Hopetoun & Fitzgerald River National Park, Western Australia

Last October we visited Hopetoun and the Fitzgerald River National Park on Western Australia's south coast.

  Below is a excerpt from my latest article published in "On the Road" magazine , July 2012 - "Coastal Palatte of Colour" which I wrote following our trip.  As you scroll through you can see some mosaics of some of the glorious wildflowers to be found in the Park. 

Here is the opening page of the article 

A little cake for Friday

A little cake for Friday - yes you can have your cake and eat it too! Bought especially to photograph - but oh so delicious to eat.

Have a wonderful weekend - and let there be chocolate cake!

If you would like some more delicious delights - I would love you to come over to my food set on Flickr - just click here - Jill's Flickr food set

Enjoy!
and remember - if you have only one piece of cake, and three friends, remember the "rule of thirds" and make sure you have three forks!

If you have a food photography project coming up, let me know, I would love to help you with it! 

I value your comments on my page, and look forward to hearing from you.  

Photography project on a wet windy day

 We have had wet wild and windy weather here last week - two big storms within three days with cyclonic gale force winds, trees and fences down, roofs lost, boats wrenched from their moorings, trampolines tossed about, and power outages (some people without power for 1, 2 or 3 days - my friend was without power for 6 days!)  We lost part of our back side fence and lost power on Monday 6.30am to 4pm, and then Tuesday night when the second round of storms came, from 6.15pm till sometime in the early morning hours. 

An image I took in the dark on Tuesday night.....had to adjust the levels so you can see it!

The power is now back on and all is calm - so what would you do for a day without power?

Here are a few wintery images from around my garden.....

Monday is my day off my paid work - so this is what I did without power last Monday - 

- rummaged in the camper trailer to find a kettle so I could boil some water for a cuppa on the BBQ wok burner. Do you know the you can heat soup on there pretty well too for your lunch - a wok burner has a host of uses. Dragged out some candles in case we needed them tonight.

- brought in wood and lit the fire

- spent an hour or so photographing a few vegies in natural light outside under the patio - well that's all the light there was today - it was a good exercise for my food photography using TV priority. 

- when it stopped raining I pruned the lavender bush, and chopped out one that had died,  picked up fallen oranges from under the orange tree, and took some photos around the garden.

- rang the RAC & reported our claim for the fallen fence.

- edited a travel article. 

- spoke to my son and my father.

- delivered my husband up to school at 7am - he took kids on an overnight camp in Perth today!!!....fun! 

- sorted through a whole heap of dragon boat paper work going back years and ditched it all - they say clearing out is good for the soul. I can now see the corner of my study - well sort of - there is still a box of dragon boat stuff there....couldn't throw all of it - too many good memories. 

- decided the only thing in my fridge that really needed to be kept really cold was the milk and the sliced ham and left over roast chicken, so put them in the freezer. Lucky it was cold today. Everything in the fridge and freezer has survived. 

- My youngest son was sent home from work, as they closed the workshop, so have had his company today - he has been sitting doing his Word Sleuths all day. As soon as the power came back on at 4pm he turned on the "Wii" straight away!

*** What I didn't do - sit on the computer all day!!!! 

Here is some images from Monday......taken in natural light on my back patio.....
Peas.......

Garlic....sprouted!..... 

Honey fresh from our friends hives....sweet and delicious.............

some autumn leaves..........

last few lavender blooms...........

Raindrops on leaves...........

and a rosebud sheltered by the opening petals of the white rose -
with words from Mother Teresa......

"It is not what we do but how much love we put into doing it"   (Extract from her address in Rome May 1982)

for Kim's Beyond Layers e-class using her texture "peony'.

I've used 2 layers of the "peony" texture in "soft light" mode. 

To everyone in the South West of Western Australia, I hope you all came through the storm, and didn't suffer too much damage. 

I am linking up to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House. To see beautiful images from Mary and the other wonderful contributors at Mosaic Monday please click on the link - Mosaic Monday

Have a wonderful week.

I value your comments and I look forward to hearing from you.

Book Spine Poetry

The latest challenge for Kim's "Beyond Layers" e-course was for "book spine poetry". I hadn't heard of it before, but it was fun, looking through my shelves of books and putting titles together. 

Here is my offering. 

 Just read the titles - 

Rebecca
Whatever you do, don't run
Sinning across Spain
Eat pray love
In the Hands of Providence
Under the Tuscan sun.

 Had another go at "book spine poetry" tonight - using books all set in Africa.

Just read the titles -

Desert dawn
Dry water
Elephant dance
Slow journey south
Out of Africa

Two layers of Kim's "Zuzu" texture in "soft light"

To take look at Kim's blog and check out her fabulous e-courses - click here - kimklassencafe

Coral Bay, Western Australia - blue on blue

created from an image I took at Coral Bay

We have just returned from two fabulous weeks at Coral Bay on Western Australia's spectacular Coral Coast. The weather was warm, but not too hot, the water temperature was perfect, the snorkeling was fantastic, there was lots of people about enjoying the sun, we had a wonderful time with our friends who came to stay with us for a week and my husband got to do some fishing and bring home some fish - AND the relaxing relaxing relaxing - morning and evening walks on the beach, stunning sunsets, sitting under an umbrella on the beach reading a book, flopping around in the warm water snorkeling amongst the beautiful fish, taking heaps of photos, trying out my new underwater camera housing, having our meals out on the veranda, not bothering about TV or news or work or computers. A wonderful holiday all round. 
read on for more..........

CORAL BAY

Bikini girls tumble out of painted vans

Sun-kissed laughter and languages merge

In a kaleidoscope of sound

Mazarine ocean sandwiched between yellow sand and sapphire sky

The fringing reef a tumble of white on the horizon.

Bring the picnic baskets and spread out the beach mats

Sunhats and sunscreen and rainbow umbrellas

Buckets and spades

Build sandcastles on the beach

Families and children mingle

Grandmothers under sunhats read from beach chairs

Grandad tips buckets of water into the moat

Boys running send seagulls squawking from their patch of sand

Little girls in frilly bathers

Brown skin baking

Ice-cream dripping over chins and fingers

Kayaks cutting through the sparkling blue.

Pull on goggles and snorkel

Wiggle into flippers

Transport you to another world

Filtered light creating patterns on the rippled sand

Flashes of silver and gold just out of reach

Weave through their underwater garden

Little stripy peers at you through the glass

An open clam waits

A spreadeagled star fish guards his collection of shells

A turtle glides across the coral floor

Following his mate into the approaching shadows.

Time to shake the sand from wet towels

The last glows of light

Turn the sky pink, red and purple

Couples entwined linger

A guitar softly strums its love song

A heron stalks the shallows

Golden ripples whisper on the sand

                                                               by Jill Harrison May 2012 

Blue, so bright and crystal clear it is startling. Its warmth envelopes me, calm and soothing as I float in another world, weightless. Floating with the current, absorbed by the sights around me I can only hear the sound of my own breathing.

Fish swim around me in shoals, parting and reforming, flashes of silver and gold in the sunlight. Tiny fish in a myriad of colours and patterns dart in and out of their underwater garden.  I am close to the shore in only a couple of metres of water but the underwater world of coral and brightly coloured fish around me is amazing.

I am snorkeling on the Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay.  For someone like me who has never dived and has rarely snorkelled, the underwater experience was amazing, (made even more special by my new underwater housing for my camera!) and goes to show that nearly everyone can experience the reef. 

  

The Ningaloo Reef which stretches 260 kilometres along the North West Cape and covers 5,000 square kilometres, is the jewel of Western Australia's Coral Coast. It is one of the largest fringing coral reefs in the world, home to 250 species of coral and 500 species of fish and a prime conservation and sanctuary area as well as one of Australia’s great nature based tourism locations.

It is also one of the few places where you can swim with the world’s biggest fish, the Whale Shark which visits Ningaloo Reef from late March until July each year following the mass spawning of coral. Exmouth celebrates by holding its bi-annual Whale Shark Festival.

The Coral Coast and the Ningaloo Marine Park can be easily explored by staying at Exmouth at the top of North West Cape, or its smaller neighbour Coral Bay, 155 kilometres south. Both towns are geared towards tourism, but Coral Bay exudes a more casual relaxed holiday feel.

Most of Coral Bay’s small population is directly involved in catering for the hundreds of tourists that come here every year to catch the winter sun, experience the reef and relax on the beach that is only a stones throw from the front door of your caravan or holiday cottage.






Any time of day you will find people sitting on the beach, swimming or snorkelling on the reef that starts only metres from the shore. The town beach provides safe swimming for children and fish can be seen swimming in shallow water near the shore line, making it a favourite place for families. It also attracts many “grey nomads” judging by the number of retirees you can see sitting on the beach or in the water talking about their travels around Australia.

Dive tours are conducted daily from Exmouth and Coral Bay, but you can also experience the coral gardens of the reef by taking a tour on the glass bottom or submariner boat. For non divers, the submariner and their informative guides bring you in close contact with the underwater world. It is also great for children, who love seeing the fish through the glass. 

At days end ...... sunset walks along the beach......

Golden ripples whisper on the sand

these few words from the WA Department of Environment and Conservation sum it all up - Marine parks and reserves protect Western Australia's underwater wonders from top to bottom. We need marine parks for the same reasons we already have national parks on the land. Together they protect our precious plants and animals, above and below the water line.  
To learn more please go to Nature Base



Do you like the postcard at the beginning of the post? - I created this from one of my images, manipulated in Photoshop Elements with a technique taught in one of Kim's Beyond Layers e-classes.  To check out Kim's classes please go to her blog by clicking here - kimklassencafe
 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed these images and excerpts about Coral Bay.  I would love you to leave a comment - I look forward to hearing from you.

I am linking up to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House - please click on the link to see the work of other wonderful contributors. Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

The power has been off all day today, so I am a little late in connecting! and I know I wrote this a week or so ago - but I so wanted to share some of Coral Bay with you!

I look forward to hearing from you.

Discover Gold at Dundas, Western Australia

On the road between Esperance and Kalgoorlie? - for an interesting side trip off the highway visit the Dundas heritage trail just south of Norseman.
My article about the Dundas heritage trail -  "The Old Coach Road" - was published in On the Road magazine's June 2012 edition. We visited Dundas last October on our way north from Esperance. It was certainly worth the side trip and an interesting insight into life on the gold fields in the 1800s.

Please click on the link to see a quick preview - On the Road Magazine

The opening page to my article

 Here is a short excerpt from the article............

Travelling along a bush track amongst Eucalypt scrub on the goldfields we didn’t expect to see a cricket pitch.  It was cracked and worn, but remains as a tangible reminder of a long past community life. We found the pitch along the 25 kilometre Dundas Coach Road Heritage Trail just south of Norseman and we wished we had some cricket gear with us. 

The old cricket pitch laid in 1895 near the old Break O'Day minesite.  The fortnightly cricket matches were the centre of social and sporting activities for the miners and their families.

If you are travelling across the Nullarbor to Western Australia, or from Kalgoorlie to Esperance, you will reach Norseman at the end of the Eyre Highway. Instead of rocketing along the highway in your quest to reach Esperance and the coast, I suggest you take a break by turning off the highway and explore the hidden treasure that is the old Dundas goldfields. 

There are 10 stopping places along the trail which starts at the racecourse just two kilometres south of Norseman. Interpretive panels describe the fortunes and fates of the men and women who had come here with hopes of striking it rich, the harsh life on the goldfields, and an insight into Dundas’s short history. 

 Each site is well-signposted, and the route is easy to follow. Some sites have picnic tables or walk trails along the well-formed sand-gravel track which is suitable for 4WD, or 2WD in dry conditions.

 

Gold was first discovered around Dundas in 1890 by pastoralist William Moir, followed by prospectors Mawson and Kirkpatrick, who rode overland on horseback to Southern Cross to register the first claim, “Mawson’s Reward”, in 1892.  A townsite was laid out near Noganyer Soak in 1893, not far from the original Mawson’s Reward lease. However Dundas’s fortunes were short-lived when richer gold finds were found near present day Norseman when Laurie Sinclair’s horse, Hardy Norseman, uncovered a gold nugget in 1894. Norseman boomed and the town of Dundas disappeared. 

The old Dundas dam, built on a rock outcrop with stone walls to channel and hold rain.

At the site of the Dundas town near Dundas Rocks you can see a map of the old townsite. We read that Dundas was a ramshackle place of mainly tents and rough bush timber huts. Many of the town’s inhabitants disembarked into their new world at ports on the south coast, walking to Dundas with their wagons of belongings along rough tracks. As you wander about the abandoned townsite you can only imagine the struggling existence of the miners and their families.  Many were ill prepared for the heat and their basic living and working conditions, but strong bonds were formed as they learnt to reply on each other in their new harsh environment.

Quandongs were an important food for the Ngadju aboriginal people and settlers.  The thin layer of fruit wraps around the knobbly kernel which can also be eaten or ground to make flour.

 To read more about the Dundas heritage trail please see the June edition of On the Road magazine, or visit the Shire of Dundas website by clicking here  - Dundas -
 The click on "tourism" and "attractions" to find a downloadable pdf map of the trail. 

Feel, live, be - every moment is a gift

As I left work late Wednesday afternoon there was the beginnings of the most magnificent sunset. So instead of going straight home I drove to the beach, took off my shoes, and walked on the beach to take some photos.

It was a true gift.

I heard part of an interview with Burt Bacharach on the radio coming home his afternoon. He is in Australia doing a tour at the moment.

Burt is in his 80s and he said that he still loves to be able to make people react to his music, for them to feel something.

And it got me thinking - Is that why we enjoy our photography, why we share our images - we want to inspire people to feel something?

I know I am probably showing my age, but Burt's love ballads I am sure have inspired many people over his six decades of song writing.

And certainly now "what the world needs now is love"

You can read more about Burt here -
mellenevents.com/burt-bacharach-farewell-to-symphonies-to...

My image is overlaid with Kim's "Hope Filled" and "I Am" - fitting I think.

As my Flickr friend, cnocera1, so eloquently replied....

 Jill, you are absolutely right. As a photographer/artist our goal and hope is to convey an emotion - one that we felt when we observed a scene (good or bad) - or to evoke an emotion in the viewer. Inspiration is our gift and our reward. Thank you for inspiring me. Love your work.

Have a wonderful weekend and take time to spend with those you love, enjoy the sunrise-sunset, and smell the lavender!

Flamenco!

 Planta, Tacón, Talón, Gólpe, Punto, Taconeo - are all Flamenco dance steps terminology - which put together create the stamping toe and heel footwork that is typically Flamenco - a vibrant powerful passionate and seductive dance style - the essence of Spain.  

Flamenco dance has been  burning in Andalucía for nearly five hundred years. It is a a land where music and dance is just part of everyday life, and the Andalucians express themselves beautifully with the dance, and especially with the flamenco dance.  Andalucía burns with life, colour, and romance. It is a place of music and dancing, of plucked guitar strings, and the snapping of fingers, clicking castanets, and the stamping of feet, all of which mould together to create this wonderful culture we know as flamenco. From -  Flamenco in Andalucia 

 

 

Soly Sombra - Nicole from Soly Sombra is now running beginners Flamenco classes on Thursdays at 7pm at the Bunbury Art Gallery. Go to the link below for Soly Sombra to find out more.  
What to try something new - then come and join us -

Click on the link to learn more -  Sol-y-Sombra-Spanish-Dance-Company

Want to see more? - if you "Google" Flamenco or Spanish Dance on the web there are lots of "U-Tube" clips which will have you stamping your feet and clapping, and wanting to experience the passion and vibrancy of Spanish dance.

On Anzac Day we will remember them

25th April - is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand.

"ANZAC Day goes beyond the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915. It is the day we remember all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. The spirit of ANZAC, with its human qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity".

To read more - click here - www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/

In January we visited our national capital, Canberra. The images below are from the Australian War Memorial - it is also a museum which is an amazing place to visit - and I encourage all Australian's to visit at least once in their life time - and allow at least one whole day to see it. The museum takes you through all the various conflicts up to the present day that Australians have been involved in - and gives you an insight into what our "diggers" went through and the thousands and thousands of lives that have been lost.

On the wall of remembrance you can place a poppy next to the name of loved ones who lost their lives in war.

We found the name of my great-uncle Norman Albert Clayden who lost his life in Gallipoli on 2 May 1915 (aged 19), and
my husbands uncle, Richard Ramsden who died as a prisoner of war on 29 October 1943 in Burma (aged 23).

As they are both buried overseas, at Lone Pine in Gallipoli and at Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in Myanmar (Burma), it was wonderful to be able to place a poppy next to their name at the Canberra War Memorial.

..........

Tomorrow morning we will go to the Dawn Service in Bunbury which is an event that happens on Anzac Day all around the country in cities and towns, overseas where servicemen are still serving, where Australians and New Zealanders gather, at memorials in France, and on the shores of Gallipoli  where thousands go every Anzac Day to honour and remember.

The statue below is a copy of one originally forming part of a memorial which was erected at Port Said, Egypt, and unveiled on 23 November 1932, to remember members of the Australian Light Horse, New Zealand Mounted Rifles, the Imperial Camel Corps, and the Australian Flying Corps, who lost their lives in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria 1916-1918.  The statue was irreparably damaged during the Suez crisis in 1956.  The remnants were brought to Australia and two bronze replicas were made, the first erected in Albany, Western Australia in 1964. The second is this one in Canberra.

The memorial in Albany has been part of my consciousness all my life - and I have always been in awe of the image that the statue portrays of the two servicemen and their horses. Albany was the place from where Australian troops left on their way to fight in World War 1. For many thousands it was the last time they were to be on Australian soil.

Also on display in Canberra was one of the bronze horse heads from the original memorial, and now forming a memorial  to "Animals in War". For those who have seen the wonderful movie "War Horse", it is heart warming that a memorial has been erected in their memory.

Update - ANZAC Day - 25 April 2012

Images from this morning's Dawn Service in Bunbury

 After visiting Canberra, and researching and learning more about Norman and Richard, I found the Dawn Service even more moving and poignant as I thought about these two young men and the circumstances under which they died so far from home and how it must have affected their mother's and families.

Following the Dawn Service in Bunbury we were blessed with this beautiful sunrise - it was a timely reminder of all that we have to be thankful and grateful for.....

My sincere thanks to Flickr contact Stewart Glasson who took the time to research and send me links from The War Graves Photographic Project - click on the link here if you want to do research of your own - War Graves Photographic Project
which has lead us to more information about Norman and Richard - including an actual photo of Richard's grave site, and information about the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in Myanmar and background information and history about the war years and the people who are buried there.
We sincerely thank you. 

Processing with textures

This year I have been doing a e-course with Kim Klassen called "Beyond Layers", and have been learning lots about processing and textures.  

Here's a few from the last few weeks

 Day 23 - Pastel Processing.

Chrysanthemums  overlayed with Kim's "Now" texture added, and soft framing.

Day 23 - we were introduced to  "RadLab". - it is a processing package with lots of easy cool effects you just click on to get the effect you want. You can get a free trial - click on the link to have a look - Rad Lab

I have always wondered how people got these vintage sun washed tones - and here it is - easy as easy - in RadLab! They have all sorts of effects you can get at the click of a button!

Below you can see the before and after.

For day 27 of Kim's Beyond Layers e-course the challenge was to process one image three different ways.

I was given these delicious pears by my friend who owns a small property. And I photographed them this morning on my back patio - natural morning light - on a set of old boards. The plate is courtesy of my mother-in-laws china cabinet. 

The first image is with levels & saturation adjusted, the second is converted to black and white, and the third is overlayed with 2 of Kim's textures - "Thursday" and "Oh my".

I always think when you try new sorts of processing that is nice to show the original and the processed -

so here we have autumn mornings brought to you by Radlabs "cinnamon toast" processing - do you like the morning light glow?

Day 25.

This image taken last weekend on my sister's familie's wheatbelt farm in Bruce Rock - overlayed with Kim's texture - "I am" and one of her "Affirmation" brush texts.

This is a favourite walk when we are out at the farm.
Can you see the birds flying off over the hill?

You can check out Kim's blog, log in to receive free textures, and check out her courses by clicking on the link here - Kim's Cafe

I am linking up with Mosaic Monday - to see the work of Mary and other amazing contributors from all over the world, please click on the link here - Mosaic Monday

Take care and have a wonderful week.  I always look forward to your comments.