A year ago today...........

Jubilee Celebration and Jude the Obscure No, it's not this blog's first anniversary yet. I still haven't got my new camera, so I thought I'd post some old photos. These are photos I took a year ago today. All these roses are in flower now in the garden as well. Due to the rain and cool weather we've had, roses' colours are even more intense this spring.

The Dark Lady, Radio Times, Sir Edward Elgar, Ambridge Rose, Anne Boelyn and TamoraChina Doll Weeping Standard Rose Jubilee Celebration, Jude the Obscure, Tamora and St. Cecilia Sir Edward Elgar Heritage Radio TimesJude the Obscure

Bloggie's Nightmare

I've been hit by the worst bloggie's nightmare- my camera went dead on me on Wednesday last week. (Now I can understand how Kate from Our Red House felt when her camera was lost in the ocean) I found out when I was trying to transfer some pictures onto the computer and it wouldn't do it, the LCD screen wouldn't show any pictures while the camera turns on and still takes photos. The first thing I did was to look for the receipt and warranty. The warranty had expired. I rang the store where hubby got it from ( it was a Christmas presy in 2005) mainly to see if it was worth getting it fixed, as many gadgets like that are not made to last these days and often it's cheaper just to get a new one rather than attempting to get it fixed.

To cut the long story short, the prognosis by the very helpful technician was that it might have either short-circuited (in which case not worth fixing at all) or something might've got disconnected on the inside of the camera. They couldn't tell unless they open it up to have a look, but that'll cost just a wee-bit less than buying a new camera, so I might as well buy a new one, newer and better model, higher mega pixels etc as prices of digital cameras have reduced significantly in the last two years.

So there, now I'm in the middle of waiting to get a new camera, hubby teased that I might get one for Christmas. I expectedly protested, "No, no, that'll be too long to wait!" "Can I have my Christmas presy early?........... Just for once?............"

Anyway, here are some photos I took prior to the "breakdown", they come in handy now.The rose bushes are laden with flowers at the moment, yet I can't take pictures of them. (Sigh) I've been continuing with the "renovation" in the back garden, have been labouring hard doing brick-paving. I had to pull out the old and put in the new and weed in between. I've got more respect for people who do jobs that need physical labour now. The first day I did it, I literally staggered and thought I was going to black out (How unfit!) when I stood up after two hours of kneeling and bending over and my fingers were sore from handling the bricks. The next day I was sore everywhere, especially in my thighs, shoulders, arms and fingers. I thought gardening was hard work, but brick-paving, that's HARD work! Anyway, I quite like the result, very pleasing indeed, it looks much better than the way it was. I've still got a bit to go, but I'm much fitter now. Couldn't take photos of the process! (Sigh again) Patience, patience, I tell myself............

Celebrating Spring

Roses, roses, roses, can't have enough of them, they are truly magnificent..................

Bunches of Roses

Roses are beauty, fragrance and colour all united in one............
Above are my most recent roses from the garden. I'm enjoying them heaps.You can click on the pictures to view larger images.

First Roses in Spring

"I wish the sky would rain down roses, as they rain from off the shaken bush....... They would fall as light as feathers, smelling sweet: and it would be like sleeping and yet waking, all at once."--- George Eliot

The majority of the rose bushes are still budding............But some blooms were ready to be cut.............(Wish you could smell them...........mmm!!!!!)Having some fun with them at dusk...........

Public Holiday (Part 2)

I hope I didn't make everyone wait too long. The weather has been so beautiful outside and the kids are on school holidays and so there has been very little opportunity for me to sit down in front of the computer. Well, here goes Part 2 of the great time we had which I promised in the last post. After spending a good while walking, relaxing (I confess I did have races with the kids, even though I couldn't possibly outrun them), talking, eating, and simply enjoying ourselves at the beach, we piled back into our car and headed for another destination which I call a spot for fail-proof-wonderful-time round late afternoon. There's actually nothing too unusual or unique about this place, just a leafy park with a lake and barbeque facilities like any other in WA. But we love going to this park in the late afternoon to feed the birds whenever we can. Various native birds including cockatoos, Twenty-eights (a kind of bright green coloured parrot), pink and grey Galahs, ducks, geese, pigeons and kangaroos come out to be fed and you can get right up close to them while they feed. Kids simply love it and it's a very good place to take overseas tourists too.So what we usually do is we ready ourselves with Sunflower seeds (they are the birdies' favourite, as they are the secret to attracting them to yourself), spread our arms out with seeds in the palm of our hands and stand still, the birds will land on your hands to feed. Sometimes they do land on your head and shoulders as well. It's a general feeling everybody desires a Twenty-eight (or two) to land on their hands most, as they are the most colourful and beautiful birds and everybody wants a photo with them.My son nicknamed the white cockatoos "Crabsticks" as their beaks are like crab claws and the orangey patches on their white feathers are the colour of crabsticks. Kids are not too fond of feeding them as they are a heavier bird and their claws and beaks sink deep into their skin and they hurt. They are beautiful nonetheless.We stayed at the park till after sunset. We also saw kangaroos including mama kangaroos with their joeys in their pouch. I was busy taking birds' pictures I missed the roos altogether. We were having such a great time the kids didn't want to leave, it was lovely being surrounded by birds and animals. In the end they reluctantly said goodbye to the place because it was getting too dark. We'll no doubt make sure we go back there again some time in the near future. It was one of those days everybody agrees they had such a memorable, pleasant and enjoyable day when the day is done.

Public Holiday (Part 1)

Yesterday was a public holiday in West Australia for the Queen's Birthday, Her Majesty's real birthday is not in October, but that's just the date set aside here in WA to acknowledge her birthday and it was also the first day of our Perth Royal Show.

Instead of going to the Royal Show, hubby suggested we go out for a more relaxing time with some church friends. We didn't want to get ourselves all exhausted from doing too much just because it was a public holiday, since we'd already had quite a busy weekend with special dinner on Sunday night. That suited me perfectly as I was ready for a bit of relaxation. I only had to pack a basket with snacks, soft drink, coffee, tea, hot water, milk and sugar and off we went to start our day with fun.First we went to the beach for a walk, and boy, it was such a beautiful and calm day with perfect temperatures. I couldn't help but kept snapping away with my camera, these are some of the results. I wish I could post them all. We're so blessed here in Australia to be able to enjoy such awesome beaches. This is not a skull, just a random sand formation which made interesting photo.
Lil' sea critter in blue.........Notice the shadow of the fisherman...........Footprints on the sand...........The sound of waves, the sight of the blue blue sky, the horizon, the ever-changing pattern of waves and foam and the smooth smooth sand under our feet were highly therapeutic for the resting of our body and soul. The whole environment of nature is simply awesome and awesome seems like an understatement. I savoured every moment of being in the midst of it all...........I was so glad we went to the beach, but that was not all, I'll share the next part of how we spent this special day in my next post, stay tuned.