Rainbows, Boats & Strangling Trees

Finished out my Tuesday evening with some photos of a very weak rainbow ... but a rainbow none the less:

Woke up Wednesday morning to a beautiful day and a river chocked full of boats. It looks like the number of water-taxi's and ferry's have doubled for some reason on this beautiful fall morning:

I had mentioned that I would post the rest of my photos from our trip to Cairns when I got home ... which I promptly forgot. In reviewing them today, there is really nothing to write home about except for the Curtain Fig Tree.


This is a ginormous tree that was created by two trees sacrificing themselves for the 'strangler fig' a leech of a plant that lands on a tree, sends roots down and is so tenacious that it eventually strangles the host tree. This particular tree started on one tree - which fell sideways hitting another tree - thus giving all the roots from the strangler fig flowing down to the ground a 'curtain like' appearance.


I included the sign that shows how this huge tree was created - if you click on it, I am sure it will be big enough for you to read it.

Here is the side with the Curtain-like appearance:



This is a vertical panorama that I took standing on the other side of it. Very cool, no?

So ... It is Wednesday morning at about 9:00am and that is all I've got folks! I'm fresh out of photos, crazy rantings, and annoying lessons ...

Looking for the Seedier Side of Brisbane ...

Went for a walk this Tuesday morning. A sense of urgency has fallen over me - for no reason whatsoever - I have until Friday and we fly to Melbourne to get the 'Brisbane' out of my system. I also will be back for the most of May - so why such a sense of urgency?

Probably because the end is in sight. Can I see the end? Can Gary see the end? No, and what comes after is a bit hazy, but it is out there - just out of my grasp. When I know what comes next, and can talk about it ... I'll let you know. But for now - we are still living on two continents ... separate, but somehow together.



As I leave my building I slip through the 'secret passage' on my way to Queen Street (having no destination in mind - it is a good 'jumping off point'). And spy the air ferns growing all along the wall. They amaze me - their tenacity, their ability to grow ... well ... out of thin air!

Small statues dot the landscape as I veer off Queen Street and away from our apartment. New, untrodden territory for me. They are all over ... just to make the city that much more beautiful. But today ... today I am on a mission - to see the seedier part of Brisbane - I think it just might be a wee bit hard to do - everything is so nice and spiffy and clean!

I arrive at Anzac Square. A place I have been before and have taken pictures of before. ANZAC - standing for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and this park is a monument to them. I have included statues that dot the park, but I don't know if I have ever added this monument:

I didn't realize until today what it was. The top of the circle is lined with great battles fought, and in the center is a flame:

I am assuming a flame that never goes out.

It seems like hallowed ground today, people seem to not be speaking around me, just standing, quietly, reverently, looking ...I notice for the first time the beautiful trees in the park:

I can't believe that I have not noticed these beauties before. My 'seedier' part of Brisbane tour is failing miserably.

I sit down on a bench by Anzac Square and just enjoy the crisp fall weather, and notice movement to my right. A performance artist has been added to the bus benches that I have seen all over town - they have grown flowers and shrubbery since the last time I was here - they were just, well, bus benches last time I was in Brisbane. I am still unsure what they are advertising for - but she was new. Try as she might - she didn't get a single taker for her beautiful flowers.

I spotted this absolutely beautifully shaped tree and snapped some photos - still not finding my seedier Brisbane. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, maybe I didn't need to see it?

Passed St. James Cathedral - which I have included before and I am trying not to duplicate (that is ... for everything EXCEPT my flowers and Story Bridge). I spy its beautiful spires surrounded by skyscrapers reflected in a set of windows and snap a shot:

Frangipani flower trees surround me in this new park I am cutting through to find me a seedy part of town (close, though, my feet hurt and I don't want to get lost ...)

And down an alley I go ... and I find it! The wee part of Brisbane that would, maybe be classified as 'seedy'. I fell in LOVE with this flower. Growing straight out of the brick dust of a crumbling building:

The tenacity! What does it take for a seed to germinate, take root and grow to this size in just a small bit of brick dust? LOVE IT!

And as seedy as I am going to get of Brisbane on foot:

Almost home - and I guess this sign is pretty seedy - I don't believe any of the items listed on the sign are actually available right here:

Home! My feet are tired, and I have pretty much failed in my quest to find the ugly. Why did I want to find it in the first place, I wonder as a kind gentleman runs back to the elevator he just exited to hold the door for me.

Australia is just rank, riddled and rife with the kindest, most beautiful people you will ever run across.

And the city ain't bad either ...

For A.J.

A.J. wrote in the comments of the last post that he could only see 1/3 of the photos that I posted, so I thought that I would post them again - for him, but also to share A.J.'s wisdom. He is just filled to the brim with snippets of wisdom and wrote this about my post on 'Posterization':

"If only we could posterize certain events in our life, the ability to take a crappy situation and with a bit of filtering and adjusting, create a masterpiece. It could be very appealing.

Talk to you later. A.J."

It made me smile. I will never look at my 'posterization' tool the same again. Yes, it would be so nice to have our own 'posterization' filter that we could slip over our eyes on those really bad days ... and make them just seem 'funky', or on those not so bad, but still bad days and make them better. Or even on a good day ... and just see it in a different way. I think I am going to work on getting a 'posterization' filter for myself - shouldn't be so hard ...

Thanks for the lovely Tuesday wake up lesson, I hope you can see these photos:


Don't really know what this is ... outside of Brisbane:

Old Car tootling down the road:

Chinatown sign in ... Chinatown (surprise, surprise):



Manhole cover in Chinatown:

Building covered with weed filled globes:

Lion statue:

All Halloweds School:

Buildings at Dusk:

City at Dusk:

Moon over Story Bridge:

Sunset over Story Bridge:

Thanks, as always for the comments, A.J. - they always give me something to think about - as do all of your short stories ...

What luck are paths have crossed ("Pick Me, Pick Me! Oh, Never mind" ...)

A Day in the Life of Brisbane ...

Posterized!

Yes - 'posterization' is a tool in Photoshop that I LOVE to play with. It can take a slightly out of focus photo and save it to be something usable, it can take a downright awful photo and make it look funky, and it can take a perfectly fine photo and make it ... different.

I like the way most things look posterized. Some things look better than other things. You can change the level of posterization, but the lower range (3 - 5) is where I like to keep my photos - to actually show that they are posterized, not just look 'funny'.

So with out further adieu, here is Brisbane in a day (except for the first one - outside of Brisbane but looked funky posterized):

Car Shop Outside of Brisbane:

Old Car Driving Down the Street:

Chinatown:

Manhole Cover in Chinatown:

Statue:

Weird Building Full of Globes with Weeds Growing in Them:

Old Hallows School:

Dusk in the City:

Dusk in the City:

Moon Over Story Bridge:

Sunset Over Story Bridge:

Home!!!

Well, OK: Australian Home!!!

I know y'all - with the leader of the pack being Gary - are going to ban me from posting photos of my flowers, but they were such TROOPERS while we were gone. We left with four blooms not blossomed, came back to a beautiful bouquet of flowers with only a quarter of an inch of water left in them:

Y'all are sick of them, so I thought ... I'll put them somewhere with something in the background! Spruce things up a bit! The choice was between my bedroom with a suitcase that looks like it exploded all over the room, or Story Bridge ... because we all know you have not seen enough photos of Story Bridge, right?

So, like every wonderful vacation ... it had to end. A gloomy day ahead full of chores:


- unpack
- put away all my crap
- clean up the place
- empty garbage (the garbage chute scares me)
- laundry
- dishes
- study up on Melbourne


because in four days - we head back to the airport and on to Melbourne for five, fun filled, adventurous, photographically beautiful (*crosses fingers*) days.



Poor, poor me ...

HWIAAR

That would be HWIAAR - "h-why are". Gary was feeling very left out the first time I pulled a 'SWMBO' and used it in a complete sentence ... directed at him. I guess he hadn't truly walked through who was going to get to 'use' this acronym and who was going to just be the recipient!

So: HWIAAR - we (OK, he) have been using it for years but just put it in acronym form.

He Who Is Almost Always Right

Which is most definitely Gary. And TRUST ME ... that first 'A'? It took years and years for him to figure that part out!

*******

Note: Gary is as bored as I am in the Qantas lounge and avoiding planning his institute lesson, and just handed me a note about 'HWIAAR': and I quote: "The first 'A' is a contingency and is there out of a small sense of humility. However it is so infrequently needed that it could safely be removed shortening the acronym to HWIAR".

Yes - THAT IS MORE LIKE MY HUSBAND ... (maybe it should just be a little a?)

Here Comes the Sun ...

Ahhhh .... at the airport Qantas Business lounge with free wireless Internet and NOW things are working OK!

We have a few hours here since Gary was getting antsy in the hotel room. He said there was no room (a lie) and that we had cluttered it up so much he couldn't move around (he is a big boy - he could have cleaned it up ...) so we left for the airport early.

Before doing that - we went for a walk since the sun was starting to peek out. I was so excited to see sunlight I set my camera up with the filter to shoot directly in the sun and fired off this shot:


Weird, I know - sort of 'Eye of God' sort of 'ish. But realized that my camera was still at the room temp and was fogging up - thus needed a minute to acclimate and to wipe it down. By then, the sun was gone - never to be seen again. By the end of our walk it was raining.


Can't say the scenery is not beautiful, though:

The boats - big cruise ships down to wee little sail boats had not yet left - all mainly headed for the Great Barrier Reef:


I liked this one posterized - sort of let me pretend that there was blue skies!

And as we were walking, we realized that a race was on! It was skiers - way behind the speed boat that was pulling them. The just kept circling and circling - so I got some shots off:

All in all - we had fun. Probably won't be back, though - too many places to go, things to see. To bad the weather didn't cooperate for us ... but then -we have been rather lucky in the past.

Here's hoping for sunny skies in Melbourne ...