This tiny pair of wrens do not look alike at all when it comes to colourings.

Kookaburras

A signal 'box' that is still operational.  Here is a line ultimately to the far reaches of the country.

Up close to a tall crane, lowered down for attention. Where would we be without a crane or two? The crane was back at work the next day at the new stadium.

Anzac Cove  In Mural. In Kurri

New life New hope!
the little old church in Gresford

Bleak yet renewed. Harbourside land, saved and detoxed, will get a life,  now that the iron and steel works have been painstakingly removed.

The Kids Charity Ute Muster was here! 
Funding for medical research is under threat and protests are underway. At least high profile advocates speak up for the cause. Research and mental health services are very worthy causes.

Health departments have a newish home in Hunter Street.  Advocates for better mental health care are trying their best to get a share of the action.  High tech services must use up the budget instead of funding for mental health staff and broad support services.
Newcastle has several new mental health facilities.

Take a break

Parking Meter patrol takes a break in Hunter Street mall. On the right, a shipping buoy look alike tells us important facs. 
Shoppers go to suburban mega stores and leave the centre of the old town fairly quiet.

Mangia mangia.

Market stall in Hunter Street Mall for delicious pizza baked in a wood fired oven set up inside a van - where else!  

After building one pizza oven a former bricklayer and partner have become very successful in selling pizzas at market and at parties and is filling a demand from homeowners for more ovens. 

While the cook in not an Italian, she has the 'mangia mangia' approach which celebrates food and family which recently featured on Life Matters on ABC Radio national. 

From the little I have seen, old style domestic Italian pizza is a lot different from our commercial versions. My version....anchovies...kalamata olives...etc. ....non-trad rich pastry...simply delicious...occasionally 

Morning tea break in Hunter street Mall. Trio of postmen park their trollies and take a seat in the sun on a perfect autumn morning.  And a bizzare tree sits on a trailer - where else?  Part of organizing a gardening display.
Hunter Street Mall.  Pall Mall, London, is probably the first mall we heard about. We pronounce the word as maul, (as in mauled by a tiger)  Pal Mal was ocker speak!

An illustrated picture book for an owl enthuasist by Annette Macarthur-Onslow.

In another time and place, we came home from the Saturday markets with an owl. Just like the illustrations, owl would focus on an object and would bob up and down and with gaze still fixed move from side to side and round and round. It looked similar to a Southern Boobook owl.
His food included little gecko lizards we caught on the window screens. In the topics the geckos were usually found running around the walls. These were tiny. ( Just as well. In another place, what sounded like a very loud noisey rooster, on the roof, night or day, was said to be a small lizard.)
We always hoped owl would hunt for geckos and come and go from the perch at will. But no.
He starred in a scene in the local amateur production of Olvier.
The time came for a 'gone finish' sale and we moved away and with concerns Archie went to a new owner.

Perhaps we rushed into buying this quaint pet. Captivity is less than ideal. Although I initially wondered what its fate would be otherwise.  It was clever marketing on the part of a local.   

In the small town of Gresford nibbling on a pine tree, is a sight not unusual and quite special at the same time. Australian King Parrot. 

Another time a parrot was caught 'fishing' on the Paterson river - look closely!

Jacaranda tree in a backyard in the suburbs? But there's more. 5pm and two owl-like nocturnal creatures sleep soundly. Not something you see everyday - if ever. Wow!

  

Surprised at seeing these jaunty birds near Nobbys beach I have recorded the sighting. Usually the scene is dominated by sea gulls. These birds are probably Sooty Oystercatchers It takes a whole life time to spy some commonplace wild life even when these birds are supposed to be distributed over our entire coastline.

On high tide line,  little critters with small blue balloons go crackle and pop if you dare tread on them. And watch out! An attached length of 'string' will inflict pain on contact with your skin and will send a surfer to seek first aid.  I have never been keen to test whether the power to sting remains in these beached specimens. A number of remedies existed and wonder what the latest is? 

Bluebottles have another quirky name: Portuguese man o'war ! A flock will drift into a surfing areas from time to time.

Once upon a time when washing day was a big deal, a blue pellet was added to the rinsing water to brighten the clothes.  At one stage, I think, Reckits blue was known as a remedy for the bluebottle sting - a treatment since discredited.

Macro view with Nobbys from sea level.

Towards the end of a long morning in the laundry, compleate with a wood fired copper, I have assisted my mother by preparing the starch. White granuels of chalky starch where disolved in a basin of boiling water and certain items of cotton clothing were dunked in the hot slimey liquid then wrung out again. After drying - on a clothes line - came the dampening down when water was sprinkled on the clothes and they were rolled up ready for ironing day. 

Foreshore park, Sunday. A game of cricket during a party.

the mascot...

It's metal. It's opened. The saying is 'what's under.... ?

Still in Retroville. What era do we have here?
The Marching Koalas based in Newcastle, take music far and wide. Back from China, then way ahead is a tour to the east coast of the USA Easter 2012. New York, Washington, Orlando and Harry Potter World are among the destinations.
Their style was very new to us when they formed and began performing some time ago and they are a great act. They remain unusual.

We begin April in this town frozen in time. Retro ville. Up to date ideas have very little impact. Visitors are conspicuous.