final walk through this door of history

goodbye poppy.

me & a (sho)gun

tori amos cranked. clear clean crisp autumn day. solarised effect.

tour de canberra

when i first moved to the nation's capital a decade ago, one of the things canberrans raved about (still do, mind you, and i am now one of them!) and which became quite obvious after living here even a short time, was that bicycling is very popular here and that there are awesome bike paths throughout the spread of the territory. so i quickly bought a bike, but for some reason didn't use it much at first. it was just a few years back that i became a huge fan of the cycling commute. i loved not being beholden to sitting in traffic or using public transport, being green, and arriving at my destination clearheaded from my individual quiet time. not to mention the fastest way for me to get to work from home (all of 4.5km) is on my trusty shogun :)

i'm being followed by a catshadow

another one of lexie. standing on the window sill, basking in the morning sun and having a look around outside for a pretty bird or two. two perfectly pleasurable ways to spend one's time ;)

red white and blue

the australian flag as viewed through an autumn kaleidoscope. i love autumn in canberra. it's a real struggle to choose my favourite season between autumn and spring. both are delightfully refreshing cool and crisp, and an utter relief from the extremes of summer and winter.

unfinished sympathy

massive attack at the royal theatre in canberra, from a couple of months ago. it was nearly 20 decades ago i first heard and loved their music. yeah that makes me feel bloody old.

collins street

printouts on paper glued to a wall to form murals in an alleyway off collins street in my home town, hobart.

amber lighting, amber fluids

the light swinging gently in the breeze above me as i sat in the open window at the front of the little creatures brewery on brunswick street, fitzroy on a roasting hot november afternoon enjoy some amber ales. bliss and relaxation.

i would like to come back as a tree in the next life

and spend my days swaying in the wind, providing a perch for chirping birds, a playground for possums, dripping rain down over and off my leaves, and growing reaching stretching up towards the sun. how lovely that would be.

no sign of miranda

an outing or event that fulfills a lifelong dream or wish is always charged with some excitement or emotion. i finally got to walk around and up into hanging rock in victoria last year. and the sight of it struck a real chord in me. it felt truly truly eerie. so quiet, no noise except the wind through the trees and an occasional bird. we were the only ones there at the time. it was easy to imagine being a schoolgirl wandering through the ancient rock formations....

bouncing off clouds

a bright sun reluctantly setting on the end of a long summer day in lyneham. view from our back courtyard.

knitting nazis

or rebels or renegades or something like that. a friend of mine does this kind of carry-on down in hobart. nice to know there are similar crazies in the nation's capital. i took a big detour on my ride from work this morning to take this photo. i was late to work. oh well. happy birthday jen :)

extra ordinary

this is a lovely bit of stenciled street art on a fusebox cover down at my local shops in lyneham. it's of aviatrix, nancy walton-bird. she was australia's first female commercial pilot - and a fully qualified pilot by the time she was 19, no mean feat given she was a female born in 1915. hooray for australian feminist pioneers.

creepy religious stories abound

i don't remember the name of this dark gothic cathedral in the streets behind the old town square in prague, however the recollection of the horror at having a shriveled old human hand which was proudly pointed out, by our walking tour guide, hanging on a chain from the ceiling as evidence of a religious miracle is still crystal clear in my mind. allegedly it is the hand of a thief who came to steal a statue from the church and the statue came to life (the religious miracle) and grabbed hold of the thief's wrist - so he cut off his hand to make an escape. creepy.

perhaps i just like the quiet

the irony is not lost on me at all that despite harbouring a well-developed suspicion and deep loathing of religion, that i do love the architecture of churches and am fascinated in their history. please don't mistake fascination for admiration - i am also fascinated by world war II history. this photo is taken of the inside of st stephen's cathedral in vienna. amazing catacombs lie beneath, entombing the skeletons of thousands of plague victims. the stuff of horror movies.

the curtain was raised

and the wonders of the east were revealed. night sights and sounds in praha's old town square. simply exquisite. we were walking back to our hotel after an evening in a basement pub sinking czech beer then going to watch an extremely kitsch but highly amusing don giovanni puppet show.

i never used to like wicker

but i really love this ceiling lamp encased in the stuff. funny how your tastes change as you get older. funny how i like taking photos of lamps too. this is the fourth one for this blog that i can think of.

tongue & groove

a carpentry joint term. but also a canberra bar. to be honest it is a venue probably a little too sydney-esque and flash for the likes of me personally, with its too-cool-for-school-and-to-be-bothered-serving-you staff. it has a fancy false ceiling layered with about twenty large lamps (some of which are featured in this shot) which is lowered about five metres as the sun sets. not sure what that's about but it's the only thing i like about the place.