Wonderful photos everyone, I'm really enjoying the variety this month.



If I can't find an obliging heron to snap, I'm finding swans come a very close second at the moment.

Those are Canna Lilies, if anyone is asking!
And THIS
This is my annual pride and joy. My Firecracker vine.This took me 4 years to flower and now it is visible from all over the village. Day trippers stop to have their photos taken in front of it. It is very good luck if it flowers over CNY and it is just going to scrape in , beginning to drop blossoms already. It has bloomed for the last 6 weeks. Ready, steady----gasp!

This is a typical view of Kenton, besides the grass island which livens it up a bit. These sort of houses go on unbroken for a couple of miles.

I recently came across photos on my computer taken when I visited the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow, Scotland in 2008, the year I came to uni. Here's a pretty cool bench we saw there:



If anyone's in Glasgow at any point, as I'm sure I've said before, the museum has free admission and is very worth visiting. I've posted the façade of the building before here

Here's Cardboard Dropcloth 3
When this piece started life as a dropcloth, I'd spilt some white on it and wiped it up. Through successive uses some of that beginning still shows and reminds me of a surreal dwelling which we can see as a corner turning down a brief hall into a room with a large window to frame the clouds beyond.

January 26 was Australia Day and we went to the city to see the Skyshow (I won tickets on the radio to be a VIP guest at the radio station's Listener's Party which was in a prime viewing location. I received a lot of other prizes too). Here's one I took of the fireworks.

Mother Goose, congrats on winning tickets! I never win a thing...

Trev1, what a wonderful picture of the swan. I've taken tons of pics of swans, and yours is just terrific.

Ren your vine is lovely, I'm not surprised it's a tourist attraction.

That's an amazing bench Reeshy, I do hope you and Alexx continue with the Scotland photos.

Mehaul it took me a good five minutes to see your vision of the room but I got there in the end, still not sure what a dropcloth is though.

Bhs thank you so much for your comment, swans are wonderful birds to photograph :-)



Would anyone believe this is Surrey in January?

We have been puppy-sitting tonight this is Mollie today


She has been losing her "puppy" teeth for the last couple of weeks but you can see her adult ones coming in nicely

Mollie is lovely! Quite a large puppy!

Thanks We sure will - we're never anywhere else! Your picture of "Surrey in January" is just lovely!

Trev - A very obliging swan indeed, beautiful picture.

Ren - I am not surprised you are proud of your Frecracker vine, it looks spectacular.

Mother Goose - What a great shot of the fireworks.


Here is a lonely surfer on a very cold day at the beach.

Still in Auckland, looking over to Rangitoto Island from St Hellier's Beach with a lone yacht in view.

Westonbirt Arboretum...

The suburb adjoining mine is Williamstown, which was Melbourne's first seaport.
I've begun exploring "historic" Williamstown through the eyes of the tourists who flock there on weekends and holidays.
Convicts were once housed on prison hulks in Hobson's Bay and were used as labourers.




This was Melbourne's first morgue, built on Williamstown's waterfront. Prior to this, corpses were stored in the cellars of the town's hotels, often suspended above ground as protection from rats.


http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad254/ozedawn/Trivia%20Jan%202011/morgueplate.jpg

This plaque gives further details.

I took 245 photos of the fireworks but don't worry, I won't post all of them ( ). I knew my camera had a fireworks setting but had had trouble finding it in the past - finally found it five minutes before the show started! So it was like playing with a new toy.





Thanks - I don't usually either. However, I've been lucky twice in quick succession. Back in November I won tickets to the Bon Jovi concert on the same radio station.

What's a Radio Station?









He He He

Thanks for identifying the flower, Ren. Your vine is beautiful.

MG, your fireworks photos make me jealous. I'm never able to take good shots of them.

Andrea, what are those sticks in the beach for?

The Taj Mahal has a mosque on the western side. This is a replica on the eastern side that was built to maintain symmetry and which may have served as a guesthouse for visitors.

I'm loving all of the photos, especially the fireworks and Ren's vine!

I was downtown this afternoon, and these barriers had been set up to stop people from walking too close to the buildings, and risking being hit by falling ice!

I've never had any luck in the past with photographing fireworks. I am sure the reason I got some good shots this time is because this camera actually has a specific fireworks setting.

Zorba, that picture is just beautiful. I was very young when I fell in love with the Taj Mahal, and I drew a huge picture of it; I was very proud, haha. I'll be very happy if I can visit it one day ^_^

I keep forgetting now which photos I've already posted here, haha! This one was taken in Norie Miller Riverside Park in Perth, Scotland.

Cookie, our Cavalier King Charles, is still fascinated by our three new (but rapidly growing) baby guinea pigs:

What can I say? I adore tapirs...