Hotblack Desiato

Raise a Purple Lantern

2012-01-02T20:51:00.000+08:00

We bought these groovy silk lanterns for $5 each for our New Years Eve Party. They have some end of stock Christmas Lights bundled up inside... It was pretty hard to get a decent picture but this is sort of what it is like...

Flakey Blue...

2011-11-28T20:56:00.001+08:00

Dog part 2

2011-10-29T20:11:00.002+08:00

Well the old one is pushing up Roses in the garden and this is the much larger and faster replacement... even when weasel was alive...

Crikey!

2011-10-16T12:32:00.000+08:00

Back from our Queensland holiday which was lots of fun. We went out on the "Reef" for a day... well some of the way, as we only went to Low Island as Ben wanted to see turtles and it wasn't so far to be sea sick... This is where Steve Irwin was pronounced dead as well!

Walk in a Park...

2011-09-12T21:44:00.001+08:00

Lovely afternoon walking through Kins Park. The festival that is on at the moment seems to have taken a bit of a move away from the wild flowers but the weather was sublime...

Catching up....

2011-09-06T21:13:00.000+08:00

The Beagle has Landed...

2011-08-24T22:14:00.001+08:00

Been playing around with a Beagleboard a little bit... Not too happy with the current OS and thinking about QNX but probably on the bare metal...

This bit seems OK?

2011-07-20T19:50:00.000+08:00

Rather sadly the project that I have been worked on got rather wet on the inside and dosen't like being soggy... All the long evenings and 90 hours of overtime on all the code and electronics... Could kill that Mechanical Engineer.... Hmmmm... which Mechanical Engineer? Oh that must have been me too....

Cow on a Hot Tin Tank

2011-07-18T21:30:00.000+08:00

...or was it a Leopard?

7 years later...

2011-07-12T21:24:00.000+08:00

We camped just near here over 7 years ago... Very scary that it is that long ago... The boys were just about to start at East Fremantle Primary School and the dreaded Volvo was just a few months ours. I dosen't quite pre-date this Blog but there wasn't actually anything about the rest of the two weeks of camping trip... I think Rose is still recovering...

Red Starz

2011-07-11T20:24:00.000+08:00

This is at the Golden Valley Tree Park in Bailingup. This was from the Chinese Long Walk period...

Roo Shooter

2011-07-10T21:50:00.000+08:00

Don't usually see this in the local deli window in Freo... So if you know anybody give Josh & Elsie a ring!

OTL

2011-06-28T20:46:00.000+08:00

This is part of a Valve that I have got for an OTL headphone amplifier... Just need to do a PCB layout, etch it, drill it, get the parts and then solder them all on the board, and make the box, French Polish it and then give it a bit of a listen...

Edmund, Edmund come quickly...

2011-05-03T20:59:00.000+08:00

One of my brother's favourite quotes... This photo is looking down the pretty much the entire length of Edmund St.

Refrain from Vomiting...

2011-04-23T22:37:00.000+08:00

Walking through Fremantle today the big Night Club there had the display out the front had a request to refain from vomiting as the Concil has been having a surcharge on cleaning up after the patrons... all very classy...

Metal Penis

2011-04-19T19:37:00.000+08:00

This statue also had a metal penis... seemed a bit tacky to take a picture of that... seemed a bit small... well i thought so!

Monsters Inc.

2011-04-18T21:08:00.000+08:00

Tried to post this a while ago but it didn't seem to work properly so trying again. This was a couple of weeks ago, I cleaned up Ben's bedroom door and re-varnished it.

Fluff

2011-03-24T20:58:00.000+08:00

But is it Art?

2011-03-13T22:37:00.000+08:00

Went to see the Cottesloe Beach Sculptures this afternoon. Some of the exhibits were fairly qirky... especially the Jug having a poo...

2 Years Later

2011-02-02T20:58:00.000+08:00

Well it was Ben's 1st day at High School this time! He is going into year 7, so a year earlier than Declan (who dosen't start till tomorrow).

Wicked Fat

2011-01-17T20:42:00.001+08:00

Says it all really...

Windy...

2010-12-26T22:50:00.000+08:00

This was Rosemary's Christmas present. It matched the very windy night we had later in the day...

21D Glasses

2010-12-20T22:08:00.000+08:00

Ben was trying to find 3D glasses for everyone at school...

Defoleyed

2010-12-13T20:38:00.000+08:00

This was Ben's parrot Foley. Sadly the poor little thing was able to still able to fly with his trimmed wings... last seen heading accross the road and away... Maybe he wasn't made to be caged.

Mum & the Boys

2010-12-08T22:00:00.003+08:00

Mum took us all down to Gracetown to see the Australian Chamber Orchestra at the weekend. We had a lovely couple of days, it passed awfully quickly. The ACO were fantastic, as always, and the food & wine were very nice afterwards. It was great to see the orchestra so close up. They played a mixed set (details here) but the standout had to be the Saint-Saens - Tognetti was just fantastic. Almost anywhere else in the World I suspect that you would be paying substancially more! It was much enjoyed...

Chopper Reed

2010-11-28T12:27:00.001+08:00

Gave Movember a go...
You can donate here

Bendigo mine roof

2010-11-18T20:55:00.001+08:00

Front Rebuild

2010-11-15T21:43:00.000+08:00

We have just finished rebuilding the front path. Dosen't really look that much different but about 20cm higher so when it rains the garden dosen't wash into it, it washes into the garden.

Stepz

2010-11-07T21:02:00.000+08:00

These lead up to the top of the waterfall and the car...

I Love Hats!

2010-10-09T20:55:00.001+08:00

This was on the wall in Bendigo. They had done a large murial that had been majorly talk bubbled... To all the folks in Victoria that we didn't see (i.e. all of you...) sorry we wern't in Melbourne for more than a couple of nights which was all taken up with family but we will be back around next April!

Consume... or be Consumed!

2010-09-18T14:41:00.001+08:00

The verge collection seems to get bigger every year! The entire contents of some houses seem to be replaced on an annual basis!

Roadside Chariot II

2010-09-05T19:03:00.001+08:00

Well a year on we recycled the old chariot from last year to the verge collection when we found a twins pram which we made into this new sports version!

Clox

2010-09-01T21:05:00.000+08:00

This is a project that has been going for at least 30 years... Still some more to go I fear...

Waiting for Demolition?

2010-08-23T21:30:00.001+08:00

Here's one that I prepared earlier...

2010-08-08T21:35:00.000+08:00

Ben has decided that he needs a potters wheel and is modifying a CDROM drive to do the job after they found my collection of 30 odd drives in the shed...

rain

2010-07-30T22:06:00.001+08:00

Moon

2010-07-22T21:06:00.001+08:00

Found this strange thing in the sky...

NOT BioShock II

2010-07-21T18:58:00.001+08:00

Ben decided for his Birthday he wanted either a parrot or BioShock II... We now have a new member of the family, Foley, maintaining the Artimus Fowel theme...

Petalz

2010-06-15T21:19:00.001+08:00

Ouch!

2010-06-09T20:25:00.001+08:00

Love modern signs!

13708Km to London

2010-06-06T21:34:00.000+08:00

A fair walk! We were in Mandurah at the weekend. We stayed in a Hotel for the night then went across to Bodington to see Cathy & Simon the next morning...

Dragg'n Fly

2010-05-27T17:24:00.000+08:00

Found this on the floor at the bottom of the stairs to the Tank at Work...

Banksy in Freo?

2010-05-26T21:56:00.000+08:00

I often wonder if this is the work of English street artist Banksy? It might be more accurate to call it Banksy in Beaconsfield as technically that is where it is! It is starting to fade a bit but I suppose that is part of the agenda for street art... Nice that the coucil have painted around it though.

More HDR Experiments...

2010-05-18T22:27:00.000+08:00

Some fiddling around with the Uber-Cheap Camera and some backeted shots... This was probably the most intersting... Sort of feel that this may work better as hand tweeked layers in Photoshop. Probably too time consuming though...

Balsawood Boat

2010-04-28T20:30:00.000+08:00

I bought a Balsawood boat from the local Hardware Store for the boys, in a vague attempt to find an interesting outdoors project. They didn't seem as interested as I was...

14 Years...

2010-04-23T08:54:00.000+08:00

Declan turned 14 yesterday... In some respects seems like forever and in other respects it seems like about a week...

New Camera...

2010-04-18T21:46:00.000+08:00

I bought a new compact Camera with a couple of gift cards that I got from work. It is a Canon A480 and cost $97! The great thing about it is that it is supported by CDHK which allows it to scripted with LUA and some other cool things... I am now thinking of getting a helium ballon and a cheap GPS!

Fish'n'Chipz

2010-04-17T20:35:00.000+08:00

The local Fish & Chips shop got a chap to paint a great murial on the wall outside... Best part of the whole shop... including the food...

Gold Phish...

2010-03-21T22:39:00.001+08:00

We went to the Rose Nursery in near Mum & Dad's for a bit of an outing for the new car. They have a Dam there with a lot of carp in it. The boys spent quite while feeding them -- it is really quite mezmerizing to see the water become such a swirling mass...

Toot Toot...

2010-03-14T22:03:00.000+08:00

Went to see the Queen Mary MkII going out of Fremantle... It had some serious Acoustic Firepower...

Onya James May!

2010-03-08T20:33:00.000+08:00

Not sure if you have seen that SBS is showing a TV series by the English Presenter James May... It is about toys and getting children interested in things other than virtual killing! It seems to have worked with the boys. For a while on Sunday while they started building this game, which is heidiously complicated! Rose was a bit upset to see all her knitting pins dissapear into it but at least they were being creative!

Birthday

2010-03-04T21:51:00.000+08:00

Where does the time get to? I have been going back through photographs that I have meant to post for the last six months or so and found this one of Rosemary's Birthday back in early December. I was rather pleased with this so here it is! Not much else of note other than I feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole and watching life wizzing past... more soon... maybe...

Off to Sea...

2010-02-22T21:33:00.001+08:00

Off to vomit...

Surprise!

2010-02-11T22:10:00.000+08:00

I was going throught the pictures on the camera and I found quite a few like this! Ben was holding my camera while we were driving home, after going out for Fish & Chips for my Birthday. He must have been taking some Arty pictures along the way...

Short Life...

2010-01-31T21:32:00.001+08:00

While cleaning the shed i found this baby lizard had got into a tray of bits and must have been unable to escape. It was tiny so must have been only a few days old...

Neu Years Eve

2010-01-24T20:51:00.000+08:00

Having a beer @ Saracen/Duckstein in Margret River...

Digital Radio

2009-11-25T21:01:00.000+08:00

Been looking into the Digital Radio Revolution. Dosen't seem to look like this anymore though...

Shed Shelf

2009-11-22T21:48:00.000+08:00

Some of the junk stopping the Shed blowing away!

Waiting for the Crosswalk...

2009-11-09T21:19:00.000+08:00

I've been standing here for 135 years... and it still hasn't gone green!

Fly-In

2009-11-07T21:01:00.001+08:00

Had a nice afternoon in the City -- they had a Fly-In where a lot of light aircraft landed on Langley Park next to the river. There are times when you wish that Perth did more interesting things with the river but it would come at the cost of rather fun things like this. As part of the whole event they had about 20 aircraft, lots of cars (MG's and Corvette's mostly) and these model aircraft chaps. This was actually a model Glider. Loved the detail of the pilot...

Compost

2009-11-01T21:36:00.000+08:00

This was a very long time ago... Probably well rotted now...

Police Post

2009-10-29T21:12:00.001+08:00

I think that these have gone now...

Careful with those Fingers...

2009-10-22T20:00:00.000+08:00

A day of excitement at the end of a Jetty in the sun and wind. The crane that we used had this excellent warning about keeping your fingers out of the works...

Plastic Bali Animal

2009-10-21T22:10:00.000+08:00

This is a different Animal that we saw in Denpasar...

Hands On Zoo

2009-10-20T20:00:00.001+08:00

While in Bali we went to the Bird & Reptile Park and much to Ben's delight we got to pick up some of the Animals! This tortoise was pretty heavy and he was struggling a bit to not drop him!

Volcano

2009-10-13T21:22:00.001+08:00

Another shot from our Holiday in Bali. This was when we went up to have a look at the Volcano. It is quite a dramatic view but it is somewhat tempered by the rather dodgy restaurant, all the hawkers and the sheer number of tourists... The boys still found it rather interesting (you can see them peering over the edge).

I'be been to Bali too...

2009-10-12T22:01:00.000+08:00

Had a lovely 11 days in Bali for the last week of the school holidays. This was in Ubud in the hills. There was a fantastic Lotus pond...

More Old Stuff...

2009-09-29T22:16:00.000+08:00

Something that isn't made in China! When oil becomes $100,000 a barrel I wonder if we will start making things again? I wonder if we will remember how to do it?

Almost Finished!

2009-09-27T22:14:00.000+08:00

This was this afternoon as we were screwing the last few bits of the Pergola togther... It is all done now and there is still a day left of the long weekend!

Springs a coming...

2009-09-20T21:17:00.001+08:00

Currently busy trying to finish off the pergola at the back of the house. We need to finish it off before the vines and the wisteria really get going -- which won't be too long by the look of things...

My nappy keeps falling orf...

2009-09-18T21:29:00.000+08:00

Roadside Chariot

2009-09-13T21:38:00.001+08:00

This is Ben's Charriot that I helped him make form junk that we found beside the road. There are wheels and bits of frame from a number of bicycles and we even found the an electric scooter -- looking at trying to get the motor and battereies from that on here...

Tube

2009-09-06T21:38:00.001+08:00

This is a picture of a tube from an old Radio Compass that I have been going to rebuild for a VERY long time now...

Spot the Bicycle Part...

2009-09-02T21:03:00.000+08:00

Have come across a number of these balls that have been welded togther from a lot of small iron items. This one was in the courtyard of the house we rented down in Dunsburough. Have also seen them in Mount Newman museum and somewhere else... just can't remember...

Box more Exciting than the Contents...

2009-08-30T21:10:00.000+08:00

Ben still finds the Box more exciting than the contents. Rose & Declan went out to have look at something or other and returned with an outdoors Sofa for the deck... This is the box that it came in and was much more exciting for Ben... He is standing on a ladder inside...

Large Blue Building

2009-08-20T22:15:00.000+08:00

From a Sunday afternoon outing from a couple of weeks ago. This is the Grain Silo down in Kwinana, from the beach. This is quite a lot of pictures bolted togther. The software seems to pick out straight lines and reinforce them. I havn't really played with some of the other projections before but it did work quite well for this one. There was a bit of Photoshoping the clouds as there was a bit of gap. Not sure of the vintage of the building, but it all looks a bit 60's, but maybe that is just everything down Rockingham way...

Yoda Clouds?

2009-08-17T21:42:00.001+08:00

Quite convinced that I can see Yoda in this cloud... The boys wern't so convinced... No Imagination the youngesters today!

Only Block Value...

2009-08-16T21:49:00.001+08:00

We went for a walk this afternoon after a big lunch and probably too much wine for the middle of the day. On our walk we saw this house is now on the market. Seems to come with shopping trollies and a car wreck. I will try to remember to take another picture next year when I suspect that there will be at least 3 town houses here. Debatable which is the biggest eyesore...

Worlds most Intelligent Dog

2009-08-15T21:23:00.001+08:00

On the radio the other morning we heard that Weasel Dog, a.k.a. Fettid Carcass, was actually one of the more intelligent Dogs... dosen't say a lot about the rest of the Canine family...

Some Opposition...

2009-08-09T17:27:00.001+08:00

This chap was taking pictures of Sugearloaf Rock while we were there. He seemed to take a lot more time over his pictures than I do... Spontaneity is my approach...

A Year since Capricon

2009-08-06T22:26:00.000+08:00

This was us (well not me, but rest of us) a year ago! Half way up the Cape to Exmouth.

Ben's Turtle

2009-08-05T21:42:00.000+08:00

Can't quite remember if this was a tortoise or a turtle... Ben made this at school and it has accessories! Three collars. A sleeping one, a going out one and a day-to-day one...

Afternoon Walk...

2009-08-02T21:03:00.001+08:00

Took the Rose, the boys, Declan's friend and the Dog for a walk... Rose commented that I was good at choosing interesting places for a walk...

Sugarloaf Rok

2009-08-01T11:19:00.001+08:00

Took this last weekend when we were staying in Dunsburough. Had a very nice four days and still found a few places we had never been to before... This being one of them. This is a panorama of quite a few pictures glued together. If you click on the photo you will see a much better version!

Gravity Museum

2009-07-15T21:29:00.001+08:00

On Sunday we went to the Gravity Museum at Gingin. It was a fun afternoon and we got to walk along the Solar System. This was taken from the worlds tallest leaning structure!

New Phone...

2009-07-09T21:38:00.000+08:00

We have a new phone and with it you discover a whole new bunch of stuff. This seems to be the new mark of the Beast. It is a code for embedding various bits of information that a camera in a mobile phone can understand... Try it and see where this get's you!

From Little Acorn's...

2009-06-29T21:01:00.000+08:00

This was an Acorn that Ben picked up on our holiday in Bridgetown. So two months later we have this!

Rail filter

2009-06-27T21:20:00.001+08:00

This is from our walk to the power station a few weeks ago. This is part of the filter to stop stuff getting into the cooling pond. The corrosion is rather amazing as is the weathering of the jarrah beam...

Flouro Pantz!

2009-06-24T22:14:00.001+08:00

Had a fun couple of days on a Jetty off Garden Island. It was very, very wet and cold! It was hard to believe that last time were were down there it was 5 years ago...

Into the Catacombs

2009-06-14T20:55:00.000+08:00

This is Ben's diorama for his Italian class at school. It reminds me a little bit of a Tool video... Ben gave them names... some of them less approrprate than other. Rosemary forbade me to tell you some of them as she is using the Chaser as an example of over stretching good taste...

Feeling Legless

2009-06-10T21:49:00.000+08:00

Brainz arms and legs bubbled to the top of the junk pile recently...

Ouch!

2009-06-03T21:15:00.000+08:00

Lego still hurts when you stand on it...

No Escape

2009-06-02T20:05:00.000+08:00

Went to the Zoo on Saturday and had a lovely day. The 4 hours went by really quickly. Took this in the Nocturnal House.

wirez

2009-05-19T20:42:00.000+08:00

Plastic Squid

2009-05-15T21:31:00.000+08:00

Nobody expects the Plastic Squid!

Bridgetown

2009-05-14T21:34:00.000+08:00

We stayed in an "onsite van" at the caravan park in Bridgetown which was a bit of an experience... Quite cheap...

Tick Tock!

2009-05-12T22:03:00.000+08:00

While up at Mum and Dad's a week or so ago I found the movement for a clock that I have been restoring for a while. Well about 30 years I reckon... The amazing thing is that I have found a link on the net to what the actual clock looked like! See this for a picture of the entire clock and case! I really must get around to finishing it off!

Back to the Power Station

2009-05-05T21:14:00.001+08:00

Taking the Dog for a walk along the Toxic beach past the old South Fremantle Power Station. Time for a new Panorama. If you search you can find one from about a year ago...

Gnomesville Revisited...

2009-04-28T20:32:00.000+08:00

On our little holiday we went back to Gnomesville. It's even BIGGER!!!

Not feeling too well...

2009-04-27T22:33:00.001+08:00

...but fairly armless...