A Botanic Sojourn…

 

There is a lovely place near Perth called Araluen Botanic Park

I’ve been told that I’ve been there numerous times since 1979, but I don’t really recall… I only see flashes of memory.

The last time I really remember being there, was at my aunty’s wedding. I was the flower girl. I loved that day. I kept the dress for the longest time and even wore it as an odd babydoll kind of top when I was younger, until it went astray.

I wish I hadn’t lost that frock.

I was a pretty flower girl…

Last weekend, I went back to Araluen (which means “singing waters” in Aboriginal) for the first time in decades. Every winter they have a mass tulip planting. It was advertised that “Springtime at Araluen” had started, but it turns out we were a bit early. Not surprising as it is still winter, and how….

The tulips were not quite ready, but I still managed to take a few nice shots. It was raining steadily the whole afternoon, but it didn’t matter. It’s such a lovely place. To add to the atmosphere, a male tenor was standing at the base of the valley singing beautiful music which resonated all over. It really was so special. Quite surreal.

 

This is is the oldest, largest (1929) pergola of its kind in the world. No shelter from the rain, but it’s very pretty…

 

We really were just a couple of weeks too early. Too much budding and not enough blooms…

 

So much for fucking global warming (is it just me who is suspicious of the hype??). On the dryest continent, in the midst of drought, the ducks are loving it. We have well exceeded our average rainfall now……………………..yeah, yeah I know. The wheatbelt… but……….

 

There were some very pretty blooms…

 

… and interesting bush views. In Australia, untouched native foliage is called “the bush”, as in “look at that log up there in the bush”…

 

The tulips were trying…

 

There were interesting rock bits…

 

… and waterfally bits….

 

… and random chairs made out of stumps, which would have been welcome if not for the rain…

 

Araluen as it is, was constructed by the Y.A.L. (Young Australia League) in 1929 and as part of the design, they built the “Grove of the Unforgotten” to commemorate the 88 members of the Y.A.L., who died in WWI. It has been restored. This is it. The waterfall flows down into a stone memorial and flower garden.

 

Dense ivy is lovely…

 

And the creeks flow freely. The water tastes a bit like fertiliser, but it still tastes fresher than tap water…

 

Trees make me happy.

 

There are more photos here

 

Feedback most appreciated.  I love you.

 

 

 

Song Of The Day – PJ Harvey – Good Fortune

It’s All About the Hair

 

What you are about to see is a photo of my mother and I on my first day of school, aged 5.

A really quite embarrassing photo.

We lived in Sydney at the time and within a few months we would be moving to London.

My mother had the bright idea that having my hair cut in the most hideous, nerdy bowl cut possible, would somehow make me more scholarly.

How wrong she was.

It just made me look like a dag.

(Just for the record, she is completely unrepentant to this day…)

Note my facial expression of abject terror. I seriously look like I’m about to cry and I haven’t even left the house yet. Well, wouldn’t you if you had a haircut like that? Actually, I really don’t remember my first day being all that traumatic. I was a little trooper as a kid. I swear. Not the sook you see before you. No sirree.

Well, ok. I might have cried. A bit.

I miss that case. How I loved my Globite schoolcase. It made me feel super and terribly important.

It’s funny, you know. I have a lot of photos of me as a kid and in most of them I look as cute as a button – while in others I look like I got hit with the ugly stick.

I know what that is…

It’s all about the hair!

Allow me to illustrate.

Here’s another photo of me taken a couple of months down the track. Kudos to my mother for giving up on the hairstyle:

See?

The glasses are cute. Sh’up.

You can kinda tell by the pose that every time I wore that jumpsuit (I had a brown one too – nice) , I used to strut around thinking I was hot stuff.

And with my new and improved hairstyle, I was a confident, outgoing-bordering-on-precocious, little Miss.

Here are a couple more examples…

Bad hair = ugly, bad tempered child:

 

Good hair = happy little cutie:

You see where I’m coming from?

 

I suspect there might be something vaguely profound in that (or completely superficial, for that matter), but I’m buggered if I know what it is…

If you come up with anything, let me know…

 

 

Song Of The Day – Pavement – Cut Your Hair

 

Flash Cube Flashback!

I found this Kodak commercial from the 60’s. It thrills me.

It’s new! It’s now! It’s Flash Cube!

Help me…. I can’t stop go-go dancing…

Does anyone else remember flash cubes, or am I really starting to show my age? I was a child of the ’70’s and my first camera predated me, but I have very clear memories of those little cubes. You only got 4 flashes per cube…

Whatever you do, don’t blink!

This was my first camera:

No frills, circa 1968-’73 with no built-in flash. It had a manual wind-on mechanism and I distinctly remember the resounding “click” when you pressed the shutter and the torturous process of winding back the film at the end of a roll. I used to think I was pretty special because my camera had two different settings for if it was sunny or overcast, as you can see in the picture above, just above the lens. It took crappy pictures, but I didn’t care. I took it everywhere with me. Nice to see nothing has changed in that regard…

Ohh, look! I found a picture of me with my trusty Instamatic 33:

I still have the photos I took that day, which would illustrate beautifully the quality (or lack thereof) of the prints, but I couldn’t be arsed going through 30 boxes to find them. I think I still have the camera somewhere, too….

I am such a hoarder.

Song Of The Day – Cream – Tales Of Brave Ulysses

Spidey… and me

I went to the cinema today.

Spidey!  Yay!

I’ve never been a comic book freak, but I’ve always loved me some Spidey.  I think it had a lot to with the theme song being so deeply imprinted, watching Saturday morning television as a kid.

I won’t harp on about it at length, as the hype is bordering on overkill as it is.  Also it’s quite boring to read about a film you haven’t seen.

Here is a list of a few things that occurred to me during the movie (no spoilers to speak of):  

Yeah, I’m critical.  I’m an ex-film critic.  So shoot me.

• Kirsten Dunst has a most unfortunate voice.  She does sing in the film (she’s actually meant to not be all that good), but I’m talking about her speaking voice.  It annoys the bejesus out of me. She sounds like she’s being strangled.  Every time she opens her mouth, I feel an uncontrollable urge to clear my throat.  Use your diaphragm, woman!
• The opening credits are really naff and almost as long as the film.  That’s very, very long.
• There is a lot of crying in this movie.  I mean, it’s really noticeable.  I didn’t feel terribly affected by the drama, so by the end of the film I was starting to giggle every time someone started snuffling. 
• It drove me nuts when every time Peter Parker pulled his sexy cozzie out of the trunk, he would hold it out in front on himself and gaze at it in earnest for what seemed like aeons.  This must have happened about six times, at least.  People to save, Peter!  Get a move on, lad!  It was actually quite comical (ahem)…
• People who criticise the amount of CGI in Spiderman 3, need to stop and remember that it is a comic book!  Next stop: animation!  It was almost blurring the line between cartoon and reality, but it really worked – unlike in Superman Returns.
• It was nice to see a cameo from Stan Lee.
• One of the things I like most about the Spiderman franchise is its sense of humour.  There are some cack laugh-out-loud moments in this movie.  Shame that the rest of the (very young) audience missed it.
• The action scenes are hot.   See it on the big screen
• Is it just me, or does anyone else find Spiderman in his cozzie really bloody sexy?  Makes me all a bit fluttery in naughty places , I tell ya….

Come and get me, Spidey baby….(just leave your costume on)

All in all, a jolly enjoyable romp, as you would expect.    I give Spidey 3, ***1/2 stars.

Oh!  I nearly forgot to tell you.  Just as well it’s not a film you where need to concentrate terribly hard to follow along, because there was a group of unsupervised children in the session and they were taking turns running up and down the stairs in the theatre.[thud, thud, thud-thud, thud, thud-thud-thud, thud]  You get the picture.  They also didn’t shut up for the entirety of the film – vocally or with their constant rustling.  Fortnuately I was in the fourth row and they were at the back, so I managed to mostly tune them out…..

….Unlike the guy 4 rows behind me who had not one, but two loud conversations on his mobile phone in the middle of the movie.  How rude!  The second time he did it was the last time, because I turned around and yelled at him:

“GET OFF THE PHONE!!!”

He got off the phone.  :)

In other news:

I coloured my hair today.  Woohoo!

Damn.  It didn’t really come out all that well in the photo.  It’s quite….. red.

Alright.  That’s all.  Carry on.

Song Of The Day – Kasabian – Reason Is Treason

It’s that freaky tag again…

Alright, alright already.  I finally made iit.  The lovely Ms Max Adams tagged me and I’m to list 5 freaky things you never really wanted to know about me. At least I think that’s it. There has been some tag mutation from the time I was tagged (last night) until now.

I’ve just about missed the boat on this one, but I did have to get in a few hours sleep and a working day in between seeing the tag and doing the tag. At least that’s my excuse. When I finally got down to it, it took less than 5 minutes. Hah.

Hokay…

1. My speaking voice can still be heard regularly on around 20 or more radio stations around Australia, as the voice that gives the station ID (or callsign).  It usually sounds like a sexy whisper. 

2.  My first proper kiss was with a 24 year old man, when I was 12.  He knew how old I was.  I enjoyed it.  Taught me a thing or two, too….

3.  My father was a fairly big time international drug runner, between the US and Australia, but I didn’t find out until after he died.

4.  I was coerced into leading a seance at my Year 8 camp.  A girl was taken to hospital as a result.  I was very nearly expelled.  It was a bad scene.  I still don’t quite understand what happened.

Are you sufficiently bored yet?  No?  Here’s one more….

5.  I’m allergic to nuts [insert testicle joke].  Except for pistachios and peanuts, because they’re not actually nuts.  Strangely enough, nuts don’t make me vomit if they’re encased in chocolate.  Work that one out.

Rightio chaps.  That is it.  I’ll be lucky to find enough people to tag, seeing as half the people I know have been tagged already and I’ve only been here two weeks, but let’s see, shall we?

Charity Case

Rannaland

Alluring Butterfly

My Little Corner

Hedonistic Pleasureseeker

Phew. Just made it.

Show us what ya got, ladies!

Song Of The Day: The John Butler Trio – Good Excuse

You like what??

Hello.  My name is Vanessa, and I am slightly unusual.

Well, maybe a little more than slightly…

I happily sit outside the circle, to the left.  It’s where I’ve always lived.  It’s nice.  They know me here.

I’m not crazy.  I just like different things to ‘most people’.

I like Test Patterns.

See?

I really do.

I even have a favourite Test Pattern.

Check it out:

When I was a kid I would always wake up too early for TV and this is what I saw when I turned on the box.  Can you see why I was fascinated?  A spooky looking little girl who always looked to me like her head was about to begin turning 360’s, and as for that clown thing….  I’m not generally afraid of clowns, I just think they’re stupid.  But that weirdo clown paired with the girl like they’re ACTUALLY PLAYING NOUGHTS AND CROSSES, that creeped me the fuck out, like it’s alive or something.   And, what is with that clown’s body?? 

Useless trivia:   This Test Pattern has a name.  It’s ‘Test Card F’, and it’s a creation of the BBC in the UK.  They’re playing noughts and crosses so the TV cameras could have something to focus on in the centre of the picture.  Hence, the placement of the ‘X’. 

Then there’s this one:

Familiar to viewers of televisual pictures in 30 different countries.  Not seen quite so often these days, due to most TV stations broadcasting 24 hours.   I like the geometric shapes and vague optical illusions.  I like the colours and shades.  It makes me feel warm and fuzzy, like my favourite teddy bear.  No, I’m not kidding.

So, imagine my joy at finding this for sale online:

Orrrrhhh!   Test Pattern Watch!!

I’m tempted…. Oh, so tempted….

Song Of The Day:   Sigur Ros – Glosoli