a few recent photos

November 1, where on earth has the year gone?

The other week at the farm I took the 135mm, sigh that is one lens I sure do love.

135mm at the farm

135mm at the farm

135mm at the farm

My exam is on Friday, this is what my desk looks like at the moment.
Study

Do you spy that plaque near my tea cup? This is a scan of it. It’s a Figgjo (my favourite Norwegian company) Utfart wall plaque. The discolouration in the glazing is most likely from where it has been hung with a wire which has leached into the glaze. If I ever hang this baby it will be with good strong string or similar.
Figgjo Utfart wall plaque

And that is the end of this short post of pictures

French music vs Icelandic food, the battle for which is written about first

aka a really long post title.

I’m/We/A group of us are going to see Gainsbourg on Wednesday night at Palace Centro. I received an email a few weeks ago offering free tickets so I thought why not. I recognised the name but typical of me could not place a song title or the like.

I finally got round to watching the trailer and it looks really good – yeah it’s a bio-pic but the music, the setting, the people, it’s all good.

The Trailer

Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin – Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus

and moving on….

I came home today to find a little red box sitting on the counter, a Pósturinn box. A birthday present from halfway round the world. I then artfully arranged the contents for a photo, with a sort of building blocks theme … note the Give Way sign, I like getting that sign in photos I take on the deck.

Life Essentials

mmm Prince Polo bars, a Hraun bar (sort of like the Icelandic version of a Picnic – as in a chocolate bar that looks a bit ugly but is pretty tasty) and an obligatory chocolate liquorice bar – I’m no fan of liquorice but some things just have to be sent. More importantly in the parcel were two jars of jam. One marked Red Lava 2010 and the other RGH2 Sept 2010. The Red Lava is a chilli jam, a “flavour bomb” for want of a better phrase, the other RGH2 is redcurrant, honey and ginger. I think RGH2 will go pretty well on the fruit toast.

I also finished uploading all my photos from the Iceland trip on the weekend – just have some video to get up at some stage. Go have a looksie, ahh I wonder when I will get to Iceland again.

Dyrhólaey, 355/365

and with that tomorrow, I get my stitches taken out 🙂

another Sunday of pale grey clouds


This photo is from Friday night, I did a touch of ironing and just as I was about to turn off the light, I looked at the light and went I think need to take a photo of this.

It is yet another dreary Sunday, the sun is hiding behind the pale grey clouds which deliver a sprinkle of rain every so often. And there is no better way to make those clouds a little brighter than with a few things that I’ve been liking these past few days.


Crown Street Public School has released a cook book called Crown Street Cooks which from the preview is 100% Surry Hills. Gosh I’ve not spent much time in Surry Hills at all, but those few days there last year are still firm in my heart. And what better way to remember Crown Street than a song about Crown Street.

Crown Street by Women in Docs
[audio:Women in Docs – Crown Street.mp3]

I’m loving this Orchid lamp shade by Alex Earl

Rolling Stone has published 20 inside photos from Mad Men in black and white of course and whoa they are amazing photos. Sadly there is only two episodes left of season 4 🙁

and that is three very lovely things.

Weekend Mornings

There is one thing that I always try to make time for on at least one morning of the weekend and that is to have a slow breakfast on the deck couch with a pot of tea (Sencha Peach from T2, muesli with yoghurt and fruit or toast with Vegemite and some reading material. It may be the most recent book I’ve got out of the library or it will be an issue of Real Living.

tea and magazines

Whilst, the above activities are not affected by the weather, the following is. If the sun is out and I can’t tell you how happy I was that it was out this morning, the hum of the washing machine downstairs is the sound of a weekend morning. This of course provides the following outcome.

washing on the line

Georgie took me to the Valentino Retrospective at GOMA this mid-afternoon as a belated birthday present. Whoa, those outfits are amazing, some are plain crazy, some are beautiful, others are amazing. The work and detail is just incredible.

I took this photo on the way past QAG heading towards GOMA.

Cement Paradise

25 things to do before 26

Well I’m most certainly 25 now; I had a lovely weekend, went to Gerties on Saturday night with some friends, had breakfast at Sassafras on Sunday with N and then a browse at the Paddington Antique Centre, where I picked up the most amazing find; a Figgjo Lotte Salt Box/Cellar. I remember when I first saw one of these listed on ebay, I just was awe; the amazing shape, the placement of the designs, the everything. I also remember the price the auction finished, whoa that was some money. The next few times I saw one come up on ebay, the auction finished at similar prices. I can happily say that I picked up mine for a whole lot less.

Isn’t it beautiful? I’m not sure what I will put in it yet but I can assure it won’t be salt.

A lovely birthday find

Yesterday I had a great day. It was a training day at work so no candidates and a chance to have lunch together as a department. I went to the orthodontist and got the news that I’ve been wanting to hear for the last nine months or so, it’s time to go see the prosthodontist, yay! I have an appointment on Oct 5, which will hopefully be an x-ray to confirm root placement and the like and that we can move forward with the implant procedure. Cross your fingers. It’s now week 9 at Uni which is hard to believe, it seems like just yesterday I was looking at my lecture notes for week 1 and thinking it sort of makes sense. I’m really looking forward to next year. When I got home from uni I was presented with the most amazing bunch of red, magenta and orange gerberas from one of my flatmates as belated birthday present. It’s gorgeous, I’ll have to take a photo later.

Now to to the meat of this post. 25 things that I wish to do/complete before I turn 26 next year.

  1. Be finished with orthodontic work.
  2. Challenge myself to take more thoughtful photos.
  3. Ride my bike more.
  4. Get a will.
  5. Get better with my practice of one thing in means one thing out for my belongings.
  6. Spend more time creating.
  7. Print and frame more photos.
  8. Bake a rainbow cake.
  9. Do more study.
  10. Go to the Drive In – hopefully the Wonga one if it re-opens in the next few months.
  11. Go media-free for at least 48hrs.
  12. Make marshmallows and honeycomb.
  13. Be more regular on my blog (gee, that sounds like an All-Bran ad).
  14. Grow my investments.
  15. Reduce the stack of clothes in my mending/alterations stack.
  16. Make my own tea blend.
  17. Make strawberry jam.
  18. Get fresh flowers more often.
  19. Write and comment more.
  20. Grow professionally.
  21. Get my routines started again – planning meals for the week and exercise.
  22. Read some more classics.
  23. Finish my granny square blanket.
  24. Make mulberry crumble or pie from the mulberries in the freezer.
  25. Turn 26

There it is, some things are small, some things not so, some things are little, something things require effort.

And we’ll end off with two books that I’ve been enjoying immensely at the moment. 50/60/70 : Iconic Australian Houses by Karen McCartney and The Iconic House by Dominic Bradbury.

Two of my current books