Countryside

An opportunity presented itself enabling us to visit the nearby countryside. A mere 15 minutes from the town centre, we found ourselves surrounded by lush greenery, chirruping birdlife, budding flowers and spring resounding from all around. The weather was warm, verging on hot, and many of the local campers were swimming. Access to the river was by a small ladder, and as the water appeared to be very cold, swimmers would have to wait to exit the water until the next swimming had entered, again and again. 

As we entered the camping area our guides called out that they had seen a dead fox on the way. We all looked out and shouted eagerly when we too spotted the dead fox ('Deady', or 'Foxley' as it became known). We also spotted a deer, who is captured somewhere in the image below.

Moonlight

Walking back one evening after solitary digestive refreshments, I spotted a full (or nearly full) moon peering down between the town's central architectural marvels.

Evening in a Cultural Institution

One evening we decided to visit a local cultural institution after its usual hours as it was hosting a special themed event for the public. Based around ideas of the 1920s - USA, jazz, prohibition, vintage clothing, modernism - a range of entertaining activities were enacted all around the museum, from a capella vocal groups to vintage clothing outlets. One chap named Bob Brown presented his 'reading machine' which failed to take into account that most residents of the area already knew how to read. How well they read Gertrude Stein and James Joyce I am less sure of.

There were also impromptu theatrical skits, one involving a young fellow with a drawn-on mustache steal a handbag from a young woman in flapper attire, accompanied by ragtime piano through a stereo. A make-believe 'speakeasy' was set up, accessed through a barricaded door by using the password 'Lucky', but the masquerade was too abstract for my feeble out-of-town mind.

Much merriment was had by all.

Streets of Confetti

Confetti appears to be seeping through cracks in the pavement and taking over parts of the city.

It lends the streets a playful feel. This is undercut by the order to 'relax' here.

                                                 

Two Cultural Institutions and a Bird

Recent wandering through some of the cultural collections in the town presented a number of interesting objects and images.

A soggy pair of slippers.

The former dubstep artist exploring some more archaic influences.

The real object is much smaller than the above indicates. "Alfred made me do it".

A ceramic pig head.

Cheeky.

Tropical gothic.

A different cultural institution presented bricks, tape, velcro, matches, cloth, notebooks and other miscellany in a mass of confusion.

We end this post with this image of a graceful bird we saw calmly seated on a fence on the way home.

N. P. A.

A stroll down this compact, narrow shopping street presented a collection of pleasingly jumbled dwellings, cafes, restaurants, pubs and shops.

Numerous small laneways and squares led off the main thoroughfare.

Maison Francaise