Sea urchin

Log cabin just before nightfall, Rosedale

This log cabin and its 2 adjacent companions found temporary fame not too long ago. This is why.

Moruya Quarry

The quarry where the granite blocks forming the pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge came from.

Sorry I can't visit as many other Daily Photos as I would like at the moment. I am away on family holidays, and my internet connection is a very slow-dial-up. But I can keep publishing!

Magpies

Parent and two children foraging for food on my front lawn this morning.

Open window, St James' church

St James' Anglican Church, consecrated in 1824, is the oldest surviving church building in Sydney. It was designed by convict architect, Francis Greenway.

It was originally meant to be a courthouse, and part of the Supreme Court of NSW ajoins it. In the picture below you can see the court building, and the spire of St James.

Christmas trifle

Layers of amaretto-soak almond cake, custard, peach slices, jelly with embedded cherries, and topped with whipped cream and strawberries. Mmmmm.

I'm off to the coast today for a couple of weeks, but hope to be able to keep pushing the appropriate buttons, dial-up permitting!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Children from Darlington Public School sang Christmas carols for retired teachers. What a joyous group they were!

Sublime to ... ?

A domestic follow-up to yesterday's sublime city illuminations...

As in other places, some people get very exuberant about their Christmas decorations. This house in the suburb of Matraville has a Luna Park entrance, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House and Centrepoint Tower. Santa was in a plastic-sheeting grotto under the Opera House sails. I couldn't get close enough with the lineup of kids waiting to see him to take a photo. On the road outside, there was a traffic jam, and ice-cream van.

Macquarie Street lighting

Macquarie St in central Sydney has a string of beautiful colonial buildings along it. Some, including this, were designed by convict architect Francis Greenway. For the past two weeks, and up until Christmas night, some of these Macquarie St buildings have been lit each night with a wonderful array of designs. Here is the Conservatorium of Music, reflected in a glass topped skylight to the underground library. I rested my camera on it to get a clear picture. The "Con" as it is usually called, was originally built in 1821 as the stables for Government House.

For some more of my photos of the illuminations along Macquaries St, click here.

I posted a daytime picture of this castle-like building on 3 June. You can read more about it here.

BBQ Santa

Aaah, work has shut down at last, schools have broken up for 6 weeks' holiday, all the presents have been bought and wrapped, so it's time for rest and relaxation. We'll be having a BBQ, and salads and summer fruit for our Christmas dinner. I might make an amaretto trifle too, I think. A project to contemplate today.

(Trifle - dessert consisting of layers of alcohol soaked cake, fresh fruit like peaches and strawberries, jelly (ok, jello for some!), custard and cream)

The Old General Post Office

A while back I posted a picture of the restored staircase inside the old central Sydney GPO (General Post Office) in Martin Place. Here's the crisp white linen tablecloths of an Italian restaurant in the colonnade. I think the setting LOOKS a little Italian.
Some much-needed rain in Sydney the past couple of days, and showers are forecast for Christmas Day.

Bill

For a few days every month Bill sells The Big Issue * on the corner of Foveaux and Elizabeth Streets, Surry Hills. He's the only Big Issue vendor I have seen with such an eye-catching display. December is a pretty special month for Bill and his lion mate, who always accompanies him.

I like Bill very much. He's always got a kind word for everyone and I've never seen anyone happier in his work.

Here's the card he was giving out:

*The Big Issue is a fortnightly current affairs and entertainment magazine that is sold on the streets of towns and cities throughout Australia by people experiencing homelessness or long-term unemployment. Vendors keep half of the cover price ($4) of every magazine they sell.

For Dad

Earlier this year my Dad died. He was always an enthusiastic player, and later conductor in brass bands. I came across these members of the NSW Fire Brigades band playing carols at my local shopping centre, raising money for the Children's Burns Unit. I said hello to them and gave a donation for my Dad. It turned out they knew and remembered Dad well. Unexpected things happen at unexpected times, don't they?

Staircase and stained glass, Queen Victoria Building

Stubbies

Stubbies = a brand of work, school and casual shorts

Hubbies = husbands

Bubbies = well, babies, but poetic licence for young kids...

Subbies = sub-contractors

Tubbies = overweight people

Gargoyle, Sydney University

Gargoyle looking over the main quadrangle at Sydney University. What a shame that G.A.S.U.S (The gargoyle Appeciation Society of the University of Sydney) had its application to form a society rejected by the Clubs and Societies office of the uni "on the grounds that it does not benefit the student community, and that Committee harbours concerns regarding the longevity of this club."

Read all about this travesty of justice here.

Sydney Tour

There's a lot of Sydney happening in this photo.
In the background, one of the most lovely of the colonial buildings, Hyde Park Barracks.
In the middle, the open-top tourist bus, of the kind so popular in many cities. I see these every day, as they "live" near where I live, and pass by near where I work.
In the foreground, a fruit stall with lots of yummy summer stone fruit. Great to pick up something for lunch when countering the effects of too many Christmas parties!
All Sydney's street furniture - kiosks, toilets, light and power poles (also pictured - they also double as banner holders and many also have a facility for chaining bikes), bus shelters, are supplied by French company JC Decaux.

A very sombrero Christmas

There I was at lunchtime today, travelling up the escalators in Myer's Department Store behind a couple of sombreros. It turned out we were headed to the same department - Christmas decorations. Then the sombrero wearers stopped to take a photo of each other. Being the kind person I am, I stepped forward and offered to take a photo on their camera of both of them together...and added that I'd very much like them to pose for me so I could also snap a pic. As you can see, these two lovely young women were more than happy to oblige. We wished each other hearty Merry Christmases all round. That's life in Sydney!

Workman

It sometimes seems as if walking through Sydney is an obstacle course, as landscaping and street paving and digging things up proceed. This fellow struck a serious pose when I asked if I could take his photo.

Agapanthus season

Now that the jacarandas have finished their flush of purple, it's time for the agapanthuses to show their stuff. They are a very popular street planting, like this patch along the footpath in Chalmers St, Surry Hills. Occasionally plant vandals lop off their heads, but I haven't seen any of that this year (so far).

Aggies are native to South Africa.

Windy Day

Oops, her hair and skirt have felt the effects of a recent very windy day.

Curtain wall modernism

The style of architecture of this office building in Surry Hills is not my favourite, but I found the colours of red and black, especially with the green of the hedge in the foreground worked reasonably well.

Nathalie and Sally

Yesterday I met Nathalie, fellow Sydney Daily Photo Blogger, for lunch. I had a wonderful time, and all too soon we had to part company to get back to our respective workaday lives. Nevertheless, there was time to prevail upon another luncher to snap a pic or two. Afterwards I realised we look like a human Christmas lunch - green and red ornaments on the Christmas tree of blogging!

Pigeon man, Darling Harbour

Most people would rid public spaces of pigeons. This man at Darling Harbour plays with them!

Chinese Garden Willow

One of my favourite places in Sydney is the Chinese Garden of Friendship at Darling Harbour.

Proud Mum moment! (What? Another cricket pic??!!)

For those of you who know (much less care) about such things, Australia today won the second Ashes Test cricket match against England, in an absolutely edge-of-the-seat finish.

That was fantastic, but for me even better was that my son's school team won a competition called the Arthur Morris Cup. More pics here. The presentation was made by former Test cricketer, Brian Booth, in the pavilion named after him at St George Cricket Club's home ground, Hurstville Oval. That's where the kids played, many of them for the first time on such a beautiful, professionally prepared turf wicket. Brian was also a Sydney school teacher, and is an all-round nice bloke.

The laneways of Sydney

Sydney has lost many of its interesting laneways over the years, particularly during the 1960s and 70s, when many were gobbled up by huge skyscraper developments. Now Sydney City Council wants to rediscover the lost laneways (see article). Rowe street was once the centre of "bohemian Sydney" and apparently boasted the first coffee shop. This trendy little hole-in-the-wall cafe is in Rowe Street, so it seems that a great start has been made!

Fig tree, Green Bans Park, Erskineville

Green Bans occurred in the early 1970s were when building unions refused to demolish old buildings with heritage value, notably in The Rocks area.

This park in inner suburb Erskineville came about in because local residents and the Council and the construction union combined between 1992 and 1996 to prevent the land being sold by the state government for development. It's a lovely oasis of green in a heavily congested and built-up area.

In the back ground is the building featured yesterday.

More about Green bans here.

Skippy

This wall of a now-closed business in Erskineville provides a fair bit of visual interest. Many may recognise 1960s TV star kangaroo, Skippy, and her "master", Sonny, in the top left corner!

More about the park in the foreground tomorrow.

Mortuary Station

This station in Regent St, near Central, was built for funeral trains to leave from, headed for the city's grand new cemetery, the Necropolis, at Rookwood. It operated from 1867 to 1948. Beautifully restored, it is rarely open to the public.

There was also a station at Rookwood Cemetery, which was dismantled in 1957 and transported to Canberra, where it was rebuilt to become All Saints Church in the suburb of Ainslie.

Below is the platform side, taken from Prince Alfred Park, across the railway lines.

There's more views at Sydney Daily Photo Extra.

Stepping out

This person, passing by a mural in the Devonshire Street pedestrian tunnel, looks to be stepping out of the mural. I'm not sure how I got this effect - was just playing around with the camera.

About 50 Daily Photo sites are participating in the 1st December theme, "A Photograph from the Waist Down". Please use the links to below to visit them. Due to time zone differences and other factors, the theme photo may not be displayed until later if you are viewing early in the day.

Porto -Greenville -Evry -Queens -Seattle, WA, USA -Stayton , OR, USA -Albuquerque, NM (USA) -Joplin, MO (USA) -Singapore (Raymond) -Guadalajara, Mexico -Santiago, Chile -London (UK) -Jakarta (Indonesia) -Bandung (Indonesia) -Melbourne, Aust (John) -Phoenix, AZ (US) -Twin Cities, MN -Newcastle upon tyne(England) -St. Paul, MN (USA) Carol -Szentes (Hungary) -Tuzla (BiH) -St. Paul Kate -Dubai (U.A.E.) -Nelson (New Zealand) -Sharon, CT USA -Tenerife (Spain) -Auckland (New Zealand) -Budapest (Hungary) -Sydney, Australia (Sally) -Sequim, WA -East Lansing, MI (USA) -Vantaa; Finland -Singapore (Zannnie) -Paris (France) -Kuala Lumpur -Shanghai, China -Sydney Aust (Nathalie) -Hyde (UK) -Akita City, Japan -Tokyo (Japan) -Rotterdam -Manila (Philippines) -Not Strictly Seattle -Stavanger (Norway) -Hong Kong -Chattanooga, Tennessee -

And, for Kim in Seattle, here's a link to some other snaps I took and rejected, as well as the red shoes shot from 13 July that she liked so much!

Industrial Relations Laws: "just not cricket" *

Police horses at Belmore Park in Sydney this morning, as workers assemble for a rally against the Howard government's workplace laws that take us back to the worst days of 19th century style exploitation. (Of course everyone was well-behaved and there was no need for the police and horses, but aren't they magnificent animals!)

The rally attracted 40 000 in Sydney, and 50 000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Melbourne, from where there was a satellite broadcast to 500 venues across Australia.

For more info about the issue, see the ACTU Your Rights At Work website.

For more pictures of the rally and march, click here to go to my Daily Photo Extras Blog.

Previous blogs on this issue:
No Laughing matter" - July 4 2006
March and rally - June 28 2006

News reports: Sydney Morning Herald, The Melbourne Age - "Just not cricket"
* "Just not cricket" - a phrase meaning not in the spirit of fair play, derived from the idea that cricket is a "gentleman's game".

The Ashes

Cricket is Australia's national sport, and a passion for many around the world. "Test" cricket - the highest level international matches - are played between (in alphabetical order!) Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, Zimbabwe (currently suspended), and perhaps in the near future, Kenya.

Notice a pattern there? How come Canada got away? Climate maybe? Still, Canada has a national team, as does the Netherlands. There are various cricket competitions in the US, notably in California, where ex-pats form the backbone. I have even seen a flyer advertising cricket in Paris!

Test cricket bewilders many from non-cricketing countries. It is played over five days, for about 6 hours each day, and there are breaks for lunch and tea! "Drinks" are taken in the field midway through each "session". To fans, Test cricket is almost a zen experience. Conditions constantly change, and there is always the variable of the weather to consider... The Captain of the Australian cricket team is probably the most famous sportsperson in the country at any time.

"The Ashes" is the name given to any test series played between England and Australia. This occurs every 2 years, alternating between the countries. To find out more about why it's called "The Ashes" - read here.

Australia lost the last Ashes series in England, and is out to avenge their defeat! Australia won the first match in Brisbane. The second starts in Adelaide on Friday. The series finishes in Sydney the first week in January, with matches in Perth and Melbourne in between. After the Ashes, New Zealand comes over, and a triangular series of "One Day" matches (a different form of the game played within one day) will be contested between Australia, England and New Zealand. I'll be off to see a couple of those matches.

Christmas fare

A feast of red and purple to liven up an otherwise dull and grey day today. With the record breaking drought and much concern about climate change, I wish it would really rain - not the half-hearted efforts we've seen lately.

The round shaped packages wrapped in cloth are traditional plum puddings. Even though a northern hemisphere hot Christmas feast doesn't make too much sense in the heat of an Australian Christmas, and we usually stick to cold meats and salads, I am a sucker for plum pud. With custard. A true culinary highlight care of the Brits!

Weekend card game

It's hard rubbish collection time. On Saturday my son and his mates dragged in an old lounge, a couple of chairs and some other bits and pieces from out on the street into our backyard. They amused themselves turning it first into a cubby house, and then into a Yu-gi-oh tournament setting.

Meanwhile, out on the street, there's some kitchen equipment to add to the kitchen sink you may recently have picked up on the street in Paris!

The Rising Sun as Australian Nationalist Symbol

The rising sun adorns the gables of countless houses of the Federation style (for my previous blog about this style of architecture: click here). It was a symbol of nationalism very popular at the beginning of the 20th century, representing the dawn of a new nation.

Australian soldiers began wearing the "slouch hat" in the latter part of the 19th century. In 1904, the Rising Sun badge was introduced, and in 1914, the hat, a khakhi hatband and the rising sun badge were combined as part of the official uniform, still worn by Australian soldiers. It gained iconic status in the battlefields of World War 1.

A brief history of the rising sun badge

Sunrise II, Botany Bay

Sunrise over Botany Bay, 5:59 am, Thursday 23 November 2006

I took this photo 4 minutes after the one I posted yesterday, and as today was overcast at sunrise, I thought it might be nice to have another look at this one! I love the gold shine to everything. This is exactly how it was - no touch-ups to the photo.

Tomorrow I'm going to have a little bit more to say about the "rising sun" in a couple of Australian cultural contexts - the military, and architecture, so stay tuned!

Fo a look at more photos of this sunrise, click here (Sydney Daily Photo Extra)

Pelican sunrise

Sunrise over Botany Bay 5:55am Thursday 23 November