Being the first week of the month Cee’s Mid Week Challenge is about exploring macro or close up photography. I like to think of it as getting up close and personal time. When deciding on what to photograph I was memorized by the large bushes I saw in the gardens as I was leaving the hospital. To my surprise, I walk along this path every day but hadn’t noticed these beautiful shrubs before. So I explored their beauty closely and to my delight saw that the bushes were in various stages of flowering. They truely were a sight to behold.
Not knowing what the plants were I asked around and was told that they are Mini Red Flowering Gums. ( Corymbia Ficifolia) They are grafted eucalyptus trees, native to Australia that grow easily and are hardy. Bees and nectar eating birds love to feed on them.
Do you have a favourite? Mine is the last one that also shows the bees gathering the pollen.
Thanks to Cee for hosting this challenge it is great inspiration.
This year I have just discovered a new and exciting weekly challenge, Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge. (CMMC) The theme of this week is words that contain the letter V. So in recognition of Australia Day yesterday, I decided to base my post around things important to Australia and Australians.
My first choice is the superfood of our nation, Vegemite. Full of vitamin B it is a unique taste. One fun thing we like to do is give taste tests to our international guests. Often the looks on their faces are priceless. Most Australians also don’t leave Australia without a jar packed in their suitcase. I love my larger size Vegemite from Costco.
Photo Credit: Google Images
Our country is an island so lifesavers are an essential part of our daily life. They do an amazing job saving many people from drowning and keeping our beaches, pools and rivers safe. While some are paid positions, many are volunteers supporting their communities.
The waves on our beaches are constantly changing. I love going to the beach during all seasons just to watch the waves. It is a peaceful exercise that helps to ground me. Unfortunately, it is not always safe to swim in the waves. Mother nature definitely rules. This summer every time I’ve had a day off the beaches have been closed so I haven’t had a swim yet.
Australians love their sport and one of our favourites is diving.
Rivers are another waterway Australia has a lot of. They can be coastal or inland and are reliant on the rainfall. This photo was taken at the end of last year when the rivers suddenly burst into major floods cut ting off towns and communities in a few hours. Drought is also a problem when the rivers dry up.
Sydney’s Vivid Festival is amazing. It is very creative and celebrates light, music and ideas. Every year it gets bigger and brighter with more displays over different parts of Sydney.
I love the Australian humour in this Lavatree outside a waste disposal centre in rural NSW.
On our travels we found amazing sculptures carved into the walls of an underground opal mine at Lightning Ridge.
Finally the last thing Australians love it traveling. For us this gaining a new momentum as we have just bought ourselves a new Iveco to carry our slide on camper. Vacationing in the Iveco a very fun way to visit.
Today on my walk around the suburb my attention was drawn to an usual sight. A Banksia plant was displaying several stages of the Banksia cycle all at once. There are over a 170 species of Banksias ranging in size and shape, with all but one of them native to Australia. They were first discovered by and consequently named after Sir Joseph Banks when Captain Cook discovered Australia in 1770. They are a truly an Australian original.
The photo below shows the flower in bloom. This flower was one of the last for the season.
This photograph shows the cone after the flowers have dropped off. It is here that the seeds are stored in pods until opening up. For many Banksia species this is triggered by heat – bushfires or drying out.
I love the contradiction in this photo as it shows a new cone with pods developing as well as a dried out empty cone.
In Australia the dried out cone has inspired many craft and woodwork creations. However, in many ways their greatest claim to fame is being the inspiration for May Gibbs’s Big Bad Banksia Men in her Snugglepot and Cuddlepie books. The Banksia men were the villians. They were always out to create trouble. Owing to the commonness of the species, dried cone can be found everywhere so growing up every child could relate to them. I’m sure my family wasn’t the only one to create their own Banksia boys adventures.
If we were having coffee I would tell you about the fun map of Newcastle I found today. It is on the side of the old Maritime museum and incorporates Newcastle’s history over the years. It isn’t to scale but was very detailed and reminded me of many things that I had forgotten.
If we were having coffee I would tell you my osteoarthritis flared up for the first time this week. I was diagnosed with a small amount of it in my hip 2 years ago but I’m guessing it has gotten worse. For no reason I woke up on Tuesday morning in a lot of pain and with a fever. In this day and age of course having a fever means you need a covid test which was negative. So with rest and pain relief it returned to normal. Eventually I will be able to have a new scan and see how much it has deteriorated but at present that will have to wait as our doctors live in Sydney and we cannot travel there yet.
If we were having coffee I would tell you that I walked past Cooks Hill Spoonville on my walk this morning. I was excited to see that the family of spoons had grown.
If we were having coffee I would ask you what is happening in your world.
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.
Today is International Coffee Day. So to honour my favourite coffee style, I have described my thoughts and what I love about coffee or in my case a cappuccino as an acrostic poem.
Connecting with others
Getting to know someone new or on a deeper level is best done over a cup of coffee. It is a safe way to spend time with someone be it at work, home or out and about in daily life. I personally also love to participate in Natalie the Explorer’s weekendcoffeeshare for the same reason.
Ageless
Coffee beans were first discovered in the 15th century. Today they are a world wide phenonium and can be enjoyed by everyone. Even if you choose not to drink caffeine you can order your coffee decaffinated. Little ones can also participate by enjoying a babyccino – a cup of frothy milk sometimes with the treat of chocolate on top like a regular cappuccino.
Protection from diseases
Regular drinking of coffee helps protect us from developing Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. It can also help protect against Type 2 Diabetes as well as other diseases including certain types of cancers.
Pay it forward
In many coffee shops in Australia you can purchase an extra cup of coffee which the coffee shop will then make at a later time for someone less fortunate than ourselves. At present with the current Delta outbreak you can also donate $5 to certain websites and buy a coffee for the nurses and doctors working tirelessly in our Covid wards and ICU’s.
Ubiquitous
I love that coffee is literally everywhere. Even driving out in the country if you need one it doesn’t take long to find somewhere selling coffee. We will often stop when traveling as it is a great way to support the locals and get to know what is around the area. We have never found anyone who wasn’t up for a chat.
Calming affects of caffeine
Coffee increases mood by increasing the dopamine levels in our brain. It also helps with focus and energy levels.
Choices
In Australia there are many choices when it comes to your favourite beverage. Although all are varieties of the same 3 ingredients -coffee, milk and milk froth, they are very different?
Expresso
Macchiato
Long Black
Cappuccino
Latte
Mochaccino
Affogato
Piccolo Latte
Ristretto
Irish Coffee
Babyccino
Improves my focus, fat burning ability as well as physical performance
Coffee’s impact on metabolism, focus and physical performance is well documented. It can also help increase pain thresholds and if I need to take Panadol, I will have it with a coffee as it increases its painkilling effect.
Nutrients and antioxidants
Coffee is a brain food and if full of essential nutrients and antioxidants. Like all good things however it is important to remember that moderation is key.
Oppurtunities open for all
I love that anyone who wants to become a barista in Australia can become one. It requires a course and to be good at it a passion for coffee. As a mental health nurse I have seen several of my patients been accepted by their communities despite their obvious disabilities because they made an excellent cup of coffee. In a non Covid world Australians in particular will travel for a good coffee.
I have enjoyed my daily takeaway cappuccino as I wrote this post. I hope you too get to celebrate International Coffee Day and enjoy your favourite coffee today.
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.
The photos above were taken last Sunday on my walk. The news had said that the southern swells and Spring high tides earlier in the week had caused major erosion of my local Merewether beach not seen in our area since a major storm in 1974. The 1974 storm was locally known as the Sygna storm after the Norwegian bulk carrier of the same name that ran aground on Stockton beach at the time. I was fascinated to see what everyone was talking about. Wow! I wasn’t expecting what I saw. It didn’t even occur to me that there were rocks under the sand. All the media reports about the erosion stated that history had proved that the sand would return by summer. The swells and the tides would put it all back again. No intervention needed.
While I had no evidence to go by I just trusted mother nature and didn’t think any more about it. Today on our lockdown walk as we had nothing else to do we thought we’d go back to Merewether and see what was happening. We were gob smacked. Merewether beach was back and beautiful. The photos below were taken this morning. They are from similar spots and of the same stretch of beach that was stripped bare last Sunday. We were also surprised to note that there seemed to be even more sand on the beach than before. It was also clean and yellow. Merewether beach had been Spring cleaned at no cost.
Initially I was puzzled about what my take on this prompt would be. Then as we were driving around Margaret River wineries last week, we happened upon Cheeky Monkey Brewery where we had lunch. It was perfect. A bit of unique crazy in a beautiful setting, with great food as a bonus.
What household chore do you absolutely hate doing? Â
Basically anything that relates to cleaning. I am good with the cooking and even washing the dishes but scrubbing, wiping and dusting don’t do it for me. The only advantage of working full time was that I had a cleaner however working part time I can’t justify it.
At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?Â
We are currently on holiday in Western Australia. Being on the other side of the country there are many new things to explore and learn about. Watching the sunset over the ocean this evening was different as living on the east coast we usually see the sunrise over the ocean.
How many times have you moved in the last ten years?
Over the last 10 years we have moved 4 times. Our latest move back to Newcastle last year I am hoping will be my last. We are currently considering our first ever renovations to make our forever house how we want it to be before we retire in the next few years. It’s a mixture of excitement and apprehension.
What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week? Â
Last Saturday night I was lucky enough to see Paul McCartney in concert. It was my husband’s birthday and he is a huge fan, so I went to enjoy the night with him. Prior to the concert I was not a fan but I must say it changed my world. The creativity and personal connectedness was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Not bad for a 75 year old.
