Back Fence

This is not a rural scene, but actually my back fence. It has a great rustic charm that looks great in photos, but is not practical. And of course there's the obligatory cameo by Boulee.

The time has come to sadly suburbanise the perimeter - Colourbond fencing to the cliff. Chris, from next door, I think has been wanting a full fence for some time but the previous owner couldn't, or wouldn't, afford it. I believe that they had some disputes about boundaries.

Now what should have been a single day job ended up having complications. There was very little soil up near the cliff face, meaning a specialist drill was needed to get through the sandstone. Below you can see one of the sandstone cores that was removed from a post hole. It now makes a handy doorstop.

You also get a good view of Chris's chooks - just a part of his avian managerie which includes cockatoos and pigeons.

Art Department

This is the lovely art department, my work colleagues. Jo, Hazel and James. Hazel and James are both Londoners, and Hazel is about to head home as she misses the drizzle and warm beer. Or something like that. James hates drizzle and warm beer, and so is staying put. Or something like that.

Cool Plumbing

 

Here's some quirky plumbing from Milsons Point, where I often swim. If maintenance was easier, I'd love to see trailing plants cascading from the planters.

Murder and Bashing

Excerpt from The Australian:

A TEENAGE boy charged with the murder of a 30-year-old chef cried when he faced Sydney Children's Court in front of his family this morning.

The emotional youth was one of two 16-year-olds arrested yesterday over the murder of Daniel Owen, who died outside his Marrickville home in June.

Owen's body was found in the driveway of a home on Illawarra Road with head injuries shortly after midnight on Sunday June 15.

Shortly beforehand Ms Gay, 26, was struck in the head from behind in Steel Park, Marrickville, by two male youths who demanded her handbag.

Ms Gay, who plays nurse Gabrielle Jaeger in the Seven Network hospital drama All Saints, suffered minor injuries, including swelling and bruising to her head.

Police also dealt with the assault and robbery of a 20-year-old man a short distance away on Illawarra Road on the same night.

Link.

These extremely disturbing events occured in close proximity to my home - the Ms Gay bashing being a few houses away. John and I were home as well, but didn't hear a thing. The first we knew was when the police doorknocked.

My little bit of Marrickvile is sort of out of the way of any entertainment, pubs and the station so is generally pretty quiet; which makes serious crime here even harder to comprehend.

8 Central Avenue

This is where I'll be working in 2010. Pacific Magazines and Channel Seven will relocate to Australian Technology Park in Eveleigh. I can't wait as my travel time to work will be halved, and more reliable as I won't have to catch two trains. This is the start of a twelve storey building.

A Dog With Wings

Sam is a recalcitrant dog.
She likes to jump on to the roof and bark her lungs out at the passing world.
Sometimes I want to do the same, but I'm not as comfortable with heights as she. This is a semi regular sight alonh Illawarra Road. Repeated attempts by Bill, her owner, to block her access to the roof has obviously failed. She is friendly but out of control.

Ello Nina

Nino has left the building and El Nina seems to have settled in. Sydney has had drought for the past eight years, and it may be breaking. These are some pics from about 10am last Sunday - the front of my house. I live on a flood plain, but this is purely stormwater not escaping; not a river breaking it's banks.. I'd hate to know the outcome if the river floods and we get an extreme downpour. The house is about a metre above the road, but the shop next door is not.

After 15 minutes, the water dissipated.

Experimental "Rain Gardens" up the road had been installed to filter rainwater, and may have had an influence on the flash flood, but I doubt it. The drains below the rain gardens were overwhelmed (The Rain Gardens are meant to be a reticulation basin for plants to filter excess stromwater). I hope the gardens weren't the cause, as I support them. But if they are behind this, they need tweaking.

Photoshop Archaeology

I've just been playing with two old images taken from Hill Street in 1936, and doing very raw manipulations of parallax distortion. I'll eventually do a "proper" composite, but for now it is best that everyone has a sense of the two images as being separate - and being merged.

Dog-Gone Ethics

I'm a dog lover and Boulee has been a feature in many of my posts.

He's just becoming an "old dog", and the changes happen fast.
He'd rather chase a ball once then lie on his back to have a tummy scratch.
Throwing the ball a second time, he is blase.

I know it sounds horrible, but I went to look at the Sydney Dog's home website and found nothing but political turmoil. ( I was thinking of an older companion for Boulee ... I still expect many great years ahead with my canine shadow. Especially after the rubber duck incident ! )

I'm not going to comment just yet, but this is the best lead of a disturbing situation. Paws Post

This is the internet, so be aware that posts are emotive, and as a surfing punter, be mentally stubborn.

But all of this has to be in the open.

Hill Street Blues

Hill Street runs up the saddle of the hill from Illawarra Road, and is dominated by flats. It's not the most creative of names.
I recently found a photo on the Marrickville Council's website taken in 1936, and today I revisited the site. If it wasn't for the retaining wall and chimney, it would have been near impossible to find. Very few weatherboard houses are left in Marrickville and I wonder how long this one survived. 1936 was probably an optimistic time in Marrickville, with the municipality celebrating it's 75th anniversary and Australia coming out of Depression. The upcoming war would put an end to all that.

I've just found another image from the same spot. The inscription reads:


Val Gleeson (far left) is pictured here in Hill Street Marrickville, 1951. Her younger brother Stanley can be seen at far right. The Warren Estate is pictured in the background (Day Street) and the RB Bavies factory can also be seen in the left of the picture.

Warren and Maggie

The Warren is a locality of Marrickville named after a huge Gothic inspired mansion that used to sit on the hill overlooking the Cooks River. There is a painting of The Warren, having it's last gasp above encroaching suburbia, that was painted by Peter Lawson in 1911.
Hoping to find out more about the artist, I did a search and found another Peter lawson who paints. It's not the same guy, unless he has painted the picture of Dorian Grey. What struck me was one of his website paintings. It looked strangely familiar.

It turns out that I've been to the contemporary Peter Lawsons gallery and spoken with him. His gallery is on Magnetic island, and the familiar painting is from the top of Maggie, looking down over Horseshoe Bay. Here are some of the pics I took of the same spot when John and I holidayed there in 2005. All great coincidences!

Glam or Goth

A few weeks back John and I went to a Michelle Turcsanyi's 40th at The Harp Hotel in Tempe. That's Mich in the pink leggings and her husband, Attie, as Gomez Addams. They hired the back room, and had The Usual Suspects playing. The theme was Glam or Goth, and it was great to see everyone make an effort. Much drinking and dancing was had, including Hungarian dancing and a cha-cha train. The guys in the Kiss costumes are part of Mich and Atties Hungarian dance troupe, and there's a pic of them at the earlier Octoberfest post. It's also great to be able to stumble home without the hassles of taxis or public transport.