Year: 2013

Out on the ocean the first thing you do is discover your sea legs. Not everyone has them. Assuming all is Ok on that front, you quickly appreciate that watching the whales is so transitory that you cannot be a blogger, photographer and raconteur all at the same time. Something has to give, so in…

I got a newsletter from the Mayor today and it was almost exclusively devoted to preparing for the Storm Season. Yesterday was the first wet day ( just a few showers in the morning ) since my return to Australia mid July. So it is dry – but people take it very seriously here and…

I grew up on an island famous for its citrus fruit and its potatoes. There was nothing like travelling through the orchards heavy with flowers and inhaling that sweet unmistakable scent of orange and lemon blossom.  There would be festivals to celebrate the fruit and parades of floats made exclusively of oranges and lemons. A…

A stone’s throw from Brisbane and with a linking bridge it was the obvious choice for a lazy Sunday outing and what fun it was. It took us just over an hour to reach. We parked and wandered off and within minutes we found ourselves on this long stretch of beach with people picnicking, swimming…

I have been a little late in posting this. Just too much going on. EKKA is a wonderful show not least because of all the variety and this posting is dedicated to the animal side of it which after all is how it all began. A day is hardly enough time to go through all…

The EKKA is on – and the town is abuzz with it now. It is the Brisbane Exhibition Show – the time that country meets town, when all those years ago the livestock breeders would come to display their stock, show off the latest agricultural machines and meet other country folk.  It is called Ekka,…

For those of you who have followed my blog you will know that I am keen on the fauna and the flora. I spent the weekend leafing through “The wild plants of Greater Brisbane” and I am keen to share some of them with you as they show themselves to me. You have to admit…

Walking out today I was struck by one thing- the blue, blue of the sky with not a cloud in sight.  I rushed back home to get my camera so that I could try to capture that light for you and the way it penetrates the world in which I live while the sun warms…

Today’s visitor in the frangipani tree, now denuded of leaves, is this frill necked lizard – I saw it from the house, to give you a measure of its size, and I rushed down to get a closer look. Little green tree snake was sunning itself, by the pool,  while this elegant gentleman with ruffles was…

The return to down under was relatively smooth and the day that greeted me was crisp with clear blue skies and a lovely temperature of about 20 C. This is the time, now that it is officially winter, to explore the markets and venture out a little further and I did just that recently going…