Welcome to Life Images by Jill

Welcome to Life Images by Jill.........Stepping into the light and bringing together the images and stories of our world. I am a photographer, writer and multi-media artist.
Focussing mainly on Western Australia and Australia, I am seeking to preserve images and memories of the beautiful world in which we live and the people in it.

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Sunday, 3 January 2021

December 2020 - Covid photo a day project

 So the end of 2020 has come and gone and we are now in 2021. I am not going to bring you any words of wisdom, and I'm not even going to look back over the year, because we all know the year we have had. And I am sure everyone's experience has been similar in some ways, or vastly different in others.  

But I am going to ask you to be safe and cherish precious moments with those we love. If this past year has taught us anything I think it has taught us that. I am going to look forward with hope for a better year and an end to the Covid 19 virus, for all people around the world. 

My Covid photo a day project continues, far longer than I expected when I first started it in mid March. Below are my daily photos from December 2020.


1 December 2020 - Tuesday - posting our Christmas cards

2 December 2020 - Wednesday - I love the cross-hatch pattern that the sun is making with my palms in my garden

3 December 2020 - Thursday - not much inspiration happening here. The view from the arm "heat" box therapy room at the Hand Therapy clinic.

4 December 2020 - Friday - we were surprised to see that the little birds that lost their babies to currawongs a couple of months ago (and 2019!) are nesting again in the same tree. I hope they have more luck this time.

5 December 2020 - Saturday - We had a stall at the Bunbury Market today and came home exhausted. So after we had unpacked the car we collapsed in a heap with some snacks and drinks.

6 December 2020 - Sunday - peekaboo! Look who we saw right by the path in Manea Park today - a mother kangaroo and joey - both totally unfazed by us.


More @ Summer colour in south west Western Australia


7 December 2020 - Monday - it's starting to look a bit like Christmas - giant Christmas tree at Eaton Fair shopping centre.


8 December 2020 - Tuesday - crafting some little note books for my writer's group Christmas gift.

9 December 2020 - Wednesday - Rusticana in Bunbury is a great place to buy fresh produce and the makings for your Christmas goodies.

10 December 2020 - Thursday - making my wrist bend on the hand therapy machine. It's about 2/3 the way better.

11 December 2020 - Friday - my writer's group held their Christmas lunch at beautiful Evedon Park in the Ferguson Valley.

12 December 2020 - Saturday - finally putting up some Christmas decorations. This is my rustic wreath.

More about an Australian Christmas here: Christmas in Australia


13 December 2020 - Sunday - our son's dragon boat club had their Christmas do at the Bunbury Dolphin Centre.

14 December 2020 - Monday - started to do some WA based trip planning for 2021

15 December 2020 - Tuesday - The Western Australian Christmas trees are blooming. These were along the Collie River walk in Eaton. More @ Western Australian Christmas Tree


16 December 2020 - Wednesday - the paddocks are taking on their summer colours

17 December 2020 - Thursday - playing Stock-Market with the grandies. I lost.

18 December 2020 - Friday - went for an evening drive to see some Christmas lights


19 December 2020 - Saturday - we were taken up to the Wild Bull Brewery in the Ferguson Valley by our son and daughter-in-law for lunch for our combined birthdays. I had a spicy squid salad. Delish

Bonus shot: After lunch we went up to the Wellington Dam to see the progress on the dam wall mural. More @ Painting the Wellington Dam mural


20 December 2020 - Sunday - a smokey firey sunset tonight along the Leschenault Inlet looking over towards the port facilities.

21 December 2020 - Monday - convergence of Saturn and Jupiter - yes I needed a longer lens and a tripod 

22 December 2020 - Tuesday - making little Christmas puddings, More @ A little bit of Christmas baking

23 December 2020 - Wednesday - summer fun on the water

24 December 2020 - Thursday - all shut up for Christmas break

25 December 2020 - Friday - beautiful sunset on Christmas Day evening along the Leschenault Estuary

26 December 2020 - Saturday - our apricots are nearly ready!

27 December 2020 - Sunday - the beach beckons - discard the thongs

Monday - 28 December 2020 - another brilliant sunset - from the porch

Tuesday - 29 December 2020 - a walk along the Leschenault Estuary at sunset

Wednesday - 30 December 2020 - the post Christmas sales are on!

Thursday - 31 December 2020 - a New Year's eve sunset cricket match at our son's block block by the lights of a 4WD. I am amazed they played so long. 

The end of the year has come and gone, and there still seems to be leftovers, though they are not the leftovers from Christmas, just new leftovers.

 Thank you so much for stopping by. For those who are sick, or have sick or dyeing loved ones, for those separated from loved ones, for those in isolation or quarantine or waiting for the result from a Covid test, those struggling with loss of income, our frontline workers, and those who are fearful of the future, I send you my heartfelt prayers and thoughts. I can only but imagine what you are going through. 

Unfortunately the turning over of the clock doesn't produce a miracle clean slate, we still have a long way to go, but if we look after each other we can come out the other side.

Numbers in the eastern states of Australia: New South Wales and Victoria, have been increasing over the last two weeks, and the other states have closed their borders to visitors, and returning residents must quarantine for 14 days. I hope we remain safe here in Western Australia and everyone does the right thing. 

Some words of wisdom from Pooh. 

Take care everyone, follow your government guidelines and stay safe. 

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!


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Monday, 28 December 2020

The Christmas in Australia edition


A few years ago a visitor to my blog commented:

"The opposite seasons in Australia always blows my mind. Here, we are just gearing up for winter.
So why don't I ever hear about hot temperatures in Christmas songs? Do Australians not sing? Or maybe the US is just too far away to hear Australian artists?" 

So I thought I would show you some of our Aussie Christmas.

Yes it is usually hot here in Australia on Christmas Day. Where I live in the south west of Western Australia it was 38 Celsius on Christmas Day and it didn't cool down till very late in the day, and in our capital city Perth it was 40!
But many of us still eat a traditional roast Christmas dinner and pudding. Crazy hey? It is a tradition that our ancestors brought from the UK. 

But others love their seafood, cold ham, salads and pavlova. And of course there has to be something cold to drink. No egg nog or mulled wine or hot chocolate for us! 

I also make little puddings - so simple, and the apricots in our back yard are starting to ripen. I love this time of year with the stone fruit so plentiful. 


After Christmas lunch we usually flop on the lounge in the air-conditioning and watch a movie or play a board game. For many back-yard cricket seems to be the thing to do. 


Many people head to the beach, if not on Christmas Day, then they go on Boxing Day. If we go out in the boat we might be lucky enough to have a dolphin swim up to our boat. You can do a dolphin tour at The Dolphin Discovery Centre in Koombana Bay. Lucky for us there are plenty of opportunites to 4WD along the beach to get away from the crowds. 

As well as a wreath on the front door, and a Christmas tree in their house, many people put up lights outside their house too. We enjoy going around before Christmas to see them. Also in Australia we have Christmas Carols by Candlelight events. Though sadly this year they have been limited or gone on-line due to the pandemic. I didn't know that Carols by Candlelight is an Australian event started 83 years ago! 

This year I made Christmas cards and some baubles filled with dried wildflowers 


And of course after all that eating we need to go for a walk The Leschenault Estuary is not far away and we see some stunning sunsets. 

And yes there are Australian Christmas songs: I must admit many of our Christmas carols and songs come from colder climates with snow. But we do have our own too. Have you ever heard of "Six White Boomers" and we have an Aussie 12 Days of Christmas. I've just found this link - 

But for an authentic look at an Aussie Christmas, I do like Ronan Keating's version of '"Summer Wonderland" - although the countdown at the beginning is from New Zealand. You can hear it here - 


So there you have it - a little look at an Aussie Christmas. Thanks to Mandy and Justin from With Love travel blog - http://blog.youreverydaytraveler.com/

Wherever you live and whether or not you celebrate Christmas, the thought of hope for the future from Jesh from All Seasons blog puts it perfectly -
"Christmas is for me all about light in darkness. Light always conquers."

I think that is very relevant for us all over the world today. 



Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you and yours are safe and well and have been able to spend time with your loved ones this Christmas. 

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!
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Monday, 21 December 2020

The Western Australian Christmas Tree

Hi everyone, I hope you and yours are going ok. I have a friend who is desperately trying to get home to her family in Western Australia for Christmas. I hope you will be with your loved ones this year. It would be a very sad time to be apart, especially after the year it has been, and I know that many around the world will be without a loved one. 

The Western Australian bush around where we live is alive with colour this time of year. I've blogged about it before: The trees are blooming for Christmas

The yellow of the Candlestick Banksia, the purple of the Jacarandas, the red of the Red Flowering gum, and the golden yellow-orange of the Western Australian Christmas tree - Nuytsia floribunda.  

This tree is actually the world's tallest parasitic tree. It occurs naturally only in the south west of Western Australia. Their roots parasite onto the roots of other trees or plants.

I read some astounding information about it the other day at Australian Geographic - Australia's giant parasitic Christmas Tree

"The Christmas tree is indiscriminate, stealing juice from almost anything green – grasses, sedges, carrots, weeds, vines, shrubs, eucalypts." 


Named moojar  or Kaanya Tree (kaanya, meaning recently departed soul) by the indigenous Noongar people, it has a powerful spiritual significance for the Noongar culture, who believed the spirits of ancestors rested in the branches. For this reason they stayed away from the tree, would not cut it down, and didn't disturb animals that rested under it. 

I read that it was prized for its edible roots and gum, but this may not be correct. There is an interesting web-post you can read more about this here: Anthropology from the shed - Traditional significance of the Moojar

However here is an interesting podcast which has slightly different information regarding the uses of the tree - abcmedia.esperance-Moojar tree

Up to 10 metres tall it flowers from October to January, though where I live we usually see it from early December. It is the only plant in the mistletoe family that has seeds that are wind dispersed. The flowers are a rich source of nectar for the nectar eating birds and insects for the insect eating birds.


Click here to find out some more fascinating information about this tree: ABC.net - native WA Christmas Tree

and Australian Native Nursery

A bit more information I found today:

The Sacred Mooja or WA Christmas Tree ~The Tree of Souls~
Don't Pick the Flowers!

"The Moojar tree (Nuytsia floribunda) commonly known as the Western Australian Christmas tree. The moojar was regarded as “highly spiritual” because it was associated with the spirits of the dead who according to the ‘old people’ “camped” on the branches and flowers of the tree on their way to Kurannup – the land of the ancestors across the Western ocean. They said to us: ‘We don’t like to go near this tree.’
The cultural significance of Nuytsia floribunda is well established in the early ethnohistorical records. Daisy Bates in an article in The Australasian (1926 in Bridge 1992: 150) refers to it as the “ghost tree” and in a later publication (1938) “the tree of souls.” Her Noongar informants call it the moojarr or “Kaanya Tree” (kaanya, meaning recently departed soul). Bates emphasises that this tree was sacred to all Bibbulmun people throughout southwestern Australia from Jurien Bay to the east of Esperance. She categorically states that:
‘No living Bibbulmun ever sheltered or rested beneath the shade of the tree of souls; no flower or bud or leaf of the tree was ever touched by child or adult; no game that took shelter beneath it was ever disturbed.’ (Bates 1938 in Bridge 1992: 153)"

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed my post today about the native Western Australian Christmas tree. We enjoy seeing this splash of colour in the bush this time of year. 

For those who celebrate Christmas I wish you a very happy Christmas spent with those you love. For those without their loved ones I hope that you will be reunited soon or can be comforted by happy memories of them. I know this Christmas will be like no other, but I hope you will feel the peace and joy of Christmas. And for everyone, a safe and healthy conclusion to 2020 and a better 2021.

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!


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.

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