A Rose is a Rose

""Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." was written by Gertude Stein as part of the 1913 poem Sacred Emily, which appeared in the 1922 book Geography and Plays."

"In that poem, the first "Rose" is the name of a person."

  "Stein later used variations on the sentence in other writings, and "A rose is a rose is a rose" is probably her most famous quotation, often interpreted as meaning "things are what they are," a statement of the law of identity."

As interesting as this is... all I know for certain is the rose is by far my favorite flower.

Gone Shopping

With cooler weather approaching it's time to pull out warmer shoes... oh wait a second, all of my shoes are clear across the world! So out shoe shopping I went and I found a real treasure of a shoe store...

Two pairs of shoes for what other stores charge for one pair, now that's a steal of a deal. I have to be careful though, I don't want to have to buy another suitcase to fit all of my good deals in to take home with me!

Waterfall Gulley

Today we hiked about 20kms to and thru Waterfall Gulley; it was totally worth ever step of the way.

The bottom of the waterfalls is beautiful...

... as is the view from the top.

We went off the beaten path and the real fun began; I was up and over rocks, through shallow creeks, almost crawling at times through bamboo and such but it was totally worth ever prickly bramble which ripped at my skin when I spotted this...

There wasn't anybody around for miles, we stopped and had lunch and enjoyed the peace and serenity then continued on our journey. 

Sometimes the best journey is off the beaten path, today was one of those days; I was in bed early mind you, but what a feeling!

Victor Harbor

I was invited to a delicious Easter dinner by one of the ladies whom I met while I was in Pukatja, I was picked up at my door and driven out to Victor Harbor. What an amazing place to visit, not only was the scenery stunning, Easter dinner was fantastic! 

I'll post a few of my favorite shots I managed to sneak in before the rain started pelting us. 

There were a lot of surfers out on the water, I was headed down to take some shots of them but the rain had us soaked by the time we were halfway back to the house.

"The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea."

 ~Isak Dinesen

Thank you Carmel not only for the fantastic dinner, but for sharing your family with me.

Blackeby's

Tucked away down a lane there's this quaint Lolly Shop, it's called Blackeby's Old Sweet Shop... 

What I love about this candy shop is the decor; I snapped a few shots of the outside, one day I may go inside and ask if I can take photos... I was in a bit of a hurry to get a few things done so another time possibly.

Inside this shop is the largest assortment of candy I've ever seen. There's candy I used to buy as a child, naturally it costs about 500% more, but it's there.

Me and My Shadow

I've made yet another friend, this one is such a good listener, even though he doesn't say much I can share with him some of my deepest, most intimate secrets...

With me being... well... me, I hung out and chatted with my new found friend a bit before moving on. I wonder how many secrets he's had shared with him; I asked but he remained silent.

As we were parting I heard him hum a tune:

"Before we get finished, we'll make the town roar
We'll make all the late spots, and then a few more
We'll wind up at Jilly's right after Toots Shor
Life is gonna be we-wow-whee!
(Here comes the party!)
For my shadow and me!"

The Art of Doing Nothing

I've found to do nothing is an art, it's something which I'm not accustomed to and I'm attempting to practice it without feeling guilty.

To do nothing takes a bit of skill, first I have to define "nothing". My nothing today involved the beach... sure it's something, but it's nothing in the bigger picture. A whole lot of nothing goodness, is there such a thing? Take a walk with me and we'll see if this makes any sense...

For a while I walked, I inhaled the fresh ocean air... I paused and watched, I did nothing more than take a few photos. 

Mind you my friend got in the water, this enticed me into doing something; you bet I got in the ocean without nothing more than having fun on my mind.

I had a dream, a fantasy; I could live here and

watch the sun rise and the sun set on the ocean... is dreaming doing nothing? Whatever it's classified as I allowed myself to get lost in my dreams for a while.

I was taking a few photos of the sun setting and a lady asked me to use her camera to take a few shots of her and her daughter, how could I say "sorry I can't, I'm doing nothing"?  In return I got her to take a photo of me, we chatted and she walked away arm and arm with her daughter. An act of kindness made me feel good, so yes I did something but wouldn't you?

 As the day progressed and the sun began to set we stopped and admired God's work ...

I have come to the deduction that the true art of doing nothing is living in the moment, yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not here and the present... well as the old saying goes, a present is a gift.

I am grateful for  the gift of today and doing nothing with my day.

Girly Girl

I can't believe some things they make these days, well I can but it's unreal. Yesterday I spotted colored cigarettes, well I had to find out where they were bought from and naturally I had to go and buy some. I had to laugh once I opened them up...

... here I am thinking I'm buying something so unique and they're made in the USA!

Decoration cigarettes, lets not encourage our youth to smoke eh?

Jerusalem House

Tonight I went out for dinner with one of the ladies I met in Pukatja, she kindly volunteered her time with the Salvation Army, the people I travelled for two days with to get back to Adelaide.  When I was dropped off at my door Megan said we'd go out to dinner down the street from where I'm living. I must admit that I was skeptical, the street is not a place I want to be walking down late at night by myself! As it turned out the restaurant is just up the street, it's called the Jerusalem House.

The food was fantastic and very reasonably priced. 

After dinner we went outdoors and seated ourselves, a friend of Megan's came down and met up with us. There is this thing called sheesha... it looks like this:

And no it's not illegal substances in this bowl, the top part is some type of charcoal I believe and it's flavored. I guess there's some type of tobacco lower down, when it's inhaled though this long cord like thing a person is supposed to hold the flavored smoke in their mouth and slowly exhale, the flavor lingers in your mouth. Sure I tried it, but couldn't quite grasp the concept of not inhaling, so I gave up and went in to get a tea to sip on while we all visited.

And this is Megan, she's in her final semester of studies to be a teacher... all the best to you Megan and thanks for tonight, it was fun!

Sidewalk Art and a Special Day

My step-sister was asking me to take photos of the sidewalk art here, well before today I had no idea what she was talking about... now I see why she asked me to take a photo, it's amazing!

I also want to wish my oldest son Shayne a very Happy Birthday. I'm sure missing my family, this makes two of my children's birthday's I've been absent for, my daughter-in-law has a birthday just around the corner and my granddaughter turns 2 on May 5th. We're going to have to have a celebration when I return and am well rested! 

Happy Birthday Shayne, you're an amazing son and mean the world to me. Have a wonderful day and may you always have an angel by your side!