ways and means...

It is SSSOOOOOOOOO frustrating, for days I have not been able to sign in to blogger. If i try to open dashboard, or go to the sign in at the top of my blog, it half opens and then hangs....and hangs.. and I have not been able to do a thing. Anyway I finally hit on a backdoor, i left a few comments when visiting, and signed in through one of those comments pages (Not all of them work, a few days ago a couple of long comments got eaten alive)...but once i was in, i could go to "new post" on my blog page...et voila... here I am! So there is lots of catching up to do...

FIRST.... I AM A SPOILT LADY!!!

Look what my wonderful husband bought me on Saturday! (There were murmers from certain family members intimating that it might have been in self defense, since i have rather tended to monopolise his camera....mmmm well there is truth in that, but i put it down to pure generosity!) Since then we have had a ball, whenever there is a sunset, sunrise or any other suitable event, we both snap up our cameras and rush for the door, it has been such fun taking pix together and then comparing, so interesting how differently we each see the same thing!

A VISIT FROM DAD....

My father, who will be 89 next week, is staying with us at the moment. He is a bit frail, but really enjoyed a walk in the park with us and Ethan yesterday....here i am with our 2 toddlers on the roundabout!!! Pity K was feeling sick, we must get a photo of the 4 generations together before he goes home.

SUNRISE CAME SOFTLY...

This morning we were both up with the sparrows, we looked out our front door and this is how it looked.....

Stunning... So we went for a walk,

care to join us for a stroll round the neighbourhood?
Sorry, the geographer in me pops out every now and then, and I can't resist doing the map thing.... I LOVE maps, especially vintage ones. Anyway, we haven't even left the garden yet and I am digressing already...mmmm what's new?First let's put the area in context and show you where it is in relation to the sea. You can also see the old Central Area i have been showing you lately.

Don't forget if you want to see this bigger you just have to click on it. The peach lines are the route we will take, and the pink ones show the direction of some of the photos.

First we went across the park, to the edge of the cliff where you usually see the city lights on my front door pictures.

From there the bay looked lovely, the lights still twinkling but the sky beginning to lighten too.

1 =direction of Doo doo doo looking out my front door photos.
2= Old Erica Building, often seen in my park pictures
3= View across the bay from the cliff at the edge of the parking area. We went around the park back to our street, but further down the hill, and turned left towards the sea. This is how the bay looked from there...

(the pink arrow points down to the view of the sea and palm tree, Callington street)
4 =And by now you are very familiar with this church on the other side of the road....St Phillips Church with the stone crosses you see so often! We turned right, this lovely old building next to the church has been lovingly restored recently, she is a very nice guest house now.

5= St Phillips Guest House. (Lovely Jacarandas along here, you can see a couple outside the guesthouse).
6 =The view down St Stephens Street
7= Looking down St Phillips Street towards Stanley Street.
8= Aljo’s, our local café/small supermarket, next to the 2nd hand shop, and lots of pigeons!

It sounded just like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's movie, "the Birds". Max was photographing them, and a cat on the roof who who was fascinated by the comings and goings. We were not the only ones enjoying the early morning air and sunrise, there were cats basking all over the place!!
9 = Looking down Stanley Street, which is the business street in an otherwise residential area.
10= Café Rouge, a lovely little Pub & Grub, which has unreal food, Wednesday 2 steak meals for the price of 1 (and they are already half the price of anyone else, and great quality, so really good value!
11= Laundry, Butcher and Green Door Irish Pub.
12= View across the bay to the ships, sunrise and harbour to the right.

13= Back along Mackay Street, home to lovely Blue Gums.

this panoramic stitched shot shows the corner of Mackay and St Stephens, the first house K and J lived in when they moved here last year is the beige one on the extreme right, and where the street goes down the hill behind the white bakkie (I think you call it a pick-up if you are not from SA), if you have eagle eyes you may spot Croick Cottage to the right of the house with the green roof.
14 View down lower St Stephens Street. The number 4 on the map is over Croix Cottage!
15 Right into Glen Street, looking towards the park. The hideous church which I always try to avoid photographing in daylight is the strange dark wedge shaped roof on the left hand street corner on the map.
16 Not part of our stroll, but this is where our office is. One day I will show you the before and after photos of the renovation we did when we bought it just over a year ago.
17 The Westbourne Oval, well known landmark and home of athletics in PE, where many schools have their sports days.
18 Richmond Park, at 6.30 am when we got home.

SHADOW PLAY:

Sometimes I think I like the shadows of leaves more than the leaves themselves!.....

Daily photos:

And since we on the subject of shadows, here is my daily photo..

A few more doo doo doos, as i am so behind....And one last bonus pic, I had fun playing around with one of the blue gums we photographed this morning!