Summer breeze….

Here in Australia it is winter. Some friends scoff at that, and I guess, having experienced a north American winter, I can understand why.  But the major difference here is that our homes aren’t set up for cold weather.  No such thing as furnaces, instead we exist with various types of heaters, and if lucky, a wood heater. Anyway, I digress.

I’ve been going through my photos in a bid to decrease the total (currently sits at about 7000). I came across one that reminded me of days gone by, back when I was a teenager and enjoying the Christmas holidays, and the visits to the beach that my parents always made.  At some point my best friend’s father offered to teach us to surf the waves. We were clumsy and fell off a lot, which I guess is pretty common for newbies.  But in the end we got a handle on it and started to enjoy the experience of being in the water.  One place I love here is Caloundra, which back in the 70’s was somewhat smaller and a place with little shanties and workers cottages, a place to come and experience peace and quiet.  These days there are pockets of that kind of place, but they are fast being lost to high-rise apartments to satisfy the tourist trade.

I had a brief stay at Caloundra in 2015, and took this photo from the balcony.  What struck me was that this view hasn’t changed all that much.  There were still those magnificent Norfolk Island Pines, and out in the water were the surfies.  However there were also people trying their skills with the new fad, stand up paddleboarding.  You can see a few of them in this photo. Caloundra is also situated close to the deep-sea nautical passage that scoots down the east coast of Australia, as evidenced by the large oil tanker further out to sea. I’ve always been drawn to the sea, not so much for the beach, but for the peace that I seem to feel from sitting by the water.

When I saw this photo, I also remembered a song that was in the charts in 1975, the year I started working, and shared that time with surfing. So long ago, but this song really highlighted the 70’s for me.  Ahh memories!  🙂