Forever Young

Little house, big house

Pruning the family tree

Ok, try not to get too distracted by the tie-dye inspired opportunity shop carpet, in its glorious shades of mustard and (chocolate) custard, and take a look at this....

This wall hanging, fashioned from a vanished slice of tree has a ode to 'Mother and Dad' on it, in gold paint. It reads as follows.

"To Mother and Dad. I am thinking tonight of my two best friends - The greatest and truest a man ever had. And these thoughts from my heart a great love sends, To those two best pals - My MOTHER and DAD"

Yeah...quite overstated and vaguely troubling! But take a look at where the somewhat crude hanging device of this plaque is located...

 Yes...at the bottom, on the front! So on the wall, it looks like this...

I guess the owner of this plaque preferred to read the age lines of the tree than the schmaltzy parental love poem. Which is also vaguely troubling, but rather amusing nonetheless!

[Special thanks to Cath for alerting me to this existence of this object!]

Corrosive

Chemistry in motion...

Go configure

The troublesome pseudoscience of physiognomy, as applied to women who prefer buns.

Nature strip

Tah Dada!

Hard rubbish....proving the act of putting out the trash is accidentally artful. Never mind that you can't draw, get yer Dada's out! 

Compare & contrast

Vampire Robot House (Melbourne)

Say It With Fish

                         Because fish are the new flowers.

Going Slow

Fat Chance

Sheets Apart

Abandoned mattresses [details]

During my ongoing abandoned mattress documentation quest, two burly local council workers pulled their collection truck over to ask me why I was taking photographs. Luckily they weren't threatening to fine me, they were simply bewildered. However, they seemed concerned I was going to file some sort of health report/complaint over the condition of the hard rubbish, specifically the mattresses. Could it be the rubbish guys were worried their jobs might be in jeopardy because the rubbish could be, err, a bit germy, stained or even have curly metal springs sticky out of it? It is, after all, an OH&S mad world, and they don't make or collect rubbish like they used to. Anyway, they seemed quite satisfied with my vague "art project" explanation, waving and smiling every time we crossed paths for the rest of the afternoon (which was often). All in all, a pleasant day whiled away in the 'burbs. And for future reference, if someone asks me a difficult question or I find myself in a spot of bother, I'll just mutter something about an art project and point at my camera. Who would have thought that could be such a fine pacifier...

The Taming of the Zebra

In the year 1898, in one of the many mews just off Cromwell Road, Kensington, lived Mr Hardy, who was a noted horserider & trainer, being one of the three men who had succeeded in riding the "French Rocking Horse". This was a device used by the French Cavalry. It had every possible movement of a wild horse not in the best of tempers.

Leopold de Rothschild, who knew of Hardy's ability, was talking to friends of this achievement and said that he was willing to make a stake on his ability to train any animal resembling a horse. One of his friends took up this boast, and a stake was made that Hardy could not train a team of zebras to pull a coach through London.

When after much trouble, the necessary beasts were obtained, Rothschild went to Hardy and told him the conditions of the wager. Hardy agreed to train them.

The zebras were taken to Kensington and after 2 years hard work, Hardy informed Rothschild that his task was completed and that the team were ready for the road.

At six o'clock one morning a strange sight was seen in London when, for the first time, a team of zebras were seen pulling a coach through London.

Post Pac-Man

If the post box fits, paint it! Here's Inky, the blue ghost from Pac-man, spotted today. Nice work, but I hope they come back to finish painting the base in that characteristic wavy drip.

Shopping Trolley

This seems like an appropriate marker for the end of the Christmas season...a shopping trolley, rusting in the ocean. May your New Year be, on the whole, buoyant.

Vintage Christmas

Christmas cards circa 1973

Starfish Syndrome

I have noticed while rock-pooling (another favourite pastime) that I can look into dozens of rock pools and not see anything especially fabulous. Until suddenly I see a starfish. Then, I notice dozens of them, including in the pools I had already looked in. I guess my eye just tunes in. I call this Starfish Syndrome. This condition has enabled me to find the smallest starfish in the world with ease!

Too cute! Anyway, I have recently become obsessed with abandoned band-aids and am using the methodologies of Starfish Syndrome to locate them. So now I see them everywhere. Something about fleshy band-aids* on concrete footpaths^ is working especially well for me...these are just a few of my recent finds.

* = plasters

^ = sidewalk

Shady lanes

Lurking in laneways sounds pretty dodgy. But they are great places to chance upon quiet beauties like this rope 'drawing' with its accidental lyricism, or the half brick totem with its essence of machismo.

Talking rubbish

Never, in all my years of perusing the hard rubbish, have I been threatened with legal action...until last weekend. Two men in light blue shirts informed me that the penalty for removing hard rubbish is $500 PER ITEM. Gee, that adds up pretty quickly. Does each dinner plate count as a single item or is a complete set one item? Do I get a discount because it's a bit dirty? Where can I get a refund if this record player is faulty? Yes, even our own rubbish has been privatised. But I ask the question...landfill or loungeroom? Case dismissed.