Tag Archives: sydney

Natural (or Unnatural) Spring Wonders

Two completely unrelated photos, the only connection is that they are of the natural world.

Some Egg and Bacon Pea flowers besides the walking track at Mount Ettalong on the Central Coast last spring. Drought or not, the show must go on.

Blooming peas

And this is a sight that most of us won’t forget in a hurry – the sight of a blood-red bushfire sunset in the middle of the autumn bushfires last year, as seen from my backyard. This scene was repeated for weeks. Spectacular but not one I really would like to see repeated.

Bushfire Sun

August Frost

Hope you’re going alright out there in isolation. I’m alright here in Sydney. It’s certainly given me a reason to complete things that were let go months ago.

At the moment, I’m going through my photo archive for things that I missed out on posting in recent years. I’ll be posting these in the coming weeks. They might not always be related, but a bit of randomness these days isn’t a bad thing.

These pictures hail from all the way back from winter 2018, when we had a run of frosty days in the suburbs. Frost is a rare thing in our part of Sydney so I had to get my camera out.

August Frost

August Frost

August Frost

Winter might be just around the corner, but as long as you’re warm and dry, it’s not such a bad thing. It certainly gives me a better reason to hibernate, and not regret it.

Newtown Walk – Part 4

What makes Newtown very striking these days is the proliferation of street art.

Newtown Walk

It’s everywhere from the main to the back streets.

Newtown Walk

I like it a lot. As well as brightening the suburb up, it deters much of the vandals and gives Newtown’s substantial creative community much needed exposure.

Newtown Walk

Newtown Walk

Newtown Walk

It makes for an interesting walk, I think. Turn a corner, and you can come across touching tributes like this.

Newtown Walk

Newtown Walk

Newtown Walk

Newtown Walk – Part 3

Being an old suburb, it also has one of Sydney’s oldest cemeteries, Camperdown Cemetery, located behind St Stephens Anglican Church.

Newtown Walk

I find cemeteries fascinating places to walk through, and this one is the oasis of the inner west. I can indulge in my love of big moreton bay fig trees.

Newtown Walk

It’s no longer in use, but retains a very restful atmosphere. I think the plaque below is a reference to the many paupers buried here in unmarked graves.

Newtown Walk

However, I didn’t find the grave of Eliza Emily Donnithorne, whose story may or may not have inspired Charles Dickens.

2018 Knitting Projects – Part 3

The third project of the year was for my TAFE art studies (multi-disciplinary art) and was exhibited in the Bravery Unmasked exhibition at Casula Powerhouse Museum, an art centre in Sydney’s south-west. In the exhibition radiation masks, used to immobilise the head in cancer treatment, are turned into artworks by patients, their family and supporters.

The work is called Determination Cap and consists of a cowl and a balaclava-styled cap.

Determination Cap

Determination Cap

Cancer patients confront physical and mental challenges akin to those faced by generations of explorers, soldiers and mariners. To protect them from the elements, they wore woollen ‘caps’ knitted by their loved ones.

This cap has been hand-knitted in orange Australian wool to portray both the determination of those who journey with cancer, and the loved ones who support them along the way.