Category: Word of the Day Challenge

Gnarly Adventures

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One of my favourite things to do in Australia is to go on a bush walk. I love communing with nature and getting away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Everytime I go bushwalking I am reminded of my childhood and weekends with my family. We would spend hours exploring different areas with dad pointing out and explaining even the smallest detail. Gnarly trees were always special and we would often stop and study them. I found them fascinating. The knots and growths of the old trees often looked like the tree had a face and was trying to tell us something. It is interesting how a group of people can look at the same gnarly tree and see completely different things.

The following gnarly tree photos were taken whilst on a long bush walk at Bundanoon in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. The walk was one of many in Morton National Park and didn’t disappoint.

Thanks to Cyranny for today’s Word Of The Day Challenge inspiration – Gnarl

Interestingly in Australia gnarly is also a slang word that has been used since the 70’s to mean very good.

Colourful memories

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One of my favourite things when we visited St John’s Newfoundland was its colourful houses. They popped up everywhere, matching in style and blending in colour. Also known as Jelly Bean Row houses as their varied colours match those of jellybeans. It is said that the original reason the houses were painted in bright colours was because the sailors coming home from a long stretch at sea would like to look up from the harbour into the hills to look for their homes. As fog is a problem in St John’s the houses during these times the homes all bleneded together. So by painting them bright colours they could easily find their home.

I have no problem believing this as growing up I could see my home from the train. It was easy to pick out as it had a very large brick wall in front of it making it stand out from the surrounding houses. 50 years later I still look for my old house whenever I am on the train to Sydney. It’s an old habit I have no need to break even though its nearly 25 years since my mother moved out of my childhood home.

Thanks Kristian for your inspiring word today – matching.

Spoonville

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Have you ever seen or heard of something local and thought I’ve got to see that. What a clever idea! As you know most of New South Wales is currently in lockdown as we battle the latest Delta variant. So as a response to the frustrations of being in lockdown and the kids not having things to do someone came up with the concept of Spoonville.

Each Spoonville community is different. They develop a personality of their own dependent on the Spoony people that join the community. Local kids are invited to decorate wooden spoons at home and add them to the others as they get out of the house to exercise.

Spoonville rules are simple.

  • Place your Spoony person during your daily exercise
  • Make sure bits won’t blow off your Spoony person as we don’t want litter
  • Think about using natural materials in case they do fall off – maybe twigs for arms and legs
  • Make sure your Spoony person can take the rain – nail polish is good for our faces
  • Spoony people are not keen on dogs ( furry friends please stay back)
  • Come and see the Spoony people but don’t stay too long and no touching. Have fun.

I heard about our local community at Cooks Hill on the weekend and couldn’t wait until today to investigate. The only thing I knew was that they lived in Centennial Park. I was clueless as to where. Never fear I googled how to get to Centennial Park from my house and off I went. I had been there many times before but I always found it by accident and when coming home. The park is 2.2 hectares and was given to the city of Newcastle as a centenary gift in 1888. After about 15 minutes of following paths and generally exploring the area I saw them, Cooks Hill’s Spoonville. They were playing under a beautiful old Norfolk pine on the other side of the park.

As I spent time at Spoonville, I wished I had young children in my life. It would be so much fun helping them design and create their own Spoony person. I attempted to choose a favourite but each time I looked I would fine a new favourite so I gave up and decided it was all so much fun. I’ll be back to meet the new Spoony friends over the coming weeks.

Today’s post was inspired by Word Of The Day – Clueless.

Lavatree

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I love it when I find something really quirky on my travels. This lavatree marks the entrance to the sewerage treatment works at Dorrigo, New South Wales. What a memorable way to use old toilets. I also love the name.

The lavatree also serves another purpose as from memory you could easily drive past the entrance as it was a little hidden on a bend.

Some people might say only in Australia. Have you seen old toilets used in any other fun ways?

This post was inspired by Word Of The Day Challenge – Quirky Thanks Kristian.

Remembering Benjamin

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Do you recognise the animal in the photo? For most of you I guess the answer is no because it has been extinct for 85 years. It’s a photo of Benjamin the last Tasmanian Tiger (Tasmanian thylacine). The photo was taken at Hobart’s Beaumaris in 1933 by Australian zoologist David Fleay. Originally in black and white the footage was colourised and released by the National Film and Sound Archive on National Threatened Species Day.

National Threatened Species Day is on 7th September each year as a tribute to Benjamin the last Tasmanian Tiger. It was the day he died back in 1933 and the species was declared extinct. I am so grateful to be able to see Benjamin in his true colours 85 years after his death.

This post was inspired by the Word Of The Day Challenge – Tribute. Thanks Melanie.

Yarn Bombing

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Last week as I was walking around my local area I found this yarn bombing event. As I had never seen one before I was intrigued. Why? What was it all about?

For anyone like me who doesn’t know what yarn bombing is – it is a form of street art, like graffiti often connected to activism in some way. Another point of yarn bombing is to mitigate the severity of barren, cold public places.

This particular laneway I agree prior to the yarn bombing was boring, desolate and barren. I would walk down Devonshire Lane twice a week last year on my way to work and it had nothing going for it. The addition of the Deafblind Connect yarn bombing event has definitely brightened up the area. The colourful event has also brought attention to the Hunter’s Deafblind community. When I looked closely at the tree coverings I noticed many different textures especially designed for the blind to enjoy.

The event occurred during Deafblind Awareness week 21st -27th June as part of a global initiative in 22 countries across the world. What a fantastic idea to bring the community together.

Inspired by Word Of The Day Challenge – Mitigate

Wondrous Sea Jelly Spectacular

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The sight before me took my breath away. The room was filled with circular tanks of over 1000 sea jellies. I never realised that there was so much variety in them. The Sea Jelly Spectacular was taken to the next level by specially selected background music and neon lights. Together they emphasized the amazing pulsations of the jellyfish. The experience was so wondrous I still remember it with a smile nearly a decade later.

If ever you are in Hong Kong spend some time being memorized by these amazing creatures at the Sea Jelly Spectacular at Ocean Park.

Inspired by Word Of The Day – Wondrous thanks Cyranny

Ruby Tuesday #3 Cranky Rock

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I think my favourite stopover in Ruby so far was at Cranky Rock. It is a recreational reserve not far from Warialda in North Western New South Wales. The camp ground attached to the reserve is run by a caretaker who each night in the cooler months lights a big campfire and provides nibbles for the campers to enjoy as they socialise together. My husband and I loved meeting other campers, sharing stories and learning more about future travel options. Some campers were old hands and other like us were first timers. It didn’t matter. There were also chickens wandering around and if you found an egg they laid you could keep it.

Cranky Rock is made up of various giant boulders that balance on each other and make an enclosed natural phenonium. It was so peaceful my husband and I spend over an hour down in the valley before moving on to explore other parts of the bush.

We definitely plan to go back to this spot when we are out of lockdown and can travel again.

Written for todays Word Of The Day Challenge – Enclosed. Thanks.

Awesome Figures

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I love Lego. The creativity and inspiration used to design these amazing models is unbelievable. Last year in Newcastle we were lucky enough to have an exhibition by Brickman. He is one of only 14 Lego professionals in the world. This display was titled Awesome. It included 37 models, took 5000 hours to build and used over 2 million Lego bricks. Each model was an example the first, the biggest, the deadliest or special in some other way.

Each model had a story board next to it which describes the build, giving

  • The facts of the model
  • Information about the designer, how long it took to make including the number of bricks used
  • The designers notes about build it including frustrations and problems
  • And lastly, Why It Is AWESOME.

The first big model we saw was the first full size Harley Davidson motor bike. Apparently in non Covid times to public like could sit on it. Even the electricals worked. AWESOME.

This Caterpillar 797 dump truck was the largest ever build. I loved it.

I was also fascinated to see the impact of a model of a single Lego brick. Definitely Awesome. From memory it took over 6 000 bricks to make.

One of my favourite things was the attention to detail hidden in and around each model. It really brought each model to life. Having previously traveled on the Shinkansen (bullet train) we smiled at the memories it created for us.

As an added bonus Brickman hid Mr & Mrs Awesome many times throughout the exhibition asking the children to look for them and enter a competition telling him how many they found. These special Lego figures were fun to look for that encouraged a much closer look for everyone.

These copies of original movie posters looked amazing.

Simple Pleasures

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In New South Wales, Australia at present Delta has everyone terrified. Nine weeks ago it started in Sydney. Eight weeks ago all of Greater Sydney was locked down but the regions were free. Then suddenly last week the virus escaped Sydney. People doing the wrong thing brought it to Newcastle my home town and we were instantly locked down. Delta was free and there is no stopping it. Everyday another part of regional NSW or Australia is infected and instantly locked down as we work at containing it.

Because of the health orders in place our lives are very simple. Stay at home unless you are allowed to go to work, are exercising or attending medical appointments. For me this got me rethinking my priorities in life. While I am currently appreciating what I can’t do, I am gaining joy from the simple pleasures I can do. For example creating a meal from scratch, being more mindful, reading, walking and getting back to my blogging. All of these activities I had lost focus on as my life got “too busy.”

Today while walking for my essential shopping I stopped in my tracks as I walked past a house. I smiled as I remembered seeing the same chalk board last year during lockdown.

Such a simple idea and I love the fact that the kids had invited the community to join in. For me it was also personal. When my father was very sick in hospital as a family we also created a joke of the day on his white board. It gave us something simple to focus on and share with the nurses and doctors – many of whom added a joke of their own.