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!  🙂

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Partners

This week’s challenge from WordPress is to show partnership in action.

Whether two of a kind or ten, give us subjects that are in sync with one another — show us partnerships. A pair, a trio, a sextet; people, buildings, plants — whatever you choose to shoot, give us subjects that are in tune with one another.

There are the traditional relationships that one could highlight, but I decided to go with a number in different circumstances. Taking the photos at the time, I certainly wasn’t thinking of this theme, however they all fit well.  As always, please click on a photo for a larger view.

Friends enjoying the gardens.

Can you see anything to eat?

Monument to a loving partnership.

The boys in blue ticketing a motorist.

Lorikeets love to cuddle.

Working in partnership to pull the religious chariot along.

Lorikeets having a chat while eating.

Hold that rope for me partner!

In search of fish together.

A couple of galahs watching over the world together.

2 kangaroo statues posing for the tourist.

Seagulls swooping on fish in unison.

I hope you have enjoyed my photos.  Here are more to see from other bloggers if you are interested.

Serenity….

I’ve been going through the 1000’s of photos in my catalogue and culling the multiples and not so good shots.  The digital age is great but the ability to take unlimited photos can lead to so much clutter. So that’s part of my job in the coming few nights.

I found one that I won’t cull.  For some time I lived on Bribie Island, located off the Queensland (Australia) coast — my apartment was directly opposite a pristine part of the island called Banksia Beach.  It’s protected water, so it’s popular with families, swimming, fishing and bbq’s. I took this photo when walking along the foreshore one afternoon, as a storm was building.  To me, it gives the feeling of peace and serenity.

Time..sometimes scarce, other times plenty of spare time…

Three hours ago I arrived home from a camping weekend, and had a look to see what the WordPress weekly photo challenge is — Spare:

Spare has many connotations: it can mean one too many, or sparse, or even to release something from harm. I’m looking forward to seeing your interpretations! Bonus points to those who tell the story behind their “spare” inspiration.

What came to mind was the camping experience I had these past 2 days. I haven’t been camping in a lot of years (maybe 30) and when a friend asked if I would like to go along, I tossed around the thought of whether I had enough spare time. I have a lot of things on my plate right now, so the temptation was to say no to the adventure. Instead, I rearranged my time (and priorities) and found the time.  A great use of spare time if ever there was one.

The time was spent at the Mt Barney national park, about a 90 minute drive from Brisbane (Australia) where I live. I always imagined camping to take place in the warmer months — not within a few days of the start of winter. But courtesy of a fire and some lively conversation, we managed to stave off the cold weather and had a great time. I’ve got some blog posts planned around the experience, and will be posting them to my other blog, The Experience Evolves in the future.