Monday Mural - Mexican Fiesta

Another mural in the suburb of Mount Lawley, painted by Canadian born, Perth resident artist Mel McVee aka Melski on the side wall of Salsa's Mexican Restaurant, at 568/570 Beaufort Street.

Remember the Old Tram mural I showed a few weeks ago, it was also one of her works.

Taking part in Monday Murals, click HERE to see more murals from around the world. 

The show must go on II

As promised on yesterday's post, I said I would post some photos of my favourite things seen at this year's Perth Royal Show, so here they are!

The Cake decorating Pavilion was amazing and I could hardly believe there are people who craft these masterpieces out of icing sugar and marzipan.

I must apologize for the terrible photos - I took a camera with 2 lenses, and didn't realize until I put the small lens on that I had taken a lens that had a problem instead of taking the lens that I bought to replace it....so the close-up pictures had to be taken with my mobile, while holding my bag, jacket, other camera...so they are all a bit wobbly.

First prize was the top left - a pink vase with orchids (all in sugar)

A tribute to the 100th Anzac anniversary, a couple of wedding cakes and a  Pelican cake

A purple and black wedding cake

Can't you believe this "Lilly Garden" of Monet was reproduced in 16 tiles made with sugar mediums (all edible) and even the frame is made out of sugar!

It won first prize in August at the Australian National Cake Decorator's Association seminar.

Monet's Lilly garden

Milking station - showing kids how where milk comes from

In the "Walk Through WA (Western Australia) Pavilion" , the various regions of our state was portrayed showing their different characteristics and climates and their specific products ranging from fruit and vegetables, dairy products, wines, cattle and mining.

Interesting way to get to know the state without leaving Perth!

I learned that 36% of WA is covered by "Cattle Stations", most of them bigger than many European countries. The world's largest is actually in the State of South Australia - Anna Creek Station.  A Station is a large piece of land used for livestock production - the reason why these stations need to be big is because the continent is so dry and vegetation sparse, that a large amount of land is required for the cattle to graze.

Another interesting tidbit is that the Great Northern Highway, which stretches 3,200km is the longest highway in Australia and links Perth with Wyndham, which is WA's northernmost port city.

Walk through Western Australia - a showcase of the various areas - agriculture, mining, cattle...

A huge sow with 10 piglets fighting over each other for her milk

The Cat Pavilion was of course another favourite - a lot of these show cats had won prizes.

Some were just adorable, some slept unaware of all the fuss over them, other hid behind curtains in their cage probably wary of all the strange people and noise...

All the adorable cats

Our last visit was to the "City Farmers" (pet food warehouse) Animal Nursery  and I'm glad I visited it as it was my favourite!

Some of the animals roamed free like goats and sheep, a calf... others were in enclosures such as horses, donkeys, a dog with a litter of puppies, chickens, rabbits... various doves were flying around as well.

A farmer said he had a farm with 400 animals and some of those were there on the show with him - he had 2 pretty grey cats who just lay there looking at the birds and chickens without any fuss.

He had a huge white cat that would jump on his chest when he called the cat by patting his chest.  All the animals seemed to get on with each other, which was amazing to see.

The fluffiest rabbit, a horse (can you see the white cat on the bottom shelf?) and birds, one of the grey cats on his post and tiny chicks.

Goats and sheep, a dog with his puppies, me standing by a calf, donkey and horse

It was a great day, a bit tiring with many hours walking around, but certainly enjoyable!
But I think I'll have to return next year to get better pictures of all this cuteness don't you think?

The Show must go on!

For the first time since I've been in Perth we visited the Perth Royal Show today.
It's one of Western Australia's longest standing community event attracting over 400,000 people. It first started as an Annual fair and cattle show in 1834 in Guildford and then moved to the Claremont showgrounds in 1904.

It started today and runs until the 3rd of October and is open from 9am to 9pm every day and all major attractions are free. 
With about 300 performances and 100 hours of entertainment a day, it's good value. 
Entry costs $29 per adult with various other prices for families, children, etc, but you can get a reduced fee ticket if you buy them at the IGA supermarkets, the biggest sponsor of the event, where they cost $25.

From flower arranging, cake decorating, horse shows, pig-diving, dog and cat shows, petting farms, sheep-shearing, crafts, sheep-dog challenge, etc., you can find it all at this show.

Side-show alley - Amusement rides and games are the only things you have to pay for. 

And food of course - there's plenty of food choices from the tasty to the plain blahhh.

We enjoyed our 5 hours of walking around, saw many things and didn't see many others of course, but overall the impression was good.

I had been to similar fairs in Portugal but on a much smaller scale, so after 5 hours it was time to leave, and I was sorry not to stay until the end when they have a fireworks display.

My favourites were the Cake Decorating Pavilion - wow there's a lot of very talented people, and then the City Farmer's Pavilion (a pet and garden supplies warehouse) where I got to pet some lovely animals. Goats and sheep were walking around freely, and there was an enclosure where a farmer who has 400 animals had a few of them all together and they all got along with each other - from cats to dogs, to pigeons and chickens, rabbits and hamsters. Loved it!!  I'll leave photos of my favourites for tomorrow... For now hope you enjoy this small sample of my visit (and over 200 photos).

We're enjoying a long weekend (Queen's Birthday on Monday) so Sunday and Monday will be spent doing our jobs around the house...

Flowers on show

Colourful cows on parade

dog training, horse show, rock climbing and vintage car

Pig running and diving (first photo, the tiny presenter and singer)

Evening views of the Amusement rides

Spring Festival at Kings Park II

Following from my first post about the Kings Park Spring Festival that started on the 1st of September, here are some more photos taken on my first visit to this year's festival.

Kings Park has been voted the 6th best park in the world according to Trip Advisor with 
5,8 million visitors a year,  650,000 of these visiting during the Spring Festival in September. Amazing isn't it?

 This lovely kookaburra was on top of a tree while a honeyeater taunted it and he just turned one way or another but stayed in the same branch. Very strange, I thought being twice the size would mean he would give the honeyeater a hard time and not the other way around.

Kookaburra on a tree branch

Ducks in one of Kings's park ponds

The clock surrounded by wildflowers

Lots of wildflowers

Hope you enjoyed the beautiful wild blooms, some of these unique to Western Australia.

Hopefully I'll get some time to visit again before the end of the month for more Spring photos.

Flying Squirrel on the wall - Monday Mural

This mural entitled "Flying Squirrel" or "Sugar Glider" (I've seen it described by both names)  was painted by the Dutch artist/Fremantle resident Amok Island. 

It was painted for the 2015 FORM and was painted on the side wall of a building in Nick's Lane in Northbridge, just across from the Perth's city centre.

Taking part in Monday Murals, click HERE to see more murals from around the world.