A wife at Gorge River

A Wife On Gorge River by Catherine Stewart

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Catherine Stewart has had an interesting life, but the telling of it is not so interesting. The book conveyed very little of Catherine’s motivations or philosophy – which is surely what you most want to read about, when a person has made the decision to raise a family in such a remote area: in the early 1990s Catherine moved in with her new partner, Robert Long, who was already living in a shack at the mouth of Gorge River in south west New Zealand that is only accessible by air, or a 2 day walk.

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Surprise!

I’m back. Well, briefly back. Just like mushrooms, I’m not sure how long I’ll last. The past 7 months I’ve been studying (Environmental Management) and it hasn’t left much time for blogging. 

Mushrooms are often a surprise, appearing out of nowhere, vanishing within days.
Find more surprises at the Weekly Photo Challenge.

Rare birds of the Inner West

Flamingo of Newtown.

Cranky bird of Enmore (now extinct).

Owl or eagle? And are those eyes really cameras?

Camouflage bird of Erskineville. Cos on this particular wall, you are an endangered species.

Saw the no stopping sign just a leetle too late.

See more rare things.

July’s People

July’s People by Nadine Gordimer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In July’s People, Nadine Gordimer imagines a violent, chaotic end to South Africa’s apartheid system: all-out war between black and white, with other nations getting involved (like Russia, Cuba, the US), mainly to support their own self-interest.

The narrow view

Yesterday I was a tourist in my own city. I blame Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Narrow boards, girders and gaps: Sydney Harbour Bridge, seen from below.

Details

There’s so much trouble in the world, it’s a relief sometimes to take time out to observe the details in our surroundings.

Spare

When I found out that the theme for this week’s Photo Challenge is ‘spare’, I immediately thought of spare time. Perhaps this is because I’ve been sick and have had loads of spare time but no energy to make good use of it.

I have a long list of things that I like to do in my spare time.

For a start, I like walking, and as all my walking friends will tell you, rolling their eyes at how I delay them, I also like to stop and take lots of photos along the way. But no-one was around to be bothered when I snapped this view between the wires while walking on a hill top trail in California a couple of years ago.