We had a lovely visit to Green Head on the West Coast of WA around this time last year. I had fun snapping what ever looked interesting at the time.
Day 17 of 30 days of Creativity
Nature
Day 11 of 30 days of Creativity
Some photos I took using my mobile phone while at the beach (Geographe Bay) while walking my (borrowed) dog, Roy.
Day 11 of 30 Days of Creativity
Today I will write on the following prompt: Would we be happier if we were living closer to nature?
It is easy to say a resounding YES to this question however I can only answer for myself. I love nature and enjoy watching the birds, kangaroos and cows that I sometimes spot through my back fence.
We had a full height fence and earlier this year replaced it with half-height to enable us to see what happens on the other side. It is just a small stand of peppermint trees based in the corner of a farm that has been partially redeveloped. It is fenced off from the public so we get exclusive viewing rights (along with some of our neighbours.
It is wonderful to stand in my kitchen and be able to see kangaroos nibbling on the grass. We get plenty of magpies, willy wagtails, silver-eyes and sometimes we get parrots (who annoyingly like to eat my geraniums).
Farmer Bell occassionally allows his black angus cows to graze in the area as well. They are big impressive animals that seem to freeze on the spot when they spot me looking at them.
With the warmer weather coming on we may get some reptiles visiting us as well. We have had two tiger snakes (deadly) in the past few years. We also get skinks, bobtail lizards and frogs.
Ours is a small ecosystem but so very easy to access. I find nature to be calming and inspiring and that has to be a good thing!
Featured
Bridgetown, West Australia
We are just back from a couple of days away in Bridgetown – just over 100km to the east of where we live. I took some photos of flowers from the garden where we stayed and one of the view from the back verandah. It was very quiet and peaceful. Just what I was seeking!
7 Days and 7 Photos
I am leading a University of the Third Age group in a Course called “Unleashing Your Creative Spirit”. On the first week I suggested a 30 Day Creativity Challenge where we would each do something creative everyday for 30 days. I didn’t get many takers unfortunately.
I tried again today (Week 6) and we compromised to do a 7 day challenge. Participants can choose their own topics out of a range of suggested ones. I agreed that I would take part and would commit to doing one photo a day using my digital camera rather than my phone. I recently enrolled in a Photography Course but have only just started.
Tonight as I was putting out the bins for collection I was captivated by the evening sky and raced in to get my camera. I am sure I will do better when I learn how to use it (at least I hope so!). So anyway, here is my photo for today:
Just popped in to say hello!
I haven’t written for a while. I keep meaning to and have had lots of ideas for posts (can’t remember what they were now!)
There is a lot going on at present. I am leading two University of the Third Age courses (philosophy discussion group and learning about creativity). I have also signed up to an online photography course – Digital Photography masterclass. Hopefully in time you will see some improvement in my photos.
For now I will include a few photos I took with my iPhone – spur of the moment shots. I love to see the trees in winter with no foliage but the bright blue sky beyond.
Stormy Weather!
Palms in back yard 
I have been watching my palm trees flourish over about six years. We had some wild weather overnight and woke to find some carnage in the back patio. I was quite shocked as we are rather fond of our palms. After a few hours of thinking about what to do next (can’t find a replacement for the broken one) we have a little project on our hands – and we all need projects at the moment :). Maybe it is time to transplant four of them (the casualties) into bigger pots and rethink their colours and positions.
We are fortunate considering that some people had a lot more damage to their properties and long power outages.
A SPECIAL GIFT
The pretty blue fairy wrens had nothing to do
When one of them spotted a pretty blue stone
One said “I will fly close and inspect it for you”
He soon called out for help to carry it home.
Just at that moment very close by, a little girl is born
She is very sick and might not live
Her parents are indeed quite forlorn
The fairy wrens decide they have something important to give.
They magically carry the precious blue stone to the babe
And cleverly hide it in her tiny navel
They disappear quickly into a nearby cave
And wait for news via twitter or cable.
The little girl is now better and going home to stay
Her lovely eyes are becoming a pretty shade of blue
The tiny blue stone glows within her each and every day
As she gets older the wrens decide to give her a clue.
She learns that the little blue stone
Is full of love, wisdom, truth, beauty and kindness
It is always there to help her when she feels so alone
It frequently helps her out of a mess.
Inside she becomes beautiful, wise, honest, loving and kind
But others don’t seem to know about her little blue stone
She wants to tell them, if they look carefully, they too will find
There is a special gift inside each of us waiting to lovingly bring us home.
NB. Looking back through my old writing files and came across this one I thought I would share.
South West Australian Wildflowers
I did a blog recently about the Busselton Wildflower Exhibition and my involvement in promoting the event that was held last Thursday and Friday.
Below is a gallery of most of the flowers on show at the Exhibition. There are strict rules about what flowers can be picked in the wild and the quantities allowed so as not to impact on their sustainability for future years.
I found it impossible to choose just a few! Our local Geographe Community Landcare Nursery had some native plants on sale – the bottom few photos.
A trip to Darwin …
B52 
B52 
B52 
The tail of the B52 Bomber 
Me at Mary River picnic area. 
Darwin sea views 
Darwin sea views
A week ago we arrived home from a short holiday to see family in the Top End or Darwin, Northern Territory. It is about 4,800km N/NE of where we live. We visited the Aviation Museum as you will gather from the photos above. I was really taken with the size of the B52 Bomber. It was a central feature and the other planes were placed around it. I actually bumped my head on it (trying to get underneath) and wouldn’t recommend it!
We also went for a drive of around 100km to Mary River on the Arnhem Highway. I lived in Arnhem Land for a stint in the 1980’s so enjoyed seeing the landscape once again. The ocean shots are taken from the The Esplanade park area in the City of Darwin (population around 150,000). To me the water looked a bit sinister with the knowledge it is crocodile territory.
The weather was wonderful. I was a bit amused about the newspaper article about the cool weather. It was much warmer than we were getting at home.
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