Sepia Saturday

This week's image suggests dressing up, theatre, Pirates, whatever you will.  I was really pleased that this theme came up as it gives me a chance to display one of my favourite photos of my mother, Laura Heyne.

My mother was born into a reasonably strict Lutheran family, though I suspect her parents were less devout than some of their siblings. Nevertheless as a girl, my mother  and her siblings did not go to dances or wear makeup etc.  Mum trained as a teacher and in 1925 at the age of 20 went to teach in a small country school at Minlaton on the Yorke Peninsula.  Teaching in those days was not easy and her first class was 70 children from Kindergarten (now called Reception) to Year 3. The principal (the only other teacher) had the children from Year 4-7.

Mum loved teaching in the country, not the least because for the first time she was free of the strictures imposd on her as a member of the Lutheran church. She literally 'had a ball'. As an attractive single girl she was a popular addition to the farming town and had a very active social life. She boarded in a local boarding house and had many stories to tell of it. The house was not very large and to fit in as many lodgers as she could, the landlady divided up the bedrooms with dividers made of hessian, thus turning one bedroom into two or more. As Mum was the only female lodger, she had to share a bed with her landlady - not an ideal arrangement.

After a couple of years she moved to Port Lincoln which was a much larger town with an even more active social life. Several female teachers (including Mum) were transferred back to the city because it was thought by the Education Department that they were not setting an example that "we like our lady teachers to set".

This photo shows a group of young things dressed up for a fancy dress ball. My mother is seated on the right.

 
My mother in-law as a young girl was keen on calisthenics and music and was apparently in a lot of performances. These are some photos of her and a friend dressed up for concerts or maybe Eisteddfords which were very popular in the 20s ansd 30s.

Mavis in her calisthenics uniform.

Mavis again dressed up as a little girl, I think.

A friend of Mavis'dressed for a parade.


















Finally one of myself taken with the cast of The Mikado at Darwin High School about 1969. I actually made all the costumes.  I was young and attractive enough in those days for the young lad holding my hand to have a crush on me, one of his teachers.

Liz Needle  -  linking with Sepia Saturday

Wild Bird Wednesday

Very excited as I have a new camers - a Canon 60D - and am loving it. madly snapping photos. Trouble is my son keeps borrowing it too, so I guess I'll show you some of his shots too. These were all taken at a nearby wetlands.

 This pair of Royal Spoonbills look like they are dancing - a quadrille perhaps?

 A Pacific Black Duck flexing his wings.

 And Mama Pacific Black with her brood.

This little fellow is a black-fronted Dotterel.

 A dusky moorhen going about his business.

.And I could not resist including this very friendly fellow - an escapee from someone's poultry run, I suspect'

Liz Needle  -  linking with 'Wild Bird Wednesday'.

Skywatch Friday

Back from the dead - so to speak. Computer fixed, new camera.

 Thought I'd share this shot of a volcano in Bali.  It is active and if you look carefully you can see some smoke coming out of the side of the mountain. The volcano is called Mount Batu. That is smoke overhead - not clouds.

We were sitting in a restaurant on another hill. There were many such eating places along the road  there with crowds of people watching the volcano through big picture windows  -  all SKYWATCHING.

Liz Needle  -  linking with Skywatch Friday

For those of you who are interested, I have added this shot taken from above the volcano. You can actually walk up to the top of the mountain. It last erupted in 1999-2000.

Needless to say, I did not take this shot.

Friday's Fences

After much discussion (argument) with my husband, we have fianlly agreed to extend the front garden - about 10 metres. The front fence had to  be redone and  my son who offered to do the fencing wanted to extend it, so it is done.

 Enough room for another lot of trees. We had to cut down some of the old ones because they were affecting the solar panels, so now I can put in some new species that I hadn't come across before. Here are some shots of the new fence in the process of being erected.

 Here you can see the pile of wood from the trees that were chopped down. One was a maple that spread seeds all over the garden  - tiny maple trees everywhere. A real pest.

One day I'll show you the new plantings.

Liz Needle  -  linking with   FRIDAY'S FENCES

Our World Tuesday

We have had some very welcome visitors to our property lately. With my new camera and decent zoom lens I am able to get shots of them that I couldn't before. My husband reported that earlier in the morning there were about 6kangaroos in the front paddock - but I was still asleep!!!

We get quite large groups of these little red-browed finches, but they are difficult to snap as they are constantly on the move.

This colourful fellow is an Adelaide Rosella - red variant.

Still Adelaide Rosellas, but this time another colour variation. Some of them are quite a pale yellow on the front.

Off to seek out more visitors.

Liz Needle - linking with Our World Tuesday.