Remorse so early in the year!!!

Yes thanks to a reader friend she reminded me about my so called New Year's Resolutions....and I have already broken one...in my haste to mention what I have believed in for almost a year now. BUT I did offend a couple of people in my life by writing about it....my belief and supported by a very successful writer, Lionel Shriver. So no, what you see or read about me is what you get. But, I will try harder next time. I know I will!!

So now you might get the impression
that I am promoting BMW cars! No wrong again! I am promoting holidays close to home. A few days away
can do miracles for you and those around you. These photographs prove how a short trip down south
to Pemberton can be entirely worthwhile...and challenging should your
driver take you to the sand dunes to discover and challenge yourself. There is always the comfort to know that a short drive later you can relax at your rented cottage.

Not only were the angles and ridges for the car challenging but for the photographer it was a test to produce some original images.
The clouds passing over us served as another interest. These photographs don't show all the available views (waterways and bush surrounds) but I hope they are interesting enough to attract a visit from you at some time...that is if you have a four-wheel drive!

If not there are plenty of places with magnificent views to sit and relax....picnic and all.

I can't believe it!!!

Write again!! Or should I write...RIGHT Again!
I wanted to hide since I published  my books in 2012. And my publisher has been harassing me ever since.
Why hadn't I been running around like a lost shoe salesman vying for attention from the world. Didn't everyone know that my books were worthy of worldwide attention? Get the sales roaring!! We want action my publisher said. What? You want me to organise sales up to and over 1000 so that Amazon would  pull their finger out and put my books on the best seller list...like our keen and 'adorable' Mr Saatchi had done by allowing his housekeepers to buy any amount of books on his bottomless credit cards. Or I should arrange for a reduced price (so that I would make 70% per sale rather than 30%) or even offer the books for free so that word of mouth would set printing presses running?
WRONG!!!
I may be a vanity publisher but I suspect all for the RIGHT Reasons.
Read what Lionel Shriver (author of 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' and 'Big Brother') says about her success.
IF YOU REALLY WANT TO WRITE, THE LAST THING YOU WANT IS A SUCCESS!
I do not want to be locked in...I want to be able to choose what I do with my time and with whom I spend my creative hours. I certainly don't want sycophants living off my efforts. Got it now Mr Publisher? So you can stop sending me your sickening e-mails. I am too smart for most of them...so have a Happy New Year without me.

 No I don't have a screw or two lose like these I found
on the beach at Cottesloe. Photography is my

second interest.





However the Pemberton bush I can recommend for
rest and recreation. Here Peace abounds away from
harassing e-mails!!!
But books, reading and writing will never fail to interest me.

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.