Containers or Content … 2011 version

Containers or Content 2011

Use this link to get a copy of the paper I prepared for the CBCC, Tasmanian Branch, State Conference May 2011.  It includes links to products and papers of interest.

Canberra in Autumn

Well … where did I go with this month’s topic????  Well, to alert all to the little known fact that Canberra and Launceston have very, very, similar cold, autumn mornings.  In fact “smugville” is the description when a quick check on the endless weather forecasts on the television news in the morning shows Canberra was indeed colder than here in Tassie.

So UGH!! how to put this into words/pictures.  Well, what you are looking at is a stylised version of central Canberra, with those darn circular roads that tourists get lost on, with lots of autumn leaves.  Sort of not what was originally planned with maps, and very careful drawings, but SIGH!!! once again time did me in.

Bye the way the leaves on the right … the legend … with ants “crawling” on the leaves will explain just a bit more.

Canberra in Autumn

Beach Baths

I started this … and then thought … you’re way off here.  Should I call it Beach [in] Bath??? Well who knows, in the end it was too late to do anything else.  If I think of a beach it is nearly always a tropical one.  If I think of a bath … which I don’t have  (only a shower)… I go back in time.  Not sure what all of that means … except …

Beach Baths

Redux @ The Monday Project

Here is my response to the first topic for 2011 … Redux.   Well it is not quite my first response, Mr Sketchy, has put up some of my work previously, but now I am flying solo, which also absolves him of any responsibility for what may follow.

What is it? Well to make it sound like I have given it more time than I have “The Power of the Printed Word”  Here rewired, recut, and represented in a new “redux-type” of way.

Power of the Printed World

The final lap

Well we are back.  The start of the trip, way back in mid-June, seems like a lifetime ago.  We spent the last week at Dubbo … always good and revisiting Bendigo, an interesting exercise, as we could have moved there instead of Launceston.  We enjoy it enough to wonder if we made the right choice!!!  Then off to Castlemaine, the stamping-ground for long ago holidays for Mr Mac.  So we found where he got burned-to-a-crisp in the local swimming pool,  the flea-pit where he walked to watch his fix of the latest movie releases and we also found the home where the famous Auntie Dasie sponge was first cooked.  Years later I am still trying to make them as good as people remember them from their childhood holidays!!!  Impossible I think.  Finished-up at must visit spots in Melbourne like the Vic Market and the National Gallery of Victoria.  BUT, we are pleased to be back, which is what holidays should be about.

Time stood still

A slow drift south

Of course we had to turn south eventually!!!  So easy does it.  We are revisiting places on the coast we have enjoyed before.  We are eking out the warmth, the sand and the blue sea for just a bit longer.

Staying still at Mission Beach

After weeks of driving, it was just nice to sit and not have to go further than the local shops.  Weather wasn’t terrific towards the end of the week, but it hardly mattered.  Well, we spent the week in shorts, so it was better than back home.  Now sitting at Bowen bringing this up to date.  It is a glorious day, sunshine, mid-20s and just so enjoyable.

This picture was taken at Lugger Bay.  It is about a 25 minute walk in through rain forest which runs right-down to the sea.  We are collecting a gallery of photos taken every time we go in and sit in virtual isolation while we have our lunch.

“Surrounded by horizon”

As we travelled from the Northern Territory across the Barkly Tablelands, the comment was made that “we are surrounded by horizon”.  Some may find it boring … but we liked it … I sketched, we stopped at roadhouses for a break, and just kept on heading toward the other side of the country.  Then, almost beyond belief, one week later we are staying in the most amazing accommodation, I can hear the ocean while I type this up.  Fans are keeping the air stirred nicely … thank you … and another walk on the beach is the only thing planned for the day.

The Escape on the Barkly Highway

Getting in tune with nature

This week’s post, is actually a week late.  Blame it on holidays or the fact we were off the 3G grid for much of the time.  Moved onto Derby, intending to connect with a tour going out or over the Horizontal Falls.  What fools we are … wait for a week and it might have been possible.  So here we were in a beautiful location, in less than the best accommodation, so off we went down the famous Gibb River Road to Windjana Gorge.  It was stunning, fabulous, and any other superlative you would like to throw in.  We topped it off with a two-day camp in the amongst the Bungle Bungles.  Just a unique place and we felt so lucky to be able to be there.  Only accessible across a private pastoral lease to 4WDs  … no caravans. So it was “total bliss”.  Except for a very overworked natural toilet it quickly became a highlight of the trip.

Past the half-way point …

Well we have been pulled-up in Broome since Friday night.  Our room and balcony looks-out over Roebuck Bay.  Drinking Cointreau, overlooking the pool and the bay is my idea of a holiday.

Coral Bay, Ningaloo Reef, or in my book … Tim Winton country, was so crowded it was a shame.  Exmouth was another bustling town, but at least we could drive out to the National Park, with a couple of thousand other people and nearly have a beach to ourselves.

Staying at Karratha, really only a stop on the way to Broome, proved if you stay long enough somewhere, you will find something unexpected, and often really amazing.  Here it was the abandoned town of Cossack.  It flourished for a while until the pearl trade moved to Broome.

What buildings remain have become part of a 6 km heritage trail.  Check-out the couple of photographs I have put in Flickr.

Cable Beach is long, white and crowded.  Beautiful, but if you want some shade you hire a umbrella.  I have been spoiled, I was looking for some “Mission Beach” type palm trees that come free of charge.