot sun and casting a yellow glow over us. Sometimes we take a book with us and read it sitting amongst the sunflowers. It’s our secret world where anything is possible.  As we doze in the sun the world of the Faraway Tree comes to life under the sunflowers.

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