Over the past couple of weeks life has been interesting, to say the least. My friend Denise, with whom I am going to Turkey and Greece in less than two weeks time, managed to break bones in her foot. She is on crutches and we have been keeping fingers and toes (unbroken!) crossed that she will be healed enough to do the trip. It is looking pretty positive now as she will probably be at the stage of wearing one of those most graceful blow up boots. A plus for having such an injury is that we will be well looked after by the airlines involved. A downer is that if she is still on crutches, much of the climbing at historical sites will be beyond her.
I am a little worried about dealing with the whole luggage thing though, as with tendonitis in my shoulder, I am not really capable of dealing with her luggage as well as mine, on the tour itself. I also know that, no matter how kind they are, fellow travellers can get pretty sick of helping someone at every stop.
Apart from helping Denise get set up, I have been up country again, visiting a friend near Wangaratta, and then spending a few days with Mum, taking her to Deniliquin and then having Mothers' Day together.
The sunsets from Claire's verandah never cease to grab me. I have taken so many photos of them over the years, in all seasons, and I couldn't resist this time.
Look how it transforms a cream wall
And what is is drying on the verandah?
and
and
Claire and Kirk have always had a fabulous vegetable garden and have been virtually self sufficient with their veggies until now. But the drought has caught up with them, the dams are virtually dry, and the veggie patch will be pretty small this year.
By cheer bad management ( I just zoned out) on the way to Claire's, I ended up having to cut across country from Healesville to the Melba Highway just near the Kinglake turnoff. How fortuitous that turned out to be.
The route takes you through the country side where much of the Black Saturday fire activity took place. What struck me was the juxtaposition of the bright green regrowth and the brilliant autumn colours of the exotic trees not damaged by the fires over the blacks and greys of the fire damage. I found it incredibly beautiful.
I nearly always have the camera at the ready these days but couldn't find many places to stop, so I planned to come back the same way hoping to find more opportunities to stop on the other side of the road. Unfortunatley at the crucial points where I had especially wanted to take photos I had a whacking great bus bearing down on me at breakneck speed, and I couldn't go slowly enough to find appropriate parking spots.
So I never did get that juxtaposition I found so appealing. A shame, as at the moment, photography is almost all I am doing artistically as I don't need to get out or clean up any gear. I expect this will be the way of it until I get back from our trip.
