Good night, buses.

Sprinter

From time to time there is discussion about the inappropriateness of the 'four seasons' model in much of Australia. It's certainly not appropriate in Sydney. Spring started in my garden at least a month ago.

Aboriginal people around the country had different seasonal models (see link below).

Dr Tim Entwistle of Sydney's Botanic Gardens proposes a five season model:

Summer: December, January, February, March
Autumn: April, May
Winter: June, July
Sprinter: August, September
Sprummer: October, November

Read more here.

Mosaic

Spring trees

TAFE College building, Mary Ann St Ultimo

Frank Gehry comes to Sydney

renowned American architect, Frank Gehry, is making his presence known in Sydney with this building-in-progress for the University of Technology, Sydney.

Merchant of Venice

Meet maria, who has a shop at Leichhardt called the Merchant of Venice.

She sells beautiful, authentic Venetian-made masks, and costume jewellery.

You can find Maria in the entrance t the Italian Forum, just off Norton St.

Winter afternoon

Friday perfection

Camellia japonica in my garden

Hula milk crates

Have a cup of coffee at Cafe Art in Surry Hills, and you could find yourself sitting on a hula milk crate, resting your drink on a double-decker.

It's a new use for all those old vinyl record storage units!

Spring 2 : Poppies in a vase

A huge thank you to my friend, Hainee, who organised for these to be sent to me at home while I recuperate.

Poppies, sweet pea and spring blossom.

Signs of Spring 1: Camellia japonica

"Officially" it's still winter here in Sydney, but the signs of spring are all around me, even in my small suburban garden.

Been confined to barracks lately after a small operation, so garden patrol is about as far as I have roamed.

Afternoon tea

One of the cockatoos which raids the mandarin tree in my backyard. 

Pavilion cafe, Maroubra

Plenty to look at from the corner window seat at this beach cafe. 

Orchid Sunday

Tiger in St Peters

This striking mural adorns the walls of a car smash repair and rust removal workshop in the inner suburb of St Peters.

Last light

Union Hotel (pub), Newtown

Development behind the screen

Not Just A Number

Word sculpture by Alex Woof, Amelia Calantzis, Catriona Calantzis, Elleni Karafilis, Rebecca Luhur and Rosie Wood. It was displayed at the recent Living Laneways "Handmade" market at Rockdale.

Its creators say:

"The word sculpture began its life as a national Youth Week 2013 workshop in Rockdale City Library. Under the guidance of artist Kelly Pearce we discussed which words were meaningful to us.

AUTHENTIC, ORGANIC, INDIVIDUAL, FORTY-TWO

"We ran our words through a barcode generator and over six sessions created four panels with our words and their corresponding barcodes. Barcodes turn everything including the authentic, the organic, the individual and forty-two into a number.

"Barcodes are everywhere. They're unavoidable. They can turn everything into a number....This is our way of reclaiming those words and their meaning."

Toy

This poor little fellow looked so lonely and abandoned when I came across him on the ground. So I picked him up and put him on the picnic table, hoping he's find his way home to his owner, or be adopted into a loving new home.

Tempe Recreation Reserve

A scene of tranquility just across the AlexandriaCanal from Sydney airport.  And there goes Flight QF7 to Dallas-Fort Worth.

Welcome to Rockdale

The area of the Cooks River along the Princes Highway that marks the northern boundary of the City of Rockdale, where is adjoins Marrickville Council is pleasantly landscaped, and a popular cycleway. From here you can cycle west toward the Olympic precinct at Homebush and east towards Botany Bay.

Ryde to Botany Bay cycleway map

Uniting Church, Newtown

"Smile Please"

This lovely Japanese lady stands outside a vintage camera shop in Newtown called "Smile Please".
They have a Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/smilepleasesydneysuper8mm.

I took in my Pentax K1000 to get a new case, and walked away a very satisfied customer. Now I'm keen to use it again after many years. Have to think of a special project worthy of it.

Enmore Road

This pretty much sums up the  Enmore/Newtown vibe: cyclist (defying the law and not wearing a helmet), organic food, mural art (over-written with graffiti), dogs...missing: cafe, of which there are dozens.

Turkish (de)lights

Ferah Turkish Homewares is another of my favourite Newtown shops.

Victory & Lore

These two lovely women have started a small local business called Victory & Lore, specialising in these great prints inspired by the area in which we live.

I was really pleased to see them at the Living laneways market in Rockdale yesterday, despite the cold, blustery weather.

Knitting is the new yoga

Anyone a knitter? The Granny Square in Newtown will supply you with all you need, and even teach you how to get started. (There's a branch in Katoomba too)

My mum was a beautiful knitter - she used to knit for Paton's pattern books. She made some beautiful garments for Ben when he was a baby, all of which I've kept.

Mum taught my sister and me how to knit and I made quite a few jumpers when I was younger. Haven't knitted for years now.

Vegan ink

Newtown is such a right-on suburb, that even your tattoos can be vegan.

On a chain

Development proposal

Some, but unfortunately not all local councils require anyone lodging a development proposal to display the notice of development at the front of the property, including what it is intended to happen, and details about how to find more information and lodge objections. This is in King St, Newtown. 

Ticket collection

If I ask you to collect some tickets from the Enmore theatre, do you think you'd be able to work out from where?

The Social Outfit

Meet Jackie, CEO of an organisation called "The Social Outfit", in their shop and studio in Newtown.

The Social Outfit: "Good to Wear. Made for Good".

The organisation seeks to create opportunities for new migrants and refugees in employment and education in fashion, design and retail work.

You can see the creative studio space at the back of the retail area in the two smaller photos.

Jackie said that their presence has been warmly welcomed by everyone in the Newtown community.

I have a dream...we have the dreaming

This is the last day of NAIDOC Week. NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines' and Islanders' Day of Observance Committee.  To find out more, click here.

The Martin Luther King "I have a dream" mural was painted in August 1991 by Andrew Aiken and Juilee Pryor (with Tony Spanos), part of a group of mural artists called Unmitigated Audacity Productions.

The Aboriginal flag followed later, after several changes: see here and here.

I believe the complementary mural "we have the dreaming" mural was painted in 2011.