Guard dogs

Airport guard doggies -

three of them

(three parent-kiddy sets, that is).

In good positions for surveillance

but not such good positions for collecting donations

which is in fact their purpose.

A bit wet!

In Sydney - snapshots from the car. 
Can you hear that rain?
(No? ... well press the arrow ...)

Happy Birthday, Coathanger!

The Sydney Harbour Bridge turns 80 years old today.

‘The Bridge is the stage on which Sydney acts out its daily life but also its red-letter days’.*

Much more than just a way to get between north and south Sydney, 

the "Coathanger" is a beloved Sydney icon and international symbol of the city.


The Bridge is the place for exceptional demonstrations of public opinion (like the 2000 walk of 750,000 people protesting against the then government's refusal to make a formal apology to Australia's indigenous people).


Every year Sydney Harbour is the place for a huge party - massive New Year's Eve celebrations and the Bridge is the centrepiece of the world's best fireworks display. 


Everyone should get there to see it at least once in a lifetime!

                                                                                              Courier-mail.com.au

* sydney-harbour-bridge.bos.nsw.edu.au

Squelch squelch squelch squelch

It's raining again.

Well, summer is supposed to be the wet season in the tropics.

But ... this isn't the tropics

and it isn't summer any more.

 Some things are not yet falling apart from the constant damp. Here is one of them!

(By the way, the ants love this weather - very busy - they love being busy. 

They tell me that as their battalions march through my kitchen.)

Sunny's Grocery

Layers upon layers upon layers ...

Sunny's Grocery in Ashfield Sydney.

Began in 1885 in Sydney boom-time as the grand Centennial House.

The area then was mostly very anglo-celtic (after "gaining" the land from the indigenous Eora people).

Then Ashfield evolved through wave after wave of immigration - by 1986 46% of the population had been born overseas - firstly southern European (mostly italian) and most recently* Asian cultures from many countries.

All left their mark on the corner shops.

The design tells us that this building may have been a pub. 

The walls tell us it has had multiple purposes in recent times. 

The shop windows tell us that people living around here are of Chinese/Asian origin and they ring home often.

And the upstairs window tells us a baby lives there!

But its primary reason for being there, as always through its life, is as a local hub.  

*An ironic footnote: 

The wealthy anglo-celtic boom-time families in Ashfield actually included one Chinese family. The family head, Quong Tart, was a respected and admired Sydney figure and his legacy remained - even through the years of the infamous "White Australian Policy". 

Now the strong Asian population has brought it full circle.

Red Dress Running

Three years old

New red dress

Soft green grass

What's a girl to do??

Run, fall over and run some more ...