COLOURFULWORLD

Wednesday 31 July 2019

Signs - Get tested

I had to laugh at this sign in an optician shop in Westfield Chatswood shopping centre, in Sydney.
What do you think, it's clever isn't it?

For other signs from around the world please follow this link.




Monday 29 July 2019

Monday Mural - Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos

When we went to South Fremantle, to the Codfish Academy lunch on the 15th, I spotted a mural as soon as we parked our car in Marine Parade.  

Painted in November 2016 by UK born artist Marina Lommerse at Florence Park, on Marine Parade.
This community managed park, is planted with native plants to attract native birds, and has areas for children and adults to interact with nature.
The 18mt (59ft) long mural called "Carnaby's Food Forest" with Carnaby black cockatoos reminds us of the bird life we are losing in urban areas, and how important it is to supply food sources like native plants, as well as providing learning opportunities.

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. 










And this is the kids area in the park. 







At Ruocco's Restaurant, where we had lunch, a couple of walls in the main dining room were also adorned with murals with Italian landscapes.










Saturday 27 July 2019

July Wrap-up

Remember the Facebook group that I belong to : "Buy Nothing (my neighbourhood)" that I wrote about in May?
Well, recently one of the Admins offered to teach how to make sourdough bread. I jumped at the idea of learning it, as it's the only bread my husband likes to eat.


Sourdough bread making lesson- sourdough with turmeric



On Saturday 14th July a couple of us attended her lesson, and in the end she gave us some starter and five days later I baked my first sourdough and it was a success, crusty and delicious.


My first sourdough























The following day we  had lunch at the Italian Restaurant Ruocco's in Fremantle, to raise funds for our local Codfish Academy, and it was attended by about 80 "friends" of the Academy.
The Academy is a philanthropic association which was originally created by some members of the Portuguese community in Johannesburg, South Africa. To date there are 57 branches around the globe, and Perth was the 50th Academy to be created in 2011.
Funds are usually raised through monthly lunches or dinners.

Starters were the same at all tables, but we had a choice of 4 mains, and I chose Chicken Parmigiana. My dessert was White Chocolate Pannacotta with Raspberry and Jose had the Tiramisu.



Lunch at Ruocco's Italian Restaurant

We parked our car about a block away from the restaurant and loved seeing the garden verge where people plant all sorts of things from vegetables to plants. Fremantle is a quirky suburb.


Fremantle verges with quirky pots, cacti and a fence made with driftwood

                An American left hand drive car we came across on the way home from Fremantle















I've been doing some sewing mostly in the evenings, recovering our patio chairs with another fabric, as the other one is getting very faded.
I decided to use piping on the cushions to make them look a bit more professional, but it hasn't been an easy job, and I'm almost regretting using it, but now I have to do all 6 cushions the same way.


One of the new cushions with piping
















The following Saturday 20th, I drove to Port Kennedy, about half an hour away, and met up with my friend and ex-colleague Jan at the "The Upcycled Barn", to buy Fusion Mineral Paint for my furniture projects.
After our shopping we went to a nearby Cafe for a hot drink - hot chocolate for me and we shared a huge slice of carrot cake, and we spent an hour or two catching up.


At the Upcycled Barn - a couple of painted treasures, the Fusion paint I bought and chocolate & carrot cake 


And mainly after work I've been doing a bit of painting too, and this morning I finished this little cabinet. It cost me $10, and I hope to sell it once I have more pieces painted.
I had to sand it a bit and fill crevices with wood putty, clean it up and then gave it two coats of paint and finished by rubbing in antique wax.



The small cabinet and the various stages of painting


All painted!











































And I've just started my next project, an antique coat rack that I got for free. 
I've sanded it, removed the hardware, cleaned it all over, in the next few days I hope to start painting it ...


My next project - an antique coat rack
Hope you have a great weekend!

Thursday 25 July 2019

Signs - Vivid Sydney

Signs from VividSydney2019, the Robot Spaceland show at Darling Harbour, Sydney. 
Photos taken during my visit to Sydney in May this year.
The robots were named - interplanetary, grow, evolve, sublimate, metamorphose and generate.
For other signs from around the world please follow this link.





 



Monday 22 July 2019

Monday Mural - Mother Nature: 4 Seasons

Mother Nature: Four seasons - this mural can be found in the parking lot on the corner of 28th street and 5th Avenue in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), Manila.

It was painted in 2015 for the Art BGC Festival, by Filipino-Polynesian street artist Dee Jae Pa'este.
Each of the the four walls depicts the stage's of growth in one's life through the seasons and different forms of Mother Nature.

These photos were taken in December 2018 when we visited the Philippines for our daughter's wedding.

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. 




Below you can see the mural by Aka Corleone that is just behind the Mother Nature mural in the same parking lot. You can read about that mural and the Andres Bonifacio mural on my post from February 2019.













Saturday 20 July 2019

Saturday Critters - Birds at Point Walter Reserve

These were taken in February this year at Point Walter Reserve, a park on the south bank of Perth's Swan River, where I took Iris, my blogger friend from Germany, when she visited Perth.

Quite a few Ravens (Corvus) (I used to call them crows, but apparently this is a difference in their tail feathers and their call too).
They are quite clever and have integrated far too well with humans, learning to pick food from rubbish bins, etc.  I've even seen them opening packages with food and trying to drink leftovers from tins.

You can listen to the Australian ravens via this link:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/63/Australianraven.ogg

When I arrived in Australia and would hear these noises, at first I thought it was children crying, then I realized it was the birds.




The Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen), is also very common in Parks around Perth, as it too has adapted well to city life and is also a clever bird.
In Spring breeding magpies can become aggressive and swoop and attack anyone who approaches their nests. 


The very noisy and territorial Seagulls (Silver Gulls), have become a nuisance in parks and restaurants around the river, as they forage for our food leftovers. If you leave your table at a seaside restaurant they just swoop on it and steal whatever is left!

A seagull carries a piece of food she either found or stole from one of the picknickers at the park
 A
And lastly the Black Swans (Cygnus atratus), which are native to Australia and are the state bird of Western Australia.
These at the park are obviously also used to the people around them and one of them wandered from the river to a group of people sitting nearby. One of the guys crushed some chips and fed them to the swan. Obviously not a very good diet for the swan, but he ate from his hand.

They might get aggressive if you approach their nest, and I have had swans hiss at me, but this one was quite happy to be around people.




 

Linking to Saturday Critters, please check Eileen's blog for more birds and other critters.