waiting for the sun

Here are some shots from a recent trip to the sunshine coast. Lots of beaches and a day trip to World Heritage listed Fraser Island where we saw dolphins as we ferried over, two dingoes (rare to see) and even a kangaroo with a joey! We swam in Lake Mackenzie, a blissful perched freshwater lake.  And it was four wheel driving right on the beach the whole time,  uber cool and something we had never done before.

The blizzard has delayed our plans

i don't normally blog about books, but I just had to share an awe inspiring book i recently bought. Jane Ussher's, Still Life. Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton, is an unforgettable photographic study of the interiors of three Antactic huts that served as expedition bases for Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton during the early 20th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Falcon_Scott    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton 

these historic huts are an archaeological treasure trove of  beautifully decayed in situ objects of these explorers. one hundred years on, a Emperor Penguin specimen still left on Scott's chart table,  canvas pants covered with expedition grime still hanging over wires and conserved provisions lined on shelves.  it's just an incredible time capsule.

if you stumble upon this book have a look through it, you will be humbled, i promise.

shining through the golden hour

Mirka Mora's words in today's Age  " I love Melbourne. I couldn't leave Melbourne. I could leave Paris but i couldn't leave Melbourne" 
below some photos i took earlier this year of Melbourne's Spring St precinct.
thank you Soula  http://www.soula.com.au/  for inspiring this blog today.

wunderkammer

one of my absolute favourite spaces is Wunderkammer, a cabinet of curiosities shop in Melbourne. here, my love for curious oddities is nurtured. its like visiting a museum and being able to buy anything on display. looking for a monkey skull? cat shark eggs? what about some caterpillar pills?.... you got it. each visit for me is not only an opportunity to buy something peculiar, but see something i could never have imagined even existed! truly, I'm often blown away  by what these guys gather here. Our world is beautifully strange indeed.


 http://wunderkammer.com.au/index.html
a big thank you to the staff at Wunderkammer who kindly let me take some pictures

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_curiosities

 

                                                 

i need some space

i have been housebound since saturday recovering from a nasty spider bite to my foot!..well it is Halloween after all. anyway, this morning i was able to walk around for the first time without pain so i took some snaps around my home just for some fun and to get me off the couch! a big thank you to Nurse Quilla who did a marvelous job administering the antibiotics! :)

she also features in the last pic wearing my new top hat that i had intended to wear to a Halloween party but the white tail had other plans for me that evening :) Shes also wearing my $260 dress that i shrunk in the wash! fits her well i think

will work for chocolate

last week our Perth friends came to stay with us for a week. of course it rained the entire week! so  a lot of time was spent in various cafes. they were mighty impressed with Monsier Truffe, a french cafe in Brunswick, that also functions as a chocolate factory.  you can even watch some chocolate making action through a small viewing window.  my favourite, is the enormous archaic cocoa bean crusher (see 2nd pic) that at first seems like an enormous industria interior feature until the french owner comes out and begins to actually use it!  importantly, the coffee is goooood! 

Check out the Age review (which also means forget about getting a seat in this place on the weekends)  http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/monsieur-truffe-20110728-1i1w6.html

and on Day 2 further down the road for more chocolate with cake

nomads and calico tents

i've spent a lot of time in the goldfields of central Victoria for work and holidays,  in fact my career in archaeology began in Fryerstown at a Chinese digging site. I returned home this morning from a few days in beautiful Maldon and surrounds. a couple of weeks ago i was a bit further northwest for field work, recording and surveying some old golden towns. i have always loved the story of the prospectors and pioneers, and when you find remnants of this history...well,  there is just so much to imagine, it was one hell of a hard life. one of my  favourite things to do is just drive around, take an unsealed road here and there, getting a bit lost, because that's when you find all the good stuff.

 

high society

on saturday a friend popped round to show me an old suitcase he had recently salvaged that was full of incredible paperwork documenting a wealthy couple's 1928 eight month grand tour through Europe and the US.  travel itenaries, postcards, correspondence letters, receipts from Paris milliners, sport and theatre programmes, travel guide books and maps, just the coolest stuff.  these guys stayed in luxury hotels,  traveled on opulent ocean liners....and anyhow you get my drift. we both had a lot of fun looking through it all and i got to take some photos..i hope you are just as delighted by them

 

there's a rainbow shining somewhere

I love Fairfield historic boathouse for many reasons but largely because  you really feel like your not even in the city.  and they do scones and all that lovely arvo tea stuff.  but best fun is to hire a boat for an hour or so, load up with snacks and wine and row row ya boat. parasols essential

http://fairfieldboathouse.com/?_page=2

let them eat cake

 Quilla trialling my new hat under wonderful Melbourne sunshine

and loving her brain with a nutcase

 but loving her mama's red velvet cupcakes even more ....xx

why havent you called?

I have spent the past year digging up amazing sites in the city centre of Melbourne.  there is a whole other world beneath the asphalt and i get to peek!  but the built history that still survives (unfortunately not much) is truly amazing. i never get sick of wandering around the city...almost each time i see something i have never noticed before. 

ever noticed the original gas street lamps (c. 1850s) like the one on the left here?  not many exist but they are around if you look carefully in the right places.

happy sunny sunday...and a new bike

the sun was out in Melbourne today......felt like spring. 

started the day with a pancake breakfast with our neighbours Nicholas and Finley (no photos, wrong camera settings, damn!),  and  then arvo tea  with our friend Linda at her newly renovated pad.

but missed seeing our favourite man from St. Kilda...get well Flint! 

picked up my new bike yesterday and although i didn't get to ride it today, i did enjoy looking at it....nice eh? rides like a dream i tell ya

 a gift for Linda

espresso, books and baking

some of what Quilla and i got up to during the first week of school holidays

  vanilla cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.....evil but yum!

couldn't resist some portrait opportunities