Hotchpotch 18

Tags

banksias, beach, family, python, trees, wasp nest, water views

Banksias

Family

Nicolson Barker, rescue dog, with my daughter after his first attendance at obedience school

My son in his workplace in the rivers around Cairns: only one crocodile that I heard about

Bruce, our resident python, all new-skinned, on my deck!

Photos lurking on a card I obviously haven’t used since 2013

Son and son-in-law meet coincidentally at Gate 39 at Brisbane Airport

Around the streets

Trees

Coffee by the water

Beach miscellany

Odds and ends

To make you smile …

Tags

family

… and wonder at the cruelty of people who abandon dogs.

These are my daughter’s two dogs. She rescued Em (Emmaline Pankhurst) years ago in heavy rain from the busy highway near Stanthorpe. Nicholson Barker was abandoned as a tiny puppy a few weeks ago and a client turned up with him at her workplace.

Hotchpotch 14

Tags

architecture, beach, family, plants

Family holiday

For a month in December and January my house was full of family. I failed them a few times. Failure to provide surf was my main crime – “the worst surf over Christmas in 20 years, mum.” Failure to have in the fridge whatever it was whoever it was was looking for ran it a close second. In spite of this, they took me to Canberra where we visited the Dombrovskis‘ photographic exhibition and Questacon, the national science and technology centre; and they harvested oysters from the rocks, enough for a quick pre-dinner feast for six.

Oh, and I almost forgot! How could I? Two most important participants in a family get-together: Cruz and Jenga.

On the beach

Most of my beach-walking was close to home, but there were still plenty of treasures of the usual kind: seaweed, driftwood, shells, rockface, grasses. There was also an unaccustomed pleasure: company.

Prowling daybreak

I maintained my early mini-walks, occasionally before the household was stirring, although it was hard to beat hopeful surf-seekers. The early morning light remained a great treat, especially as it fell on the seedpods of Stars of Bethlehem. The vanishing of their blue and white flowers marked the end of Christmas.

Houses around Spud

I took advantage of the slumbers of the village to do a quick photo-essay on Potato Point architecture, beginning with my own beforested house. (By the time the visitors left it was a bit less forested. When a hakea fell over the drive it left an emptiness that drew attention to other leaners and potential fallers, which my children removed while I hid my face and hoped for their safety.) The other houses are mostly undistinguished, although there aren’t many traces of the beach shacks which have either been removed or renovated. What strikes me most looking through this collection is the bareness, which may be because a lot of the houses are holiday places.

Leaning

Sometimes photographic themes leap out at you. For a while everywhere I looked things were leaning, and I foresaw a lengthy photo essay. Then things stopped leaning, and this is the grand total.

And if all this summer is too much for you … twins in Warsaw

Leaves

Tags

backyard, family, leaves

My son’s backyard is a a mini rainforest, a treasury of leaves,  It’s part of an ecological corridor stretching from the top of Mt Tamborine to the coastal plains now edged by the obscene towers of the Gold Coast. Brush turkeys emerge from the corridor to maraud the garden, and once a dingo pup lurked there until he was coaxed out by K, who is a dog-whisperer. At the base of the garden is a creek bed, dry now but becoming a torrent when it rains hard. One magical night my son took my hand and led me out into darkness, suddenly illuminated by the dance of fireflies. This morning’s illumination is the dappling of sunshine.

Waiting at the ford

Tags

bush block, family

I’m on the way to join my son and his family on their bush block. I’ve negotiated my first dirt road in many years, keeping a wary eye open for macropods, potholes and large rocks. I’ve crossed two concrete fords with an inch of water running over them, but when I reach this …

… I know the Yaris will be going no further.

So I pull out my chair and settle down to enjoy the silence as I wait for my son in his 4WD. There is occasional bird song; a plane far overhead; the creak of my neck as I turn to look around me; and the rarely-noticed pulsing of my heart. That’s all. Trees tower overhead.

I make desultory forays to photograph: bright berries; a forest of moss in a tree stump; leaf shadows on the back of my car; a slightly furry pale green unknown plant.

Then I hear the sound of a car approaching and I’m greeted by my son and grandson.

We transfer my ridiculously huge supply of camping paraphernalia – a tent, two doonahs, three blankets, two bedrolls, a suitcase that apparently has vintage status (a 21st birthday present), and my trusty walking stick – and move the car to a spot off the road. Then we begin the very steep descent over tree roots, small bushes and washaways, the rocky bluff to the right, and emerge on the flat by the river, that little piece of paradise.

Track to a Gold Coast beach

Tags

beach, family, flowers, Gold Coast

An early knock on the caravan door has me out of bed and ready for the beach in five quick minutes. We park opposite Sea World and walk along a track to the beach: dog-with-a-purple-collar, two surfers, a swimmer, and a hanger-on grandma who forgot to bring swimming gear to Queensland in summer.

Join me as I amble down to the beach past unfamiliar plants, and, after a paddle, return behind the dunes to sit in my low sand-chair in the shade. Watch a runner who stops to do twenty push-ups, runs away, returns and does twenty more. Notice two ground birds skulking through the grass, and a butterfly skimming above them. Maintain silence as I try to catch up with my neglected diary.

The dog with the purple collar and the woman with long legs and a filmy dress crest the sandhills; the girl with a body board on a lead comes up the track: the man on the board swoops across the horizon on a wave and then jogs towards us. The family has assembled and we return up the mountain to the boy left behind to sleep.

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