I like these random walkies as much as I like the every-street ones. This morning I drifted about for a bit and ended up on the foreshore at Blackwall. There's a park along there from the mountain to the point with the boat jetties then into Woy Woy along the other foreshore park. That's the one that ends at the Memorial Park. There were a couple of Council persons painting the little white posts round the obelisk in the Memorial Park and a lot of hedge clippings on the footpath.
All today's photos are from Blackwall foreshore.
(Big version)
Pelican islet has no offical name. It's the tiny sand islet in this photo and it's less than 2 feet high. It's about twice its high tide size here.
In the background, left to right: Daley's Point, Rip Bridge in front of Killcare, Blackwall Mountain.
(Big version)
People who live on the foreshore tie their boats up at their own jetty or drag them up onto the bank. St Huberts Island and Daleys Point in the background.
(Big version)
Rock oysters. Don't get too excited. There's never any left by the time the seagulls have been at them. But we get plenty of fresh oysters anyways. There's oyster and mussel farms throughout Brisbane Water.
(Big version)
A private jetty at Blackwall foreshore near Allfield Road.
Backgound, left to right: St Huberts Island & its islets, Kincumber in the far distance and Daleys Point on the right.
(Big version)
Lovely old place on the Blackwall foreshore Park Street. Inter-War California Bungalow by the look of it. Circa 1915 - c. 1940.
The book also says: "Deriving from the English Arts and Crafts movement the bungalow became popular in the United States at the turn of the century especially in the temperate climate of California" and "as the twentieth century progressed Australia was increasingly influenced by the many aspects of American life and popular culture which were promoted by the movies, radio, gramophome records and magazines".
There's nothing like that lovely closed-in veranda in the book. More of an Australian touch I think. I love closed-in verandas. They remind me of being snug and warm in winter in my Nana's house with the wind howling and whistling through the louvre windows on their veranda.
(Big version)
The same bungalow from the other side. Note the dingy in the front garden. The water is only 40 feet away over the foreshore park.
I really like the colour combination on this house. Very well chosen and balanced. Fresh but gently old-fashioned.
(Big version)
Argh. Please, if you have a photo of this house before the brick-over happened to it, email it to me so I can get this distressing image out of my mind.
The other weird thing about this house is that it sold for 437,000 (or thereabouts) a couple of years back but the new owners haven't seen fit to knock the bastard down and replace it with something that doesn't hurt the eyes.
(Big version)
Kayaker (right there in the middle) paddling towards The Rip Bridge. The Bridge is in the distance on the right. The low mangroves behind him are one of the unnamed mangrove islets off St Huberts Island. The hill in the background is the hill above Empire Bay.
Took this photo from the blue seat under the small pines between Park Street and Brick Wharf Road. Sat there for a few minutes and listened to the breeze making the pines howl quietly. Love the sound the pines make. Some people hate it, ghostly they call it. Bollocks.
The house below is just behind the blue seat and next to the storm drain that runs from North Burge Road to the foreshore.
(Big version)
Beautiful. Even with those fugly seventies windows. Federation (circa 1890 - c.1915). It's for sale too. Hope it's not bulldosed and replaced by some hideous wanker palace but instead goes to a good home and is lovingly restored. Fucking better not be bulldosed or I'll be round there to give them what for.
By the time I took this photo there was rain coming up from Sydney and it's not long stopped raining now. A quiet slow shower that wet the leaves and made that special rain smell. Sky's clearing again now and the rain's on its way up to Newcastle.
9 comments:
Just found your blog. What a beautiful place. You're quite lucky to live there. Every home looks so clean and neat. No litter, no run-down buildings. Is it really that way or are these just good examples?
Hah! Here before IDV!
*runs away, cackling*
Fresh but gently old-fashioned.
I'm sensing a theme.
PJ - Welcome. It's pretty much as clean as it looks. Of course there's a few empty chip packets at the bus-stop outside the high school and that sort of thing but mostly it's as clean as it looks.
There's a few rundown houses here and there but they tend to gentle decay rather than rat-infested grot. Apart fromk a few small areas of unlovely seventies houses, it really is this way.
I'm very lucky to be living in such a beautiful place.
Fuckkit - You ran away before you noticed the chocolate bickies.
Suzanne - You are indeed. You know how I feel about modern architecture :)
I noticed that closed-in verandah immediately I saw the house and thought I would point it out but of course you know it well. I stayed with my family in a house in that exact style in 1971 - right down to the green and cream livery - in Somers, Victoria, a sleepy seaside village on the way to nowhere. I was fourteen and slept on the verandah under one of those grey woollen blakcets with the red crocheted edging on an iron bed with black and white striped ticking. There was a giant pine tree outside the veranda and its bark made cracking noises in the heat of the day.
... blankets ...
Chocolate biccies?
Curses!
I've sent you my home email address, mate. Email me your template in a .txt (Notepad) doc and I'll have a look at it on Thursday if I have time :)
Writer - Oh baby ... Veranda pron! I'll be keeping that one for late night reading. Beautiful. I can feel that blanket as I read, sort of soft and scratchy at the same time. My Nana always did pale green or yellow crochet on hers.
Did you ever sleep near the ocean with pines on the beach? I did once for a single night and I've never forgotten the sounds.
Fuckkit - there was also cake but I ate it last night.
Got your email, ta. Sent a reply last night so it may not make sense.
Post a Comment