Cottesloe Beach

A hot day, so a trip to the beach is always a good idea. The sculptures are now gone, so it's just swimmers and sunbathers. I had a quick swim then a long sit in the shade. There was also a school group having a life saving class, with half of them pretending to drown whilst the others paddled out to rescue them on surfboards. Better than being in school!

Kids F and C for lunch

Explosion of Fungi

On Saturday it rained the whole day (which is very unusual in Perth at this time of year). The humidity reached Singapore standards. Two days later I went for a walk along the river to try out my new Pacer Poles in preparation for this year's Camino.

The poles were fantastic and really appeared to propel me along! The rain had also brought out an explosion of fungi, so I had to stop and take a few photos. They had sprung up from the leaf litter below the trees. Two days later they were gone! The hot weather didn't suit them.

I think these are a type of Umbrella Mycena.

There were hundreds of these thrusting through the leaf litter.

Bronze swan statue and fountain,
commemorating WA Australians of the Year.

Sculpture by the Sea Part 2

With 71 exhibits to see, a second visit was called for on a Friday evening, so that E and C could join us at Cottesloe.

I returned to the aboriginal installation, as I really liked the idea of basing it on emu feathers. This time lots of kids were allowed to play inside it and even "wear" the grass skirts.

Miyarnu Bundara

Kids playing in the installation

Draw Houses Make Houses

Based on Primary School students' drawings of their
shanty town (a proposed demolition site in Hunan, China).
Constructed in wire.

Oat
Oat = the part of a boat that makes it float

Pods
Constructed entirely from cable ties

Kuma Room
A small hut in the form of a bear's head

E and C with Pods;
Kuma Room in the background

For some reason, E and C were dressed in black ready for a cat burglaring expedition. First they had to fortify themselves with F and C at Amberjack's!

Sculpture by the Sea

Time to visit the annual event on Cottesloe Beach. It was a slightly overcast day after a very hot weekend when the temperature reached 40 degrees. There were lots of people on the beach. The car parks were full even on a weekday. This year there seemed to be an abundance of Japanese entries.

Looking down from the prom

Pinocchio

Veiled

A seedling and it moves in the breeze

Indigenous artist describing how the stars were created.
They were ants blown from a hollow tree trunk into the sky.

Artists talking about their work 

Made from emu feathers

She sells sea shells
My favourite; it's based on sketches of shells.

Many more (and better) photos here.

Camino books

I treated myself to a lovely book for Christmas:

The Art of Medieval Spain A.D. 500-1200.

It was published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It is full of beautiful pictures and scholarly text.

This week, there was a pile of free books in the foyer of our building, put there by someone having a clear-out. Amongst them was this gem:

Romanesque architecture, sculpture, painting

published by Konemann. It is equally heavy and informative (and a FREEBIE!)

They both contain detailed photos of places I've visited on the Camino, such as Fromista, Leon, Burgos, Santo Domingo de Silos to name a few, but also - regrettably - places I've missed, even though I've been nearby. Knowledge is power!

I must do better this year.

Naranco, near Oviedo 

San Isidoro, Leon

Toro, near Zamora, which I haven't seen because I didn't know about it!

Looking at Romanesque architecture is one of the reasons I go on a "Slow Camino".  This year I will be even slower.

Gone to Wordpress

This blog has now moved. Go to:

https://confidentialcamino.wordpress.com/

Swimming with dolphins

You can pay good money for a "Dolphin experience". In fact, we have been considering driving to Bunbury to do just that. Then we discovered it cost $165 per person and was fully booked anyway! However C and I were having a swim on our beach at Mandurah yesterday, with no-one else around, when two dolphins swam towards us. I was slightly alarmed as I didn't want them to bump into me or worse! Meanwhile, E was swimming in the pool, where everyone was getting excited and taking photos. It is unusual for dolphins to come so far into the shallow water. E realised it was her mum and grandma out there. JL was watching all this from the balcony of our apartment and actually had the best view, since the dark shapes of the dolphins underwater can be better observed from up there.

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