Time to plan the new beginning!!

Yes only a few days left before your New Year's Resolutions have to be noted and dreamt about. I don't know how many times I have given up alcohol this Christmas and how many time I have tried not to reach out for those amazing cream-filled chocolates some considerate friend gave to us. Do these photos remind you of your stuffing days?

OOPS!! A relative!! But then a cute one!! I hope his Mom and Dad don't mind!!
Happy New Year Jo, Ruben and Duncan!!

These two, not related, but as at any time... entirely irresistible!! Again I hope their parents won't mind my using their pictures.

So this year my usual early to bed and early to rise motto has been challenged...we are invited to bring in the New Year in a BIG way!! Much bigger than the 9:30pm snooze which I plan and follow each year. BUT...will there be enough ice for our drinks?
SO....A Happy New Year to you all and may your suffering be minimal in the New Year!!!

So who on this earth is Santa?

Two days before Christmas and I read in the paper how a museum in Southern Germany wants to claim the original Santa. In their history books they claim that Father Christmas was actually a Catholic attempt at defeating the popularity of the Protestant St. Nicholas, who we from Europe know as the original gift giver. It was St. Nicholas (Nikolaus) who knew all the good children and all the bad. If you had been one of the bad...LOOK OUT!
The clue as to why the Catholic family introduced Father Christmas, the origin thereof, lies in the terminology...Father! Interpreted by the museum to be only of Catholic intention.
However the museum also discloses that the Coca Cola company of the USA designated the red coat to Santa and so ....all the rest is...HISTORY!  ......Commercial History is it not?
Father Christmas?....Here?....I don't believe it!!

No, it is true! Father Christmas came to visit us on the French boat Le Boreal...in Antarctica.
Can you imagine the French cooking...the wines...the filled swimming pool...the gift giving for the children etc.. It was enough to make you want to believe in him.

 Come on!! Get out of the water and meet Father Christmas!!





Meet Who? Who did you say to meet? But I'm not dressed!!!

We found our peace in a small church.
And one of the tourists knew that the Almighty had been keeping an eye out for him as the competent staff on board had managed to orchestrate the young Americans survival after three heart attacks.



So I wish everyone a very happy holiday season...Father Christmas or no Father Christmas... it is the time to wish everyone Peace and Good Will!

Heating Up!

SO... is this hot temperature sending you into a melting sweat covered frenzy...if you are lucky enough you are able to rush to the air conditioner? But who will pay those exorbitant electrical bills? Not me ! I refuse to pay a cent more to those electricity sharks. Instead...think water! Swimming...do what the animals have been doing for ages. 41 degrees is not hot.... or so my sage in residence advises me. Wait till summer starts. It has started...December1,,,remember? Oh!....Yes! Where was I?  Think WATER!! Find a BEACH! Or a WATERFALL!!

Admittedly these two, the waterfall and the beach
are in the North island of New Zealand. By the time you get there the heat wave will be over.






But then again there is always Turkey....but don't go now because everything could be covered in snow
A bit like the Pyramids of Egypt...Brrr! Brrr! Feeling cooler already?
What a shock for the Aussie Gum Trees lining the roads in Egypt! And who doesn't believe in Climate Change Now?

This is  more like it!! Shell Beach in southern WA.

 Or the superb fishing spot near Esperance WA.

 We are getting closer! Someone dropped their screws on Cottesloe Beach.

Yes near Albany the beaches are plentiful! And so are the ROCKS. Did someone mention the Great Whites....sharks that is...not the waves! But the sharks you can meet anywhere on WA's coast...never mind a short dip will cool you down no matter what!

This little fellow lives in the river at Ascot Waters. It is a protected nesting area and all kinds of bird life inhabit the area. Motor boating is banned. Nevertheless plenty of canoes can be seen carefully weaving their way through the man-made channels.

Then of course there is MONKEY MIA...further north. You are allowed to hand feed these friendly creatures!




Would these images be considered as boring photographs? I don't think so. The water in all its shapes is available to all. So get off the couch and let Nature cool you down!

Guayaquil...Equador !

Where? Where? I can hear you saying but, it is more than a pretty place with its massive gardens, open squares and beautiful architecture not to mention its mighty river. The power of the current as one stands mesmorised is quite frightening and makes one thankful of not being on the water on one of the many sailboats. Well, I was anyway, seeing I am one of the sea-sick sufferers from way back.
This city is the doorway to those willing to fly to Galapagos and this we did. But to my surprise we now have a young family from this city living in Ascot Waters. And it is for them that I was motivated to show some of the photos I managed to snap on our visit there.

Many figures representing the freedom fighters and strugglers for democracy are found all around the open spaces. My fascination for the history of this city saw me, like all intense photographers, miss an obvious step, thus sending me flying onto my face. Luckily my Canon D40 had been strapped around my neck....so I dusted myself off and looked sheepishly at the rest of the photographic tour group as if nothing had happened.

 The train was for the littllies outside MacDonalds but the walk by the river and through a number of parks (rain forrest) kept us shooting as we toured. 'Stacks on the mill' we found near our hotel and the tree Iguana also littered the pathways. A splattering of black liquid excrement almost had me convinced that we were due for a summer rain shower but no, as I traced the muck through my hair I looked up to find many, many of these creatures balancing on the tree branches and happily looking down at me.

  Nice animals really and not at all aggressive.

Horrible Heart Stopping start to the day!

Have you ever lost all your photos from the computer all at once? Of course they are backed up on the hard drive (external) but who wants to go to all that trouble to re-install and to admit to your computer expert partner that you have messed up?
And last night, I recall, proudly discussing the great photos I have discovered in my older files all ready for next year's competitions. But that was at the last meeting for the year when the best of 2013 were chosen. I did manage to get one mention so, better than nothing.
 But, to return to my lost Lightroom collection...yes, it has never ever happened before so how could it have happened over night? Disaster usually strikes during the early hours of the morning...low blood pressure...darkness looming everywhere...the long day ahead threatening any possibility of further sleep...the bedside clock, its numbers dropping or should I say increasing every time your head is turned..... so how did the file Devil sneak in and do his/her work?
I don't know,  but the shock was enough to make me break out in a sweat and I hadn't even arrived at the doctor's rooms yet to have my stitches removed. I imagined the good doctor his nose in my breast snipping and staring at his good work of a week past and deciding to give me the good news to make me feel better about it all. How was he to know that anything he thought vaguely represented Good News would not cheer me up? Instead I vaguely smiled to encourage him in his good work and thought of WA...no not Western Australia....but the other what we all know stands for WA in WA.....Wait Awhile!!   The doctor commented...I know what you mean. I have found it so in all the restaurants I've been to....I wasn't listening!

I felt a light bulb moment which reminded me to hurry home and look in my recycle folder...yes, restore...do not delete...how clever I am!!!!
And this pussy cat caught my eye in the missing collection and in Turkey. And what a scarred life it had led! I am not actually a cat lover but how could anyone resist adding this face of concentration to the files...plotting and planning!
In direct contrast to the sly looks given as we inspected the home of Mother Mary...mother of god!
He obviously liked the challenges provided by the cameras surrounding him.

And so, the photos of these two Turks with their wandering eyes, were almost lost when the file monster came in the dead of night and decided
that they were too handsome to be ignored....but I rescued them and all ended happily.

My almost published Blog!!

Yes I did write one two days ago but when I couldn't find the appropriate photos I deleted the lot. Not so in my list of blogs...the deleted one still appears...almost.
So I'll continue and thank all the members for their votes...you have made my day...I can't believe that you have chosen as the favorite my first attempt at the 'double exposure' competition. It is all very encouraging!! Thank you so much.
Either you all love olives so much or this photo really has value.

Today is the first day of summer and of course Amazon and Google will deny this but we know for sure in Australia. And even though our temperatures are not as high
 as usual I have a nice photograph which will make you
 want to run to the beach despite all the shark attacks!! Yes stop pacing yourself against the clock!

 Ignore the clouds. These watery images are only
the automatic sprinklers...it will never happen. And I took these photos during my early morning walk
exercising my Canon G 15.

 Admittedly I had to visit the Galapagos islands to record what some families do hail, rain or sunshine! Don't forget to click on the images to enlarge them.

To Holger...whose beard is grey and long as are his memories!

Yes a few more for you and anyone else who professes to know about these things. I appreciate the history and the roles the machines played but other than that.....not much. Although I did live in this State in the 70's...from 73 on! Anyway where else could I show these photos and have them appreciated?

 Teeth extractors?

Thank God Dentistry has taken a different turn!
Only joking of course! I do know what these presses were used for...they were.....um.....not for publication!

Did you see in the last Post there was a wag who preferred 'the largest virgin' rather than Rothmans Cigarettes?

And here comes the interesting part...if you are that way inclined...and my friend Holger knows what he is looking at.

 I know...a Giant Cigarette rolling machine. No?
I am being flippant this morning. You know that a great writer named W. Somerset Maugham in his memoirs wrote, 'in my twenties the critics said I was brutal, in my thirties they said I was flippant, in my forties they said I was cynical and in my fifties they said I was competent and then in my sixties they said I was superficial....' I can identify with that but as Frank Sinatra said...'I did it my way!!'

So in a round-a-bout way ...no offending comments will be accepted!!
I hope these fish-eye views will mean something to someone. Of course you know that I am drawing this Post out because I should be writing my latest Novel ....should be! But in the name of past friendships (Holger) I couldn't resist sharing these images.

So back to Creativity!!! The view from my window
Is Rosy!!! Except that it isn't a real window! It is a reflection of a window across the room and onto a book shelf. This is shown in the Library complex.
Would it qualify for entrance in the altered reality/competition in 2014? I'll try it anyway!