Photography

Sunflowers and Chimneys

/ Robert / 11 Comments

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Sydney Park has undergone a major transformation over the past two decades. The land was originally given as a grant to a convict woman and has since served Sydney as a site for crops and food production, brick making, gas storage and waste disposal. When the New South Wales state government first envisaged turning the site into a public green space in the early 1980s, a key factor in transforming the site was to preserve some of the history associated with it.

Spanning 44 hectares, the park is the largest in Sydney and is connected by about 12 kilometres of pathways. The vast majority of the vegetation on the site was planted as part of a community effort in the early 1990s. The park now has nine hectares of gardens and 28,000 native trees, including 277 Port Jackson and Moreton Bay fig trees. Fifty types of mammals, native birds, frogs and reptiles also frequent the park.

Read more:
The Sydney Morning Herald, February 11, 2012 Rubbish dump transformed into park oasis tips its hat to the past

Spring in the Northern Hemisphere

/ Robert / 11 Comments

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After living in the Southern Hemisphere for the last fifteen years I thought I had connected the months of the year with the feeling of the seasons. I have immersed myself in the Australian way of life and pushed thoughts of the Northern Hemisphere to the back of my mind.

Six months into becoming involved with the blogging community and spending time online has brought home to me the contrast between the two hemispheres. It is so refreshing to read about the excitement around the start of Spring in the north. An unusually warm March in Sydney and Autumn flowers have lulled me into thinking it is Spring here too, what a shock I will get when Winter starts 🙂

I took the above photo late in the afternoon with my mobile phone in a local park. I like the colours and textures against the blue sky.

More precious than diamonds

/ Robert / 16 Comments

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Delicious drops of dew glisten in the
Cool light of dawn, slowly, slowly, dripping
From leaf from bud from twig. Clouds speed above,
Drizzle foreshadows a downpour, to drench
Landscape wide. Streams and brooks rush, swell, rise, run
Into rivers, flooding deltas, breaking
Free, flowing out to sea to oceans deep.
Dive into life giving blue, cleanse body
And spirit, swim west to sway with undines fair.
Grasp the chalice of aitch two oh. Deeply
Drink to link with Druids of old and new.
Oft’ used for scrying by many a seer
to reflect and look from seen to unseen.
More precious than diamonds, worth guarding well!

(c) Robert Jones 2013, All Rights Reserved

Blue Mountains escape

/ Robert / 9 Comments

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We have just returned from a perfect weekend in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia. We stayed in Mount Victoria, about 20 kilometres west of Katoomba. The local pub, the Imperial Hotel is a reminder of a bygone era of elegance, motoring holidays and steam trains.

We enjoyed a delicious 7 course degustation lunch on Saturday with matching local wines at Nineteen23, Wentworth Falls. The pictures on this page are views from the terrace.

A chilly 17oC this morning was rectified by a friendly and efficient brunch on the way home at Wattle cafe, Blackheath.

Thank you, Trip Advisor for the good tips!

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The drive home was surprisingly smooth taking around 1 hour and 40 minutes, we were welcomed back to Sydney by a blue sky and an autumn temperature of 25oC.

Fantasy marble?

/ Robert / 3 Comments

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At first glance this amazing image conjured up a fantasy teal blue marble with sparse golden streaks. It is in fact the Crab Nebula.

Don’t let it’s cool blue colour fool you, the filaments in this behemoth of a nebula are estimated to be between a scorching 11,000 and 18,000 K (19,341 – 31,941 deg Fahrenheit). The image was created using 2 narrow band filters (F502N – blue, F673 – Red, added together to make a computer generated green layer) and 1 medium band filter (F547M – Cyan) obtained from the Hubble ESO/ST-ECF Archive. All data was processed using the Fits Liberator’s Linear stretch function.

Credit: Danny LaCrue & the ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator.

Balance

/ Robert / 11 Comments

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For no apparent reason other than I was trying to work out how to weigh up the different aspects of my existence, I realised that achieving balance is essential for peace of mind.

In everyday life we are told that we should:
– Enjoy all things in moderation
– Get sufficient sleep and exercise
– Have a balanced diet
– Achieve a healthy work, life balance

Librans are often described as being the balanced sign of the zodiac. I can happily report the complete opposite is true. As the scale pans of life seesaw up and down I have found that awareness of the present moment is the only way to deal with the seemingly constant momentum.

I am naturally drawn to the elements of air, earth and water, as a large proportion of my existence is spent in grounded thought and feeling. Thankfully, fire seems to pop in when I need a boost of energy, passion and perseverance.

As with most things in my life this post is evolving into something I did not foresee when I started writing.

In the physical world reality is limited to this moment. The wonderful thing about life is that this moment is as vast at the Universe itself and everything is connected by this moment.

I experience a feeling of ecstasy at the moment when on a swing, the seat is at its highest, just before it begins its descent. I am reminded of this feeling in dreams while soaring above the ground. In waking moments I experience it when I have helped someone else, enjoyed a moment of connection with another or experienced something wondrous. To me this is the moment of balance. Is this the point of balance between the physical and the spiritual worlds?

References:
http://webelieveinlight.org/2013/03/07/just-keep-swimming-swimming-swimming/
http://elfkat.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/e-is-for-what-is-your-elemental-affinity/