For Tomorrow We Diet, On Pretty Plates

Steve and I have been doing a bit of spending lately. Like a new fridge - ours was about 25 years old, slowly conking out and way too small, so it's been rather fun having a new one. We bought a big Westinghouse fridge, with a skinny freezer attached alongside. I didn't think we'd need more freezer space as we have a deep freeze, but I stand corrected - it's FABULOUS having all this extra freezer and fridge room. And things are COLD!!

But rather than bore you with a photo of a rectangular white box that is chilly, I thought you might like to see our new dinner set instead - it's way prettier. We've been using the same crockery we've had for over 25 years.... a white dinner setting that was a freebie - a piece every time we did our grocery shopping at Woolworths all those eons ago. Fancy that eh. I'm not into spending a fortune on things that can break, but I do like pretty plates, and we both liked this 4 piece setting which was just under $60 at Big W. And what I was most impressed with is that the setting has 4 mugs in it, instead of cups and saucers that we never use. Noice huh.

Whenever Steve and I decided we need to shed a few kilos the only way we can do it properly and successfully is by calorie counting and writing down everything that goes into our mouth. It's a commitment for a good few months and we find it a great way to think more about eating, rather than just shovelling stuff in and trying to kid ourselves. So, over the last 10 years (which is when the weight starting creeping on) we've done this three times, so we have quite a collection of exercise books full of what we ate, what the calories added up to, what we weighed and so on. They are very handy to review. We are sensible, we don't starve ourselves and we eat regularly, basically just cutting down portion sizes a bit and cutting out as much fat as possible. And it starts TOMORROW

There's a bit of everything in this post! I took this photo at the Albany Wind Farm. It's an amazing place and impresses me no end - Albany is a large regional town in the south of Western Australia and has a population of around 30 000, and this Wind Farm produces about 70% of Albany's power needs - isn't that great! I really like this photo, it was a very cloudy day and I like the misty effect of the white wind turbines against the clouds... looks kinda spooky

I've been playing with macro photography today, testing the limitations of my camera. This photo is of a flower called Alyssum which is tiny weeny, and that ant that looks like a monster is a normal little black ant, who kindly posed for the shot. The actual photo is much larger than this, this is a tiny little crop out of the main shot, and I'm pretty pleased that the focus has stayed reasonably ok, soft but ok.

And for those who enjoy a bit of mystery, here is a macro mystery for you. What is it? When you think you've figured it out.... or if you have been driven insane and just have to know, the answer is HERE.

Holiday Photos

Last week we trundled down to Albany for a glorious week's holiday. Albany is on the south coast of Western Australia and is my very favourite place in the whole world, 15 minutes out of Albany to be precise, in the Lower King/Lower Kalgan semi rural area. One day Steve and I are determined to make the big move out of the city and settle down there on a couple of acres. It's funny, I always feel like I 'fit' when we get there - Albany suits my soul. Anyway, a few snaps....

At the place we stay, apart from 6 cottages scattered amongst the bird filled trees and grass, there is a paddock that houses two pet emus. Meshell and I used them shamelessly for many a photo opportunity. Emus are bizarre looking creatures I think, somewhat prehistoric. And what's with that curly bit on the top of its head!

The town swimming beach is known as Middleton Beach and this is the jetty. It's a beautiful spot.

This is one end of Little Beach, another beautiful spot. The sand is pristine white and the water is perfect aqua blue and the rocks are a divine mix of granity reds and browns.

I was playing around with shallow depth of field photos (when you get a blurry background) and I really like this one of the Willy Wagtail sitting on the fence.

We had a wee incident on the way home. There we were, tootling along at 100km/hr, towing Steve's little boat, when suddenly it seemed like the road had gotten rough. Nah, twas a pulverised tyre on the boat trailer! I've never seen anything so mangled before! It was a bit hairy for Steve changing the tyre on the skinny roadside verge with traffic screaming past at vast speed. But all was well, he and Paul finished the job and we made it home without further dramas.

Palm Cove, North Queensland

We spent the first week of our holiday in Palm Cove, in the tropical north of Queensland. It was extremely nice, very classy and lovely, with giant Melaleuca trees lining the paved street. Apparently they were growing there back when Captain Cook sailed past a couple of hundred years ago and he mentioned them in his ship's log.

We stayed at the Sebel Reef House, on the first floor. The balcony was a wonderful place to be, and we spent a lot of time there, soaking up the relaxing atmosphere and watching the world go by. I tried to photograph the balcony view by taking 7 photos, gradually rotating my way around the whole scene, and I've had a go a sticking the 7 shots together to make a panorama. The perpective's a bit off but I hope it gives you an idea. The beach was exactly 40 steps away - hard to take eh. :-)

This is the bedroom, isn't it gorgeous! The whole place seemed so Gone With The Wind. All white and colonial.

This is the main pool of the Sebel Reef House. Steve took this photo. It looks like something out of a magazine don't you think. But it's the finer detail of the photo that captured my attention. I'm in the photo, up the other end of the pool.


Complete with unglamorous wide open gob as I was about to duckdive to the bottom of the pool. My career with Vogue seems doubtful...


I had to wrap my head around the fact that being on the east coast the sun rises over the ocean, whereas here in Perth it sets. Regardless, the sunrise on this particular morning was amazing.

Guess Where I'll Be On Sunday!

Feet up, on the balcony, sipping something cold. Me and Steve. For two whole weeks! :-)

Holiday Snaps Part 3

The next port of call on our Tasmanian journey was to the Mt Field National Park in the south west, specifically Russell Falls. We've seen many photos of these magnificent waterfalls and were looking forward to seeing them.


Even with water levels way down and the waterfall only partly flowing, we weren't disappointed.


Just on from Russell Falls is the Tall Trees walk, which is another fantastic forest. Different type of forest though, still mossy but more light and open, with massively tall trees.

The next day we headed east to spend half a day at Port Arthur, a historical penal settlement. Enroute we travelled down the Tasman Peninsula stopping at a few interesting spots along the way.


This photo is a small section of a strange piece of coastal rock called the Tesselated Pavement, at Eaglehawk Neck. It looks just like rock tiles that have been man made, but in fact those lines are completely natural. Something to do with the fact it used to be under water and the sediment that built up cracked when the water levels rose, and then salt crystals grew in the small cracks and forced the rocks further apart.


This is some of the spectacular coastline along Eaglehawk Neck, near the Tasman Arch.

Last stop in Tasmania, Port Arthur. Port Arthur was established as a penal settlement in the 1830s, and over 2000 convicts were transported there from England. It was the transportation site for repeat offenders and had a formidable reputation. Port Arthur is also known for the terrible tragedy in April 1996 when a crazed gunman stalked and murdered 35 people. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about Port Arthur and its ruins, but oddly enough I found that when I was there I just couldn't associate it with anything terrible, it is a place of such beauty and peace.


This is just a small part of what Port Arthur used to be like. Many of the buildings were completely destroyed in the 1890s when 2 massive bushfires swept through.


Church ruins.



Hospital ruins.

The ruins of the Penitentiary, now just a facade.


Just out in the harbour is a very small island. It was here the Reverend of the time chose for the final resting place of deceased convicts, soldiers and their families. It is named "The Isle Of The Dead", and over 1100 people are buried there, of which about 900 were convicts. Very few headstones are to be found, and only 9 convicts were afforded that privilege.

After an interested and tiring day, we headed back to our Inn for the night, then flew to Melbourne for our last day's holiday. We spent 3 hours savouring the delights of the National Gallery of Victoria, then had a wander through the streets. We walked through an alley with tiny coffee shops called Hells Kitchen, and we came across this small section of the alley, which is adorned with the most fantastic graffiti art.



And that's about it! We had a great time, but it's always nice to be home again. And as we enjoyed many bottles of wine and huge quantities of food, we both have a bit of weight to lose!

Holiday Snaps Part 2

The next stop was Strahan, on the west coast of Tasmania.


We hopped on the steam train for a trip from Strahan to Queenstown, through the forest. I just couldn't get enough of all the trees, it was wonderful getting swallowed up by forest. I took about 280 photos while we were on holiday and I think three quarters of them are of trees!


The absolute highlight of our whole holiday was the Gordon River cruise on the Lady Jane Franklin II. We payed extra for seats on the upper deck and although it was expensive it was worth every cent. Absolute luxury! We had twin squishy leather seats angled towards the window, so it was like we had our own private viewing window, even though the boat held over 200 people. First was a cruise around Macquarie Harbour, and out past this lighthouse through the very narrow Hells Gates to the Southern Ocean. The water looks calm in this photo but apparently it is very treachourous due to big tidal surges and currents.


After that it was slow, gentle cruising down the World Heritage listed Gordon River. Perfect day for it, still and overcast, so the reflections on the water were amazing.



After a while we pulled in at a small jetty and we all went for a half hour forest walk.


Just look at this forest, isn't it the most amazing thing you've ever seen! And photos just can't capture it, it smelled exquisite and it was silent and ancient and mossy and just fantastic. I really like the way Tasmania provides good quality board walks and paths through forests, it protects the environment and also makes the walking easier.

After Strahan, we headed south and central to a lovely B&B in Fentonbury, about an hour west of Hobart. On the way we passed through some of hydro-electric areas of Tasmania, if I remember rightly I read that 60% of every southern Tasmanian's cup of tea uses hydro electric water that had been through 8 different power stations and provided power for all of them.


These hydro-electric water pipes at Tarraleah are MASSIVE. To give you some idea, that sort of dark brown square area at the bottom of the pipes is a big car park!


They say that little things please little minds and this was the first thing that struck me when we arrived in Fentonbury. Bumblebees! I've never seen one before and I love them - so fat and furry and gorgeous! So I had to chase one around the garden with my camera.




By this stage I was getting a bit excited about cool reflections in water, so out came the camera again down at the small lake where we were staying.


And the wild blackberries were ripening. Yummy

In the next (and final) Blog Post, we're off to Russell Falls and then Port Arthur.

I'm Baaack! Holiday Snaps Part 1

Helloooo! We are back from our Tasmania/Melbourne holiday and it was wonderful. We had fantastic weather, it only rained on one day out of the 18 we were away. Just to warn you, this is one of those boring holiday snaps Blog Posts! :-)


First stop was Melbourne, St Kilda to be precise. I liked this building, the old Palais theatre, and in the background is Luna Park. I felt lucky to be alive actually, after surviving the drive of a maniac taxi driver who drove at 110km an hour up the arse of any car in front, with one or sometimes NO hands on the wheel (he liked to slick his hair back whilst changing lanes), while we had to listen to his extremely loud Italian opera music. But hey, you can't say you've had a good holiday without at least one taxi story. :-)

First night in the hotel the phone rang at 2.30 in the morning, and I leapt up thinking one of the kids had burned the house down or something, but no...

"Hello, this is Andrew in Reception. I apologise for the late hour, but I need to know if a black overnight bag has been delivered to your room in error"

Me, half asleep and somewhat incoherent - wondering if this was a joke!
"Um, no Andrew, no strange bags here. The only thing that doesn't belong in our room is the pair of white undies that I found on the floor behind the chair".

Andrew in Reception - "Oh"



We were very excited to find out that the Dockers (one of the WA AFL teams) were playing the Kangaroos at the Telstra Dome while we were there. I loved the atmosphere of the Telstra Dome, the way it's all enclosed - like we were all part of some secret event that the outside world was excluded from.


After a quick one hour flight over the Bass Strait, we arrived in Launceston, Tasmania. Lots of lovely old buildings including this church that I was quite taken with. I keep calling it the 'fat' church - don't you think it looks fat? Churches are usually skinny. Regardless, it's very attractive.


One of the highlights of Launceston was a visit to Cataract Gorge, and at the end of the Gorge path was this chairlift that took us over and back again. I took this photo for Meshell as we laughed, imagining her having a coronary if she was up there with us. We were up very high!

After a very nice evening with my Tasmanian quilty friend Fran and her husband Graeme, we set off the next morning for Deloraine, which is in the central north. If you ever visit this area you must drive the Deloraine/Mole Creek road, it is absolutely beautiful countryside.


We were thrilled to spot a platypus in Deloraine's Meander River and another highlight was to see "Yarns" at the Visitors Centre. "Yarns" is a huge embroidery and surface design project which involved over 300 local people. Basically it's 4 huge panels, about 3 metres square comprised mostly of silk, but also wool, cotton and tulle. They depict the local area, each panel concentrating on a different season. It was amazing, this photo shows a minute little piece, the detail was unbelievable.


Onwards to Cradle Mountain. Magic! The drive there was stunning, mountainous and tree filled. This was our one day of rain and wind, and unfortunately that meant that the helicopter flight we had booked was cancelled. Never mind, instead we did the big trek around Dove Lake. You can hop on a shuttle bus which takes you down the mountain to Dove Lake at the bottom. The walk took about 2 1/2 hours and the first half was mostly boardwalks through the most amazing forest...all covered in moss, even the tree trunks.


After more open ground the second half was in store - lots and lots of uneven stone steps. We were knackered by the end! Never before have we been so pleased to see a shuttle bus, we collapsed on the seats and were very grateful for the ride back up the mountain! However, these big walks were good to counteract the extreme number of calories we were consuming in the way of yummy Tasmanian wine and cheese! The next morning we went on the Enchanted Walk at the Cradle Mountain Lodge. I couldn't get enough of the magnificent moss covered forests, they just took our breath away.

I think I'll continue in Holiday Snaps Blog Post Number 2, this is getting a bit long!

Holiday!

I'm so excited! This time tomorrow Steve and I will be on holiday in Melbourne, St Kilda to be precise. After a few days of pottering around Melbourne we then hop on another plane and head to Tasmania for 2 glorious weeks of driving around soaking up the wonderful scenery we've heard so much about. As we both have birthdays while we're away, we've decided to do something really special - a helicopter ride over Cradle Mountain, ooooo, I get all twitchy just thinking about it!!

So, it's a 3 week break from craft, Take A Stitch Tuesday, Flickr A Year Of Colour and work. Meshell and Paul are staying home with the dogs and the cat and the fish while we go off and have a wonderful time - thanks kids!

Bye!

A Year Of Colour - Blue

After being a total slacker and not participating in last week's colour which was Plum, I was a bit more excited about this week's Flickr A Year Of Colour as it's Blue. I love blue.


Meshell handed me her tube of crystals and suggested I photograph that. I took photos in all sorts of light and this one is my favourite, I love the way the sunlight is shining through it. Isn't it a funny thing - it's the end result of a kids' science kit that Meshell was given many years ago. You make up this jelly stuff in the test tube and pour some other stuff in and it grows these cool crystals.


This photo was taken back in 2004 when we had a family holiday in Exmouth, in the north of Western Australia. We spent the day at Sandy Beach with perfect weather, perfect water and perfect sand.