Patterns, Texture and Life.. as well as 'a day away with friends'

In celebration of the new year and of the wonderful things that lay ahead for us, I thought I would share some images taken with my little automatic digital camera. Some of these images are of the small often overlooked details, which somehow caught my eye as I passed them.  I do love the idea of some of these below images enlarged and hanging on a wall somewhere.


Patterns- Bark in Thornbury :

Texture- Graffiti-ed wall in Northcote:

Wall in Northcote:

 Peeling post in the city.

Painted wall in Fitzroy (detail)

The details from a wall in Collingwood:

Life- South Yarra:

Life- Or, where life once was (Nth Fitzroy):

Life- In my front garden:

What the fence painter did:

A day away with friends. 

Here are some shots from a recent trip to Daylesford with friends:

Later that night on a walk through the city, I came across this surreal image of a forklift parked on St Kilda Road, out the front of the National Gallery Of Victoria. Surrounding the forklift were trees beautifully lit up with green lights:

New Year’s resolutions

New Year’s resolutions, why do we have them? Why do we share what they are with others, because, let’s be honest we rarely fulfill them. How many resolutions did you fulfill from last year? I know personally that I fulfilled zilch, nada, niente, zero!   

I know that my own lists are identical each year. Let’s see, I am always going to:

- lose weight,

-to do more physical activity (walking, yoga, swimming etc),

-Have more self-respect and stop dating losers,

-Have more self-respect and stop dating any man that gives me the slightest attention,

- be more creative (play and write music).

Every friggin’ year this list is written out again, looked at, a personal pledge is made, the list is shared with my friends and then that’s the end of it… well until the next year when it’s all regurgitated.

A few days ago, an elderly Chinese lady I know, pointed at my stomach and said ‘Fat tummy!!’ A week or more before that, I visited my mum and as I entered the room I noticed her eyes zoom down to my expanding waistline, she then masked a sudden look of surprise and stood there staring at it, transfixed by its hugeness for several long drawn out moments. These events tempt me even more to fall into that unfulfilled resolution trap again…but this year, this year the answer is ‘no!’. This year I am keeping my mouth shut and I will just keep on doing what I have been doing all along… and that is to think about all the changes I want to make- including losing the spare tyre around my tummy and then head off for some coffee and cake in celebration of life and the start of a new year (umm... isn't that the reason any of us have coffee and cake??). Anyway...coffee and cake, why not? Good cake makes us all happy and no resolution means that I won’t have any guilt about not living up to my self-made pledges, or fear that my friends will remind me of my resolutions just before I hoe into some yummy dessert, in which case I then have to pretend that I am grateful that they have reminded me of my resolution and painfully push the yummy dessert aside…. all the while on the inside I am crying my little 'dessert hungry' heart out…no good can come from New Year’s resolutions- .I tell's ya!!

So happy New Year to you and may the year ahead bring you happiness, contentment and lots of cake and yummy desserts! And may you never feel compelled to have a list of New Year's resolutions, feel guilty for not living up to them, or have your dessert stolen away from you from friends that mean well.