Monday Mural - Housing Bubble

I found this mural in the inner suburb of Newtown, when I visited Sydney last month.

The sun was shining directly into it so it was difficult to capture it well.

Called "Housing Bubble", it was painted by Australian street artist Fintan Magee in 2015, on the facade of the Urban Hotel on Enmore Road.

If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you. 

Just follow the Linky steps below.   Be sure to link back to this blog and visit

your fellow mural bloggers.  

Looking forward to your mural finds this week. Thanks, Sami. 

           

                                                  The mural from across the street

Gardening days & Birds

Jose returned from Sydney last week, and while he's looking for a job in Perth, he's been busy around the garden, trimming trees, weeding, etc as next week is the Green's verge collection by our local council.

When I arrive from my half day at work we eat lunch and then I join him outdoors.

On Thursday we cleaned up around a small paved area at the back of the garden, where we usually keep the hammock in Summer under the lemon and bottle brush trees.
There were lots of plants in pots, some planted in the garden beds, others were just moved around, the area was cleaned up and now it all looks neater and spacious, ready for warmer days and the hammock 😎 .

The area with all the pots before the cleanup

The cleaned up area where we put the hammock under the lemon and bottle brush trees

Some of my prickly succulents/cacti are on this table and you can see the wagtail below

While we've been gardening a Willie wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys), or sometimes two wagtails will join us in the garden, waiting for a little critter to come out from under one of the pots when we lift them.
They have become quite used to us and expect us to find them some goodies too 😉.

They love the brown cockroaches (Drymaplaneta communis), which are common in the gardens as they feed on organic matter and break up leaf litter.

top right the wagtail is eating a cockroach

They love crickets too, and once when we lifted a bigger pot lots of them jumped out, I put them in a container in the freezer for a couple of minutes, and when the Wagtail came around he was delighted with our offerings. One of them even ate a cricket from Jose's hand, you can see the video below.

They are so cute, jumping around a lot, wagging their tails as if dancing.

Wagtail near my hand

The doves also come to feed on the seeds I put in the feeder and I noticed one of them is back on the nest.
With the tree covered in foliage and full of lemons it's getting difficult for her to reach the nest.

Jose had said to me that the day before a small dove had stood in front of the mirror in the corner of the garden which he was weeding nearby, and while I was out there I noticed the dove by the mirror again. 

Top left - Dove in nest, top right - on top of a pot plant on the table, bottom, on a branch in lemon tree and eating seeds

Dove looking at the mirror

The New Holland Honeyeater birds (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae)  also fleet around from tree to tree feeding on pollen. They are very fast so it can be difficult to capture them on camera.
I wonder if it's mating season, as lots of them fly around from tree to tree as if on a merry go round with a lot of shrieking.

After the cleanup and planting we went to the front garden to pick olives from our now huge olive tree. We picked almost 5kg of olives which will now be cured in changing water for about 1 month before being put into jars with a flavoured brine before they can be eaten.

Our large olive tree, container of olives we picked

Our big pile of "greens" awaiting collection by the Council

The side area by the driveway also needed a bit of weeding and I need to plant a few more succulents to fill the empty space

The sun was setting and it was getting dark when we finished picking the olives, and Jose had also cut a few of the taller branches of the olive tree to add to the pile.

Sun setting

And this is the view to the garden from the kitchen window.

View of garden and patio from my kitchen window

Quite happy with all the work done, it all looks neater now.
The next project is to re-cover the cushions from the patio sofas. I've already bought the fabric that was on sale, so I've just got to get to work on my sewing machine.

Have a lovely weekend 😉.
Linking to Saturday Critters, please check Eileen's blog for more birds and other critters.

                                         
                                               Wagtail eating crickets from Jose's hand (video I posted on Youtube)

                                            While Jose rustles some mulch, the wagtail looks for something to eat

Signs - Guide Dogs

Sign seen in bus-stop shelters during my visit to Sydney - the first one was taken at night, the second in day time.

For other signs from around the world please follow this link: http://signs2.blogspot.com

Monday Mural - Pray for us

Another mural from Lisbon's  "Hall of Fame", near the Amoreiras Shopping Centre (Av. Conselheiro Fernando de Sousa), which encompasses about 750 sq mt (8,072 sq ft) of walls and has been utilized for street art since the 1990's, with about 90 paintings in exhibition.

Painted by self taught Brazilian artist Vespa (Claudinei Oliveira) , it shows the sad faces of Amazonian Indian children with the words "Pray for us".

If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you. 

Just follow the Linky steps below.   Be sure to link back to this blog and visit

your fellow mural bloggers.  

Looking forward to your mural finds this week. Thanks, Sami. 

There was a problem with Linky last week, and most of you were unable to link your murals, hope it's been fixed now :)

Sydney - Day 7 -Last day around town

Tuesday, 11th June - On my last morning in Sydney, I arrived in the city at about 11am to meet up with my friend Bebe.
From our meeting place we walked along George Street to Circular Quay from where we were taking a 20 minute ferry ride to Mosman, an upmarket suburb in Sydney's lower north shore.

The Peacock, a Vivid Sydney installation that I missed. I can imagine it would be fabulous when lit at night

On George St, in the suburb of The Rocks, I spotted a mural I had previously shown. I hadn't noticed the  mural matching electrical boxes before, and I liked the green wall under the railway bridge.

The Rocks - Mural, electrical boxes and green wall under the railway bridge

View of the Bridge from George's street

The purpose of the short ferry ride to Mosman was just a relaxing ride and also to get photos of the city from the harbour.

The massive P&O Pacific Explorer was docked at Circular Quay for the day, so lots of tourists exploring the city.

The P&O Pacific Explorer at Circular Quay

The ferry awaits - the Opera House to the right

Circular Quay, the city's highrises and the Museum of Contemporary Art (on right)

Panoramic View - from the Opera House to the Harbour Bridge

Halfway to Mosman we stopped at Cremorne Point, just past the lighthouse on the tip of Robertsons Point.

The lighthouse was constructed in 1910 and is still active, although the access is closed, you can get close to it by descending a couple of stairs carved on the rock.  

I wrote about  a walk around Cremorne Point and this lighthouse in February 2018 and you can read it here.

Lighthouse at Cremorne Point

When we reached Mosman we stayed on the ferry for the return trip.

I enjoyed seeing the pretty houses with their gardens bordering the river, the small apartment blocks and all the small boats anchored on the bay. 

An idyllic setting don't you think?

 

On the return trip to our right was Admiralty House, home of the Governor General of Australia and Kirribilli House, the Australian Prime Minister's secondary residence, on the harbourside suburb of Kirribilli.

Admiralty House (top) and Kirribilli house next door

The ferry ride from Circular Quay to Mosman Bay Wharf (in green)

Sadly my friend wasn't feeling too well that day and we said our goodbyes, she went home and I got on the train at Circular Quay to the Airport.

At 2pm I was at the airport ready to pick up my bags from the storage, at Terminal 3, then walked across to Terminal 2 with plenty of time to spare and rest before taking off at 4,45pm.

Sunset by take-off

We arrived about 40min late in Perth due to high winds, I took a taxi home and was welcomed by my 3 cats eager to have another meal.

As usual Fluffy gets very clingy when I'm away and then for a week or two will follow me around like a puppy.