Taking "Arty" Photographs...

I took the boys and Owen to Point Walter for a bit of a play and a picnic. It was pretty crowded and we ended up walking up the hill behind the beach and Declan started taking some Arty photographs. This very old (well by West Australian standards) Olive tree had had a bit of a hard life I think. There was a beehive in the hollow that you can see. This caused a lot of "Tut, Tut it looks like rain..."

Getting Bolshi with Santa...

Last year Santa and the raindeers made a horrible mess of the carrot as there was chewed up bits of carrot on the floor. Declan provided a post it not this year with "Please Clean Up!" -- The raindeers seemed to have chewed up the note a bit as a protest... Santa had to make do with Gin this year as well...

Its THAT time of year...

Went looking at Christmas lights last night and saw some fairly amazimg sights... The best one by far was close to where the boys go to school and the chap invited us in to see the "Nativity" in the house... If you can imagine a spotless house with an older Italian couple and what must have been their back room with cotten wool glued to the walls and, I kid you not, several thousand christmas decorations ranging from the life size maddona with bleeding heart to small snowmen decorations... It was impressive no matter how you viewed it! The Boys were very impressed but I think Rose was just speechless...

Well have a Merry Chrismas Blog readers and as this is 100th posting for Hotblack there is that extra celebration! Have a litre of single malt whisky to celebrate... immediately!

Cube City

Well if I stand up at work and "prairie dog" then this is pretty much what I see. Got come interesting photo's of the work party so I will see how the blackmailing goes and you may see some next week! 

Connie & Fred

This is a fantastic photo of my Grandparents (my Dad's parents) that I scanned in recently. It was their wedding photograph and it is a quite large format photo being about A4. I am not quite sure when they got married but it would have been around the late 1930's. Interestingly my Grandfather is wearing a wedding ring and I am not sure what happened to it as I never remember him wearing one.

Kermit learning to swim...

Well this one is very old! Jan 2000 in East Gipsland...

1960's iPod

How kewl is that... Holds about 7 minutes of high distortion, monophonic sound...

Tram

A lot of the pictures look a lot better at a higher resolution... go on click on it! Ok so it isn't up to Chromasia standard... I will just have to get a better camera!

Tractor Parts

Dave has pointed out that i am skimping on the pictures and the general content of the Blog at the moment (see comment to last posting). The photo a day is falling way behind. Dave has set himself an even harder target of actually taking the photo on the day he posts! I can at least cull some sort of junk out of the archives and feel that i have made some sort of minimal effort... So what do we have today? This is the water temperature guage on one of Dad's tractors. I have no idea what this tractor is except it is red and mostly rusty...

Boys

No pictures today. Well its that busy time of year and we have been running around doing stuff... Not quite sure what, but Stuff will cover it... One part of Stuff was to go to Clancy's Fish Pub to meet some friends who we don't see as often as we used to. While we were there I commented on a young girls tee shirt which read, "I love Boys, They are so Stupid!" As if to prove a point Declan ran up and informed us that he had found 50c in the public telephone, so he used it to phone home and leave a message on the answering machine...

Seed

The Fremantle Eye

It's the Fremantle Eye! Not as big as the London one and dosen't carry tourists. Actually looks a bit like the Emerson, Lake and Plamer logo!

Learning to Fly

No it's not a Pink Floyd song. Well it is a Pink Floyd song but this is actually about a couple of little bitds that are learning to fly in the garden at the moment. They are actually small doves, which are quite pretty, but not native to Western Australia. We have watched Mum and Dad collecting the twigs and building the nest and then hatching out the eggs. It all seems to have happened so quickly. They have made a horrible mess of Guano on the decking...

Went into Perth this morning to see Janet. It was the handing down of the verdict to the Inquest into the plane crash the killed Harry. I don't think that there were any surprises. Janet seemed very composed. I am sure that the ending of this saga is a bit of a relief to her. I don't know what the next phase entails but the fallout from using the wrong type of metal in a small casting is just so profound in it's impact...

Christmas Lights

The boys love going to look at the people that live at the top of the road from Mum and Dad. Such good taste! Such an excellent use of Resources... Such a poor picture...

The Floor...

String Beanz

Well Declan had the wind up for the Bean Sprouts this evening... Some local people organised a youth string orchestra called the String Beans and this has evolved into providing another group called the Bean Sprouts that are a feeder to the main Orchestra. Declan has completed the introductory year and we are still working out how next year is going to pan out.

Stuff

The Progress of the Boat

Dad has been building a sailing dingy for quite a while now. There have been various sidetracks, tractors, trips overseas, grand children, children. But it is back on the top of the list again and the chaps from ABBA (Amateur Boat Building Assoaciation) are going to help turn the keel on Saturday morning so that work can progress on the outside of the hull. Dad was showing Declan how the caulking was done here...

Pure Class...

To make up for the weekend I am throwing in this posting for free... It goes well with the other one in that it was at the Rocks market and is a Kangaroo Paw Bottle Opener... No tourist should be without one...

Excellent Advice!

Saw this in a Pub in the Rocks in Sydney... I'll drink to that!

Blue Mountains

Back to Sydney again today, or more precisely, in this case, the Blue Mountains. The three sisters are such a well known Australian icon that I suppose I was very surprised to see how close to civilization they actually are. I was even more surprised when we were able to almost go inside the first one. That is where this mosaic was taken. If you look very carefully at the top of the cliff in the left hand side of the picture you can see the visitor centre and lookout.

Rose's Birthday

Sorry about the last two days... been rather busy as it was Rose's birthday on Friday and we went to SalaThai (where you have to book way ahead) and took the boys for a lovely meal. The boys both really enjoyed it as well, which is always nice! Rose got a new handbag from us all. The lady in the shop was impressed that we wern't: a) buying the day before b) it wasn't a set of golf clubs!

The Art of Ben

Well it is that time of year. School is winding down and the boys come home with their work for the year. Ben in particular seems to have sack loads at the end of each term. This is from his Art folio and is a mixed media piece that signifies the struggle that society has with coming to terms with the general fear of going to the beach (hence that lack of people) and the invading forces of triangular aliens that just lurk of shore... Of course it might just be a beach scene... hard to tell with Ben sometimes though...