Out on the Street

We can safely say the sky doesn't look like it does in this post at the moment. We've been having some record breaking rain, mainly over the weekend, with it being the wettest May since 1920. The middle of last week however was bright and sunny, mostly.

On Wednesday afternoon I looked outside to see what was happening with the sky. I was enjoying the golden light so much I headed for a quick walk around the block as the sun set, while dinner was cooking.

The sun was headed for the mountains on one side, the moon was well risen on the other.

The time outside was good. I'd had a few hours at daycare and had to head to a few hours night work that night. Actually, the last fortnight has been a bit like that. I had worked every day at one job or the other, including both Saturday and Sunday. 

It is rather sad, but it has been a while since I have wandered the streets around where I live. I really should get back to walking. That however requires shoes and I am the owner of a never ending ingrown toe nail, yet again. Just what you wanted to here. This is not a new thing.

Walking around, it is hard to tell what season it is. In photos especially.

I know that it is slightly cooler now, but I can't really show you that.

I know that certain things flower at different times of year, but then there are the plants that flower all the time.

At the moment some plants are a little confused on the whole flowering thing too. The weather has taken a while to loose its summer feeling.

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if once the rain goes again, it warms up.

Apparently, there have even been stingers (box jelly fish) spotted around the marina. We should be pretty much clear of them by now. Stinger season ends in May.

We also haven't had the wet season we should have, not that we can complain when compared to other areas. Maybe the weather is trying to make up for it now. There have been some incredible photos taken around the ridges of swollen rivers, creeks and waterfalls.

Going out for a wander was a good tiredness buster, well maybe more of a keep me going activity.

It was good to get out to observe, to see what I could see and to relax.

So often I overlook what is close by, instead heading to some beach or waterfall. It is good to look for and be reminded of the natural beauty that is right around the corner.

It would just be nice if their weren't light posts and power poles, but I guess we do like light and power.

I think the sign coming into the city say 'City in a Garden' or something like that. They do try to keep that going with plenty of greenery and plants on the city street. Somewhere there is even a plan for what is planted where so you can find out what type of trees are on your street.

It was also nice to watch the changing sky.

I should do this more often (I say that a lot it seems), especially now I start work later ... and finish later.

By the way, the whole midnight finish time is completely screwing with my sleep. Sleep is always a topic for discussion at work. Last night I was feeling so tired when I started (I had been at daycare during the day too) but by the time I finished work I was nearly ready to bounce off the walls. How do you come down from that and try to get a few quality hours sleep?

Oh, the so tired also had something to do with sitting up late Saturday night watching 'The Holiday'. It is such a sweet movie, and extremely long with all the ads. Also to do with Mr Sparky going out on Sunday evening to a mates place and not getting home until about 11pm. What was with that, by the way, on a 'work' night?

Anyway, if I am telling you about lack of sleep, I am obviously down at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to things to chat about.

Oh, in other news, I am on the countdown to seeing family again. I'm heading down for a carer gig. I'll be hanging out with my brother and making sure he doesn't burn anything down. I doubt that would ever happen but he probably would trash the joint and watch every DVD in the place on repeat while eating the pantry out of Tim Tams. Apparently he has a liking for the odd packet of chocolate covered biscuits, or two. But really, who doesn't.

It is getting to the same time of day as shown here. Time to think of dinner and I am wondering whether a sunset viewing is in the cards. It is hard to tell what the sky will do.

I'm thinking pork for me and steak for Mr Sparky. He doesn't like pork. He doesn't know what he is missing.

 Well I hope your week treats you well and that you don't need to resort to a packet of Tim Tams to get through ... or that new Oreo chocolate, or my personal favourite mint Twix.

I also hope you find time to relax or to soak up some nature.

Have a good one!

Pink Water

First of all, lets get this straight, I don't plan my blog posts ... at all, ever. If I ever do, I usually forget what it was anyway. Well, I kinda have a plan at the moment that I would regale you with tales of my family visiting, and I will I am sure, just not now. You see I got sidetracked, as always happens. I took more photos since then, as always happens. I found something I really wanted to share, you know the drill ... as always happens.

So instead sharing another part of my family time you are getting a Thursday sunset.

It was one of those sunsets where the actual sunset itself was nothing compared to the lingering twilight. Wispy clouds and changing light, it was certainly something special.

 You know that saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words'. If so, then there is about 24000 words worth of photos here. Well, of those photos I did manage to get a few that captured part of a story. A bit a people watching or street photography, if you will. The story you see might be different from the one I saw.

These two young men (above) were enjoying a quiet evening fishing. I don't know how successful they were but I am sure they were relaxing and enjoying it. The man in the blue shirt was an obvious visitor to the city, and to this country. I'd spotted him down on the rocks capturing the beauty of the sky and city. He must enjoy taking photos because he was completely absorbed by what he was doing. Here he is approaching the young men fishing. He had walked past them but then changed his mind and backtracked to see what they were up to. He wanted to know more about what they were doing, what they were catching and anything else he could find out. When I paused nearby for another photo he was asking about the bait they were using in stilted English. The young men were happy to share what they were doing and show him their bait. This is the kind of tourist I love seeing, they ones that want to absorb as much as they can along the way.

I do enjoy watching people, observing how they interact. Maybe I am just a bit of a sticky beak.

There were plenty of people around to watch while I took photos of the changing sky. Most were either fishing or walking.

This man (above) was with another young man. I don't know if they were related or not but they were well known to each other. They'd obviously been spending their afternoon fishing and it was time to go home. The man pictured wanted to keep on fishing, I think he was hoping for a catch. The other man with him was explaining that it was time to go because they had to get back and cook dinner. What you can't see from this picture is that the man intent on fishing some more has Down syndrome. Sometimes a picture doesn't tell the whole story. Listening to their conversation, it could have been my family with my brother stubbornly wanting to continue on and us trying to convince him that it was time to go. Not that he is into fishing but with many other things. Oh hang on, how many times did this play out over their visit when it came to swimming and other such things?

Other than the people watching I was enjoying the sky watching.

An arm of the marina that is usually shut off any time I go there was open so I got to head down the side as well for a slightly different view. Bonus!

As the brightness of the sun faded the colours in the sky became more vivid and more pink. It even turned the water a shade of pink.

I love my sunset and sunrise wanderings. They are time in my own little bubble and with a camera in hand they aren't so much time for thinking but time for clearing thoughts and just appreciating the here and now. It is a way to relax.

To others I am probably that strange person with a camera, concentrating so hard and stopping in weird places and positions. I think I have perfected the low crouch that looks like I am doing something else.

I am relaxing and enjoying myself though so that is all that matters.

I always take a tonne of photos, trying to capture what I see, what I think is beautiful or interesting. I take the photos for me. Sometimes I get overly excited about that beautiful or interesting thing or getting that moment that you never even predicted would happen, like a bird flying through. In my head I'm always looking at things in terms of how it would look good in a photo. In some ways I think it is a good way to view the world because I'm always looking for those little things but it also means blocking out what isn't in the frame. That isn't always a good thing.

I got a little experimental, trying to capture the colours and scene in the low light. There were many, many wobbly blurred shots but I was excited by what I did get. I guess that teaches me for never taking a tripod anywhere. I did uses a lot of railings, poles and even the ground to still my camera.

As it got darker there were less people wandering along with me.

But there were still people hoping for a catching and just enjoying the evening.

With the fading light the lights came on around the city and marina. I was pretty determined to capture them.

Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't.

I was in no hurry though so I tried again and again. Mr Sparky was working late and I had a night off so dinner would wait.

The city lights glowed while the remains of the sunset lingered behind the mountains.

It was busy at the airport (right hand side of most shots) with multiple flights taking off, one after the other.

This gorgeous, magical kind of evening was why I had to share it with you. I still go ahhh inside when looking at these photos as I blog so I hope they give you an nice relaxing ahhh moment too.

What do you like to do to relax?
Are you a people watcher too?