Signs - A side of music

 For other signs from around the world please check Tom's blog.

Sign seen at the Willoughby Club in Sydney - music with dinner. Sounds nice 🎸

Monday Mural - Native flowers VIII

I love murals and street art. If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you.  Just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you will find murals everywhere.  The "Monday Mural" meme goes live on Monday at 12,01AM, Perth,Western Australian time. Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters. Looking forward to your mural finds this week.  Thanks, Sami.

Mural painted on the corner of the new BP service station on the corner of South street and Gilbertson road, in the suburb of Kardinya, city of Melville, inaugurated in September 2020 and painted by Perth artist Joanna Brown @laelinedesign.

The mural is part of the Percent for Art Scheme, a State Government initiative started in 1989, where up to one percent of the construction budget for new building works over $2 million are to be spent on artwork commissioned from local artists.

Green Kangaroo Paws, Red Wattles, (yellow) Acacia Denticulosa , eucalyptus leaves

Joanna is also the artist who painted 2 murals in the suburb of South Perth, as per my posts of April 2020 and September 2019:

https://sami-colourfulworld.blogspot.com/2020/04/monday-mural-garden-suburb.html

https://sami-colourfulworld.blogspot.com/2019/09/monday-mural-wildflowers.html

Signs - Personalized Number Plates X

Some "female" number plates. 

For other signs from around the world please check Tom's blog.

Betty Boop

Gamer Girl

Monday Murals - Raine Square II

I love murals and street art. If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you.  Just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you will find murals everywhere.  The "Monday Mural" meme goes live on Monday at 12,01AM, Perth,Western Australian time. Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters. Looking forward to your mural finds this week.  Thanks, Sami.

Other murals I saw inside Raine Square (Perth's premier retail, dining and entertainment precinct in the corner of William and Murray Streets, just across Perth's Underground station) when I visited on the 27th March.

And if you haven't seen it check the great mural of Mary Raine that I posted last week.

Near one of the entrance doors was a bird painted by Perth artist James Giddy.

At another entrance murals painted by Sioux Tempest, another Perth artist.

At the rear of Raine Square the entrance to the parking garage was another mural that says "Thanks for visiting Raine Square".

Signs - Hahndorf

Joining Tom's signs. For other signs from around the world please follow this link: 

Photos taken a few years ago on a visit to the small town of Hahndorf, about 30min south-east of Adelaide in South Australia.

Hahndorf was settled by Lutheran migrants in the 19th century and is known for its original German style architecture and food. It is also home to the German Migration Museum and is surrounded by various wineries.

Our village shall become more beautiful

Apart from having lunch at a German restaurant we also came across a Portuguese restaurant (we are everywhere!) and then had dinner there.

Canetoads were introduced to northern Australia from Hawai in 1935, with the purpose of controlling the native cane beetle which were destroying sugar crops, to avoid the use of pesticides which would kill harmless insects as well.

Instead, there is no evidence the canetoads have affected the cane beetles they were introduced to prey upon, and in the meantime they have multiplied and multiplied to over 200 million and have been known to spread diseases affecting local biodiversity.  

(And this isn't the only introduced predator to Australia that has done more harm than good - rabbits, camels, feral pigs, red foxes...)

Meaning = there are loads of vineyards in South Australia :)

Monday Mural - Birds in Point Walter

I love murals and street art. If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you.  Just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you will find murals everywhere.  The "Monday Mural" meme goes live on Monday at 12,01AM, Perth,Western Australian time. Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters. Looking forward to your mural finds this week.  Thanks, Sami.

Mural seen at Point Walter Reserve, when we met up with some people from the Portuguese Community in December 2020 for our annual Christmas picnic.

This mural of native birds and plants was painted on the toilet blocks, sadly I couldn't find the artist's name. 

There are quite a few Australian artists that paint native fauna and flora, but this one looks very much in the style of Perth artist Melski McVee. If not, hopefully the artist will reveal himself/herself.

Signs - Guess the car (Personalised number plates IX)

Guess the car - Personalised number plates seen in Perth. Which is your favourite?

To check other signs from around the world please check Tom's blog.

 

Monday Mural - Mary Raine

I love murals and street art. If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you.  Just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you will find murals everywhere.  The "Monday Mural" meme goes live on Monday at 12,01AM, Perth,Western Australian time. Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters. Looking forward to your mural finds this week.  Thanks, Sami.

When I was in the city last Saturday 27th March to visit the Perth Home Expo, I then walked to the city centre a couple of blocks away and went into Raine Square - Perth's premier retail, dining and entertainment precinct in the corner of William and Murray Streets, just across Perth's Underground station.

As I was photographing some murals inside the centre, one of the staff members told me about a new mural just outside in Queens Lane - which can be reached via the relaxing courtyard.

The 13 x 13mt mural of Mary Raine which was unveiled on International Woman's Day - 8th March, began being painted on the 17th February (her birthday), by talented Perth artist Jerome Davenport (Ketones 6000).

Mary was a businesswoman, philanthropist and founder of the Raine Medical Research Foundation. The rags to riches story starts with her birth as Mary Carter in England in 1877. She moved to Australia, bought property with her savings from her barmaid job and became a wealthy woman with the property boom in the 1920's. 

She married Joe Raine when she was 66 years old and even though he was 13 years her junior he died with a stroke in 1957.  She left her property portfolio to the University of Western Australia to set up a trust for a medical research foundation, and since 1957 the trust has supported over 500 scientists to carry out important research into diseases for the benefit of the whole community. She died in 1960 having donated her estate worth about £1,000,000, to UWA, making it one of the largest private donations ever made to an Australian university.

On the top right corner are the words Bohemia Hotel and on the right is the Wentworth Hotel, which she had bought in 1927, to expand and refurbish, and which became her home, business headquarters and the flagship of her business empire.

The city block including the Wentworth Hotel, the Royal Hotel and Bohemia Hotel - all now owned by UWA, as part of Mary Raine's bequest, was redeveloped as what we now call Raine Square.

The Royal Hotel/Pub on corner of William and Murray streets - Raine square shopping precinct next to it (with golden tiles). The Wentworth hotel is at the end of this street

March Wrap-Up

It was a public holiday on the 1st and I met up with two work colleagues for breakfast at the Coffee Club in the local shopping centre. We don't usually get much time to chat at work, so it's nice to be able to solve the problems of the world over a nice breakfast.

Flowers given to me on my birthday

March is a month full of family birthdays. Jose and I went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant on the 2nd to celebrate my birthday. Because the day fell on a Tuesday I opted for a small afternoon tea celebration in the backyard patio with family and some friends on the 7th. 

My daughter Karina celebrated on the 8th which is also International Women's day, my Dad celebrated his 88th birthday on the 11th, my sister in law on the 13th.

My neighbourhood verge collection done by the Council twice a year started on the 8th. We didn't have much this year, but it's amazing the quantity of stuff some people throw away that has still got some life in it and could probably be given or donated to a good cause. As it is Jose brought me a nice pine chair and 2 director chairs for me to paint 😉. (see below)

A few streets away from me...

On Friday 12th, I met up with Grace to go and visit the 17th annual exhibition of Sculptures by the Sea at Cottesloe Beach. It's always a fun and very popular outdoor event, that took place from the 5th to the 22nd March. and this year 70 artists from 13 countries including Australia exhibited their work.

Afterwards Grace and I had lunch across the road from the beach.

On my return home I spotted a modern house on a corner that had 5 red figures in the garden. These appear to be the work of Chinese sculptor Chen Wenling who often exhibits his red sculptures at Sculpture by the Sea. (Probably from a few years ago)

Further down the road and then in Fremantle as mentioned in last week's Monday Murals and photographed a few murals.

Saturday 13th we went to the local primary school to cast our vote for the Western Australian State elections. Voting booths closed at 6pm and 43min later the ruling Labor Party was overwhelmingly re-elected.

I find it strange that at voting stations and there are posters about the candidates and almost right to the door there are people handing you pamphlets about their parties and candidates.  Will they make anyone change their minds at the last minute?

I took Shelley to the Vet on the 19th as I noticed she had vomited her food 2 days in a row. She had last been to the vet in 2016, so she had blood tests to check for diabetes and kidney and liver problems and she got the all clear. Might have just been some food she didn't like or the fact she tends to eat too quickly.

Twiggy also went to the Vet on the 24th as she's been limping a bit from one of her front legs. She has a bit of arthritis and she's now on some medication for a few weeks and the vet suggested she take Green lipped mussel oil capsules. The vet indicated there should be an improvement in a week and I can see that she's not limping as much and seems more keen to walk around the house and go into the back garden, and not just eat and lay in bed the whole day.

Twiggy is a "scaredy-cat", hates to be picked up, and was never a fan of the cat-carrier, but maybe because she hadn't been in it for years she must have forgotten, as a day or two after I took Shelley to the vet, and I left the carrier in the kitchen, I found her sitting inside the carrier. She wasn't happy to go into it when it was her turn, and miaowed the whole way to the vet and then back!

On Saturday 20th we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Perth Codfish Academy with a dinner and dance event held at the Portuguese Club hall, which was attended by 130 people. Jose is the treasurer, so we had to go at 4pm to help the other Committee members to hang balloons, distribute cakes into plates for each table, etc.  At 6,30pm the doors were opened and Jose and I sat by the door with the guest list, and while I took payment from those that hadn't paid online and crossed their names off the list, Jose gave them their tickets and told them at what table they were sitting.

The Academy's President opened the event with a speech in Portuguese and Jose repeated it in English.  The Portuguese singer Chantal and her band Carbon Taxi livened up the party with songs we could all chant and dance to, from 8pm to 11,30pm.

The dinner prepared by the volunteer ladies and a few men that work for the Portuguese Club was delicious. For dessert each table got a fruit platter and two plates of small cakes.

During one of the intervals the celebratory cake was cut up, the Academy's hymn was sung and everyone could go and get a slice. The dinner/dance finished just after 11,30pm and the committee members plus kitchen staff helped clear the tables and leave the hall in order, which meant we left the club at 1am.

Saturday 27th I went into the city to visit the Perth Home Expo - displaying new products for home building, decoration, garden, etc, and right next to it the Every Woman expo showcasing services for women. I enjoyed seeing the 3 tiny homes, but don't know if I could live in them long term. But I was hoping to convince Jose to install a hot tub in the garden 🤣.

Me (the angel) at the Everywoman expo, a hot tub and a tiny house

Afterwards I walked a couple of blocks to the city centre and roamed around and found a couple of murals I hadn't seen before, one "freshly painted". 

I quite like the mix of old building facades and modern buildings behind

An art exhibition being announced in this newish tower at Yagan Square and 2 pretty doors

This month I didn't do much furniture painting - just finished painting a pine chair Jose had picked from the verge in our neighbourhood.

The pretty chair needed some glue and Bondo in the joints of the seat, so after that done I sanded and painted it.

The director chairs  were in good condition just needed to be varnished and the canvas needed replacement, but instead of that I painted the canvas which was quicker. Do you think Linda and Peter would approve? I'm actually going to donate them to the Buy Nothing Group, as we don't need them.

I prepped and painted the vanity unit in our guest bathroom. Over the years the white vanity had yellowed and it was time for a make-over. I used a mix of Ash and white for a lighter shade and even though it could probably be a bit lighter, I'm happy with it.

From our garden we ate the last of the mangoes, they were fragrant and sweet.

As for the figs, because of some early rain a lot of them opened up and dropped to the ground, the lorikeets ate lots of them too even though we put a net over the tree, and this year I only make 3 jars of fig jam when I usually make about 10 or more jars.

Birds in our garden - the wagtails that came and sing in our patio, the lorikeets that come and steal the fruit, the doves and the magpies.