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Birds on wires in Paull, East Yorkshire. I can't read music, but if I could would these music notes formed by these birds be Leonard Cohen's 'Bird on a Wire"?
February 12, 2019
We got a little snow! (Likely be gone by morning though)
(A few hours to late for Crazy Tuesday Music!)
Brewster, Massachusetts
Cape Cod - USA
Photo by brucetopher
© Bruce Christopher 2019
All Rights Reserved
...always learning - critiques welcome.
Tools: Canon 7D & iPhone 6s.
No use without permission.
Please email for usage info.
Note: When taken this was with Go-Ahead London
St George's Circus
Thanks for all the views, please check out my other photos and albums.
Image: Flying Fish Cove from Territory Day Park, Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. External Territory of Australia.
Below is the first in a series of five monthly reports I sent back to friends in 2007.
Recommend reading them in order to get the best out of them.
Very long.
Notes from Christmas Island (CI)
Chapter 1
JULY 2007
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS AND LIFE EXPERIENCES ON A RAINFOREST COVERED ISLAND, NO WHERE NEAR ANYWHERE AS DESCRIBED IN AN OFTEN
NON-CHRONOLOGICAL, NON-SEQUENTIAL, NON-LINEAR, ALL OVER THE PLACE MANNER!
I imagine the short exchange between Christmas Island International Airport [XCH] Air Traffic Control and our pilot went something like this:
“Inbound National Jet RJ-70 this is XCH.
You are cleared to land, winds 20 knots ESE,
So why don’t you stop messing around and put that sucker on the ground, then we can all go home”
“Groovy XCH, this is inbound RJ-70, copy that, please have a Canadian Club and Dry waiting for me on the tarmac, will have this big bird on the deck in a second.”
Or words like that.
Within ten minutes I became the last person off the plane as the flight attendants smiled nicely whilst, quite possibly, gently cursing my unstressed gait as I alighted the aircraft.
With a nose full of wonderful warm and clean tropical air I glanced towards the smallish aviation terminal building.
The terminal’s primary task was to allow for the lawful and obedient arrival and departure of passengers as listed on the aircraft passenger manifest.
It’s secondary but nevertheless important duty was to hold back a very green swath of rainforest from imminent invasion of the outrageously undulating but clearly useable runway.
This should be the last time I would be requiring that lumpy runway for a little while.
Christmas Island [CI], 10 degrees south of the Equator,
2600 km north, north-west from Perth,
2800 km west from Darwin,
360 km south from Indonesia,
1300 km south from Singapore
900 km north, north-east from Cocos (Keeling) Islands is to be home to Jody and myself for at least the next three months.
This airport is 291 metres above sea level.
For some perspective:
That is higher than the Central Park Building Perth, Australia
Outrageously higher than anything built in Adelaide, Australia
Fractionally lower than Centrepoint Tower in Sydney, Australia
Marginally higher than the Transamerica Building in San Francisco, USA
Almost twice the height of the Washington Monument in Washington DC, USA
A couple of storeys short of Bank of China Building, Hong Kong
Four fifth’s the height of the TV Tower Berlin, Germany
And that's just the height of the airport, some of the island is a third higher again.
As a rock, this island pokes right out of the water.
All the settled areas of CI are either a bit below, quite a bit below or massively far below the airport.
The steepness of the hill is severe in some places, sufficient enough to make a Tour De France rider squirm in his bike shorts and say “Sacré Bleu!”
Cleverly we had booked a 4WD hire car for the first week.
With certain smugness we took this all terrain vehicle out of the airport and down, down, down the hill to our unit.
Our three monthly lease of this unit, signed sight unseen, could now commence.
Let’s see what we have signed up for.
With the six kilometre winding downhill drive completed and the 4WD parked outside our new home, we were ready to collect the key, which was securely sitting on top of the frame of the front door.
Or so we were told!
As expected it was nowhere to be found.
Sleeping in the jungle seemed quite a chance.
This is where old contacts come in handy.
Also where the philosophy of, always make friends not enemies, pays dividends.
The neighbour to our property was a friend of mine in 1991 when I lived on the island.
A quick explanation of our predicament and soon a key was produced.
He had previously owned the unit and only sold it this year.
A spare key to the unit still jangled, if shaken, on his key ring and within moments we were inside.
Who’s a lucky a boy!
We leased this unit, which was to be one of either:
a] furnished
b] partially unfurnished
c] completely unfurnished.
To be frank we were not exactly sure what we were getting, but we knew we had a roof over our head and a front door and potentially a key.
Apart from the water leaking from the shower that drips out in the four cardinal directions and into the crappy carpet and onto the laundry floor, it would be adequate.
It won’t be featured in any of the following magazines:
Homes and Gardens or Design Trends or Architectural Weekly or Architectural Monthly or Architectural Annual.
Can’t see it getting a run in Clean Carpet Weekly but is a very good chance for a major feature in The Bad and Damp Carpet Journal.
On the plus side, the walls were painted, once.
The unit was old, tired, pretty well completely dirty and in summary
‘a bit crap’ however we are really quite happy here.
There was also no mattress on the bed, my friend but also had a spare, so we were soon sorted in that regard.
Because what it does have, is a fairly cool location.
We are unit two, of a set of four.
Where unit one is separated from the ocean by the main arterial road on the lower part of the island.
Not unexpectedly unit two is behind unit one.
Our ability to live in properties adjacent to main roads continues.
However this road is not really busy.
Sometimes fifteen minutes can elapse between cars and after midnight possibly hours between one lot of traffic and the next.
Of a morning there is no good reason, not to sit out on a chair, on the lawn near, but not under, the adjacent coconut tree and have my bowl of cereal and watch the ocean move and the traffic go by.
CI , an Australian external territory has a population of around fifteen hundred with eleven hundred being adults.
Life is unhurried and casual.
In a city all tasks seem to be done quickly or required to be done quickly.
That is not necessarily the case here.
Not everything can be done quickly, as shipping and flying things in and out have their own schedule, such as:
Monday has a flight from Perth to CI.
Thursday has a flight from Singapore to CI.
Friday has a flight from Perth to CI.
Postage leaves here on Mondays and Fridays direct to Perth.
Postage to CI on Thursdays goes from Perth to Singapore then changes airlines to fly from Singapore to CI.
So theoretically if a letter was posted from a person in Singapore to someone here, the letter would travel from Singapore to Perth to Singapore to CI.
A ship arrives around every six weeks or so to restock the non-perishables and larger items.
Crime is virtually unheard of, perhaps the occasional minor issue but any offence is unusual and certainly the talk of the town if it happens.
We think the cops, mainly go fishing.
Cars have the keys left in the ignition all the time.
So much easier to find the car keys when they stay in the car ready for use.
No one locks their car.
More often than not during the day we do not lock our house.
It took a week or so to get comfortable with this.
At night, we do, while we are sleeping but at some point that will probably change.
Jody gave up her handbag on the second day and my wallet has been ditched.
In it’s place is a small tough plastic bag, to hold some cash and now and then my plastic card to get cash out from the bank.
Fresh food comes in three times a week.
On Monday from Perth, Thursday from Singapore and Friday from Perth and occasionally on Saturdays from Perth, if it is school holidays.
Anything that comes via a plane is pretty pricey such as refrigerated items, fruit and vegetables.
We switched immediately to long life milk, which comes up via ship instead of the "short life milk" that comes up on the plane.
Items from the ship seem to be only about 20% more expensive that in Perth.
Not bad considering where we are.
Similar situation for the fuel, here it is AUD$1.41ltr when in Perth it is AUD$1.31. Could be worse.
The ship did arrive end of July, despite being due in the middle of July and is kind of a big event as restocking occurs.
Also on this ship were our mountain bikes which will give us more capacity to get around if vehicles are not handy.
The wildlife here is fantastic.
CI is known for the red crabs and their accompanying migration around December.
Which is a world class natural event.
The red crabs are kinda nice, in a crab type of way.
Not aggressive at all and in general, a peaceful type of creature.
Out in the jungle there is about one crab per square metre or two, which makes about 60 million of them or 480 million legs if you were to count them that particular way. But why would you.
Then there are the other crabs, the blue crabs that hang out in freshwater stream areas and the awesome robber crabs plus another ten or twenty other varieties that scuttle left and right.
The robber crabs are massive, sitting about six inches / 15cm off the ground.
Apparently larger ones can be 70 years old.
They prefer coconuts and can grind away at them with their claws until they get them open.
Allegedly their claws are so strong they can snap a broomstick in half, not that anyone has ever seen it happen, but looking at them it seems a fair call.
To see a crab weighing two or three kilograms suspended from a tree trunk eight feet in the air, is a formidable sight.
There are plenty of other amazing creatures, more on them in the next chapter.
For a small population there is a wide array of outlets for food and drinks.
There is one large supermarket similar to any well stocked shop in a small town on the mainland.
Three small Asian supermarkets whose aisles are so narrow that your shoulders barely fit between.
For meals there are two Chinese restaurants, three coffee shops, three pubs and a Chinese noodle house.
Add or possibly minus from that list a Malay Restaurant that doesn’t seem to open!?
Due to the nature of the geography most places have an ocean view and a cooling breeze.
Other items of note for a small, extremely remote island is the sensational hospital (ocean views standard), an 18 million dollar recreation centre with 25m swimming pool, children’s pool, basketball court, coffee shop and a brilliantly resourced gym.
Half way up the hill is the outdoor cinema, with great ocean views before the sun goes down and a lovely breeze when the movie is on. Unless it is raining.
There is one movie per week at AUD$5 per person, movies get to the island just as they are leaving the cinemas in Perth, so they are reasonably current.
Popcorn is available, but if four people have ordered popcorn before we get there then we have to wait eight minutes before ours is actioned.
Two minutes each packet in the microwave.
Practical solution to a practical problem.
Movies can be sponsored, so if I wanted to make the film
“brought to you by Keith and Jody” then we just have to lay the money down, rumour is, about AUD$300.
A local radio station is transmitting along with a few FM stations from Perth, ABC Local Radio plus Triple J that transmits Australia wide.
TV has ABC, SBS, WIN being a local version of Channel 9 and GWN country TV that takes combination Channel 7 and Channel 10.
Sadly both WIN and GWN suffer from the Western Australian country commercials varying from low quality to really low quality.
We convinced the landlord to supply a new mattress as the old one borrowed was pretty knackered.
We found a suitable one at the supermarket and arranged purchase.
For delivery the supermarket manager, who I knew from 1991 helped me lift it on the back of his ute, gave me his keys and said to drop the ute off in the carpark when I was finished and to leave the keys in the ignition. Fantastic. That’s how business should be done.
Vehicle transport is a necessity to get up the hill.
I do go running up the hill but I am the only one I know who does, my chances of having Jody run up the hill are about one degree.
That is, in every 360 times I ask she would probably agree to run once.
From the beginning of August we have hired a car from an old friend, or to be nice, a friend from a long time ago.
Not everything on the car works but if it did then the deal I got wouldn’t have happened.
The car is for sale and I can hire it until it sells.
Who knows I may have been able to get it for free, maybe, maybe not, but one needs to be fair here so some payment was necessary
Normally a newish car for hire would be about AUD$300 hundred per week.
My weekly hire rate is one carton of Boag’s Lite beer and one bottle of Champagne. Total cost $44 per week.
Those who know me and thought I possessed a minimum level of sophistication then the following will clearly shatter that illusion and those who believe I have no sophistication will be vindicated.
When I enquired what type of champagne was desired, the reply was “Brut”.
Easy then, off to the supermarket I headed to stock up on the grog.
Alcohol and cigarettes do not attract the mainland duties and taxes.
These items are ridiculously cheap.
Bottle of 1 litre spirits that would be $30 - $40 on the mainland are $14 here.
Cigarettes, for those filthy smoking bastards are around $2.50 a packet instead of the advised figure of $12 (so I am told.)
Even if I have my smokes prices a bit wrong, it’s still damn cheap.
I should start being a chain smoker and become an alcoholic, I would save sooooo much money!!
Back to the Champagne, I scoured the Champagne section of a very comprehensive alcohol section, juxtaposed to the dishwashing powder and washing machine liquids.
No brand of Champagne called Brut here!
With a bowed head and dragging of feet I slunk out of the supermarket like an abject failure.
I would be unable to fulfil my end of the “grog for car” regime.
Later Jody in a calm and quiet voice took me gently aside and explained that Brut was not a brand but a variety.
With a spring in my step I located a nicely priced bottle of James Hardy Champagne.
You can see my confusion, the words “Brut De Brut” located under the brand were not obvious and the whole thing just looked like a plain old bottle of wine to me.
Maybe this is not my area of expertise.
Jody was kind by saying it wasn’t my fault given that it is a "chick’s drink" or that it is "women's business" and I had no real right knowing about that type of thing anyway.
Sounds like the perfect disclaimer for me.
If I haven’t said so already, we are loving life here, sure the mosquito’s are impressed with Jody’s fair skin and tasty new blood.
They don’t get fair skin much like that too often, so they are making hay while the sun shines.
The mosquitos are not as bad as I thought, though, going thoroughly through a thoroughfare throughout the jungle like a thoroughbred where it is damp, mozzies can be an issue but in the settled areas, no worse than on the mainland.
We came prepared with a wonderful white mosquito net to cover us while sleeping.
Looks quite romantic really and keeps those buzzing mongrels away.
I once read, never skimp on two things when camping (extend that to remote areas) those being toilet paper and mosquito nets.
Go cheap and you will regret it.
This advice is being taken.
Before I go, please allow me to talk about the weather.
Those who might read this should be in the following listed locations and regions.
As I write this, early August 2007, it is winter in Australia and summer in the northern hemisphere.
On the “mainland”, as continental Australia is succinctly referred, we understand the situation is thus:
Perth, has been raining virtually all month since we left.
Adelaide, varies from miserable to cold and miserable.
Melbourne, is well, Melbourne and enough said there.
Sydney, would be similar to Perth, but with delusions of grandeur.
Hong Kong, let's mark you down as hot and humid with afternoon rain.
South Korea, possible storm clouds on the horizon, not from the weather but from those crazies next door in North Korea.
Germany, should be lovely and if on the autobahn, then fast.
While not being familiar with summer in San Francisco, San Diego & Palo Alto I expect you have your hottest month right now and I would guess pretty nice.
Washington DC now should be as warmish as it gets and trying to rule the world.
Hope I mentioned everyone.
According to official temperature collection data, Christmas Island minimum never drops below 20 (centigrade) and maximum never gets above 30.
Humidity levels can be neatly described as, humid.
When the local’s describe the water temperature as cold, it isn’t.
It’s a great place.
OK it is late and that’s enough for now.
If I send this when I have written everything I want to say, then it will never be sent.
This is Chapter 1, Chapter 2 is for another day...
If you print them all off then you will have a first edition of this virtual book. How about that!
All replies readily accepted, go easy with attachments, anything larger than 200KB or 0.2 MB takes forever to download and at $8 per hour costs me a fortune.
Hope you are all fine and unless we hear otherwise, we are assuming you are.
See ya
Keith (and Jody who is currently sleeping and missing her 2 cats)
Suivez moi sur - Follow me on
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Read about the project here...
Silvered Sky
Between the boughs I am silvered sky, I am cloud and flock and flare,
I am fox, I am vole, I am badger, mouse, I am otter, stoat and hare.
Minerals aplenty, I am silt and mud and stone,
I am even parts of perished things, I am flesh and blood and bone.
Twisted lines and knotted forms, I am branch and stem and shoot,
Wooded shapes and shadows show I am twig and trunk and root.
Shelter, roost and hideaway, a place to nest and perch,
Texture made of leaf and bark, I am willow, alder, birch.
Beaks and feathers, wings and eyes, I am swoop and brilliant flash,
I am also fin and gill and scales, a twisting, turning dash.
Kingfisher, duck and moorhen, I am swan and heron too,
I am pike and carp and rainbow trout and tench, to name a few.
Come closer and you'll start to see, I am many smaller things,
Fallen leaves and heavy rain, gifts each season brings,
Torrent, trickle, snow and ice, fog and pelting hail,
I am toad and newt and dragonfly, I am beetle, snake and snail.
There’s magic left to show you, a favourite trick of mine,
I’ll flicker bright and beautiful, despite the gloom I’ll shine.
And into dusk we're nearer still, you won’t believe it’s me,
Performance unlike those before, just you wait and see.
I am yellow, orange, pink and red, fluorescent green and blue,
But wait please just a moment, that's not my usual hue.
I think I may be poorly, I am feeling off today,
I am usually quite proud of all my colours on display.
Something’s wrong, I know it now, I am clearly not the same,
And as I swell to ocean, I'll wonder who's to blame.
I am metal and I am plastic, not things I am meant to be,
I should be clean and pure and free, as I become the sea.
Impurities and poisons, no longer just the wild,
I am chemicals and solvents too, it seems I’ve been beguiled.
Ashamed to be pollution, this surely is a crime,
I hope this is reversible, and if so that there’s still time.
When darkness falls and closes in, my midnight show is on,
Ten million lucid stars reborn, I am each and every one.
Between the boughs I am silvered sky, tonight still bold and true,
Consider me is all I ask. Don’t forget I am also you.
David Thackwell
The Oscar W @ The Goolwa Wharf.
it looks better on black
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An interesting note From "River Dweller" Perle
Perle has a river boat moored not that many miles upriver from here
Charlie Wallin (who built the Oscar W) was born in 1867 at Norrko-Ping, Sweden . He was the fifth son in the family and joined the navy He jumped ship in Australia as an eighteen year old and found work on River Murray Paddle Steamers and soon accumulated a small fleet . His Son Oscar was born in Yarrawonga in 1897 and died in WW1 - September 20th 1917.
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The paddle steamer Oscar W was built in 1908 by Franz Oscar Wallin (commonly known as Charlie Wallin) at Echuca. He named the vessel after his son Oscar whom he no doubt hoped would continue his shipping business but young Oscar was killed in action in World War I.
At the time Oscar W was built, Wallin already owned the steamers Australien and Julia and the barges Adam, Federal and Impulse, he later went on to own a number of other vessels.
The OSCAR 'W' has been awarded a bronze medal for Heritage and Cultural Tourism in the 2010 South Australian Tourism Awards.
For the full history of "Oscar-W"
go to
Taken at King's Landing, New Brunswick, which recreates New Brunswick rural life of the 1860's. This is a house of a well-to-do rural family and the dining room looks quite homey. I did note that the carpet doesn't quite match the wallpaper and the picture is atilt.
*PLEASE NOTE that all the toys I make and display here are my own, original designs and style and are COPYRIGHTED - they may not be copied in style or form without permission.*
A dark-haired girl posing with an artificial flower in her hair. This lovely vintage photo booth shot probably dates from the late forties or early fifties. Note the hand-painted backdrop.
Country of origin: USA
Unley. Mornington Mansion.
In 1861 Luther Scammell senior, a doctor and practising chemist, formed a business partnership with Francis Faulding. When Francis Faulding died in 1868 the company was taken over by Luther Scammell senior. The company continued to grow and prosper and by the 1890s it had branches in NSW, Western Australia, London, South Africa and India. The company continued to expand in the 20th century and it was only taken over by another company in 2001 but some products still bear the name of Fauldings. Their signature commercial products were perfumes and talcum powders, Solyptol soap and disinfectant, Epsom salts and Saline, eucalyptus oil, extract of malt, baking powder, Camphor Ice, tooth paste, Senna powder etc. Their most famous product Solyptol was a contraction of “soluble eucalyptus oil”. Luther Scammell junior and his brother William took over the Faulding chemical business from their father in 1888 and expanded it considerably.
Luther Scammel senior and members of his family was buried in Mitcham Anglican cemetery as the worshipped at nearby St Michael’s Anglican Church Mitcham. Despite the German sounding name Scammell was born of English parents in 1826. He migrated to South Australia arriving at Port Adelaide in 1849. In 1856 he married Lavinia Bean at Trinity Church North Terrace and their son Luther Scammell junior (who is often confused with his father Luther Scammell senior) was born at Port Adelaide in 1858. For most of their married life Luther and Lavinia lived at Mornington House Unley but they began their married life at Port Adelaide and then moved to Hackney in 1860. By 1863 they were domiciled at Unley. They leased Mornington House as a large nine roomed Georgian house in 1863. Presumably Jacob Pitman built the house around 1857 to 1860 by its appearance. Pitman was a brother to Isaac Pitman who developed shorthand in England and Jacob worked as a builder and architect in Adelaide and NSW. In the 1850s he had contracts for bridges and works for the Port Adelaide and Gawler railways. He left Adelaide to live in Melbourne in 1870 but moved back to SA in 1874. In 1874 Jacob Pitman entered a government competition for architectural plans for the Institute and Museum on North Terrace. Pitman won second prize in the competition but his designs were not the ones built of course.
Some time after Lavinia and Luther Scammell had purchased the property they started to add and enlarge it. They were certainly living in Unley from 1868 onwards and by then probably owners of Mornington. Luther Scammel was a wealthy man when he leased Mornington House just two years after he had formed a business partnership with Francis Faulding and five years before he took over the Faulding Company as sole owner. (Francis Faulding died in 1868 and Luther Scammell senior then took over Fauldings.) Lavinia died there at Mornington in 1904. When leased in 1863 Mornington House was a fashionable mansion with Georgian and classical lines, blind windows, etc. It was undoubtedly designed by the architect owner Jacob Pitman. Pitman who was also the first Swedenborg( New Church) minister in South Australia built his residence at Unley but went through bankruptcy proceedings in 1858 and the house was put up for sale in 1859 so it was presumably built around 1857. It was made of Glen Osmond stone but did not sell and was subsequently leased to Luther Scammell by the mortgagees. Mornington finally sold at auction on 18th December 1863 for £625 presumably to Luther Scammell senior as the obituary for Lavinia Scammell said she was resident of Unley for 42 years - ie from 1862. It was a symmetrical two storey block building with two blind and one glass windows on the Thomas Street façade and two glass and one blind windows on the Unley Road façade. These features of the house can be seen in the photographs. Its original frontage was to Thomas Street Unley with extensive gardens. The bay window by the front entrance was added some time after the original construction when bay windows were all the rage around 1880. At that time the whole large western wing of the house was added. The crow’s nest cast iron walkway on the roof would also have been added at that time. Luther Scammell senior was elected as Mayor of Unley in 1873 and served several terms. After Luther Scammell died in 1910 Mornington remained in the family as the home of Miss Lavinia Scammell until she died in 1915. Possibly some of their gardens became the Unley War Memorial gardens. Today Mornington is owned by SA Housing as emergency housing for the disadvantaged.
Note all the fall leaves stuck in the intakes.
This is a scan of a photograph that I took in the early eighty's.
Now & then I like to use some Instax, too. I love the colour of this film and the contrasts it can produce, I love its stability... but I hate the bulkiness and the poor maneuverability of the camera. Taking this camera with me is a pain in the backpack, though results are often very pleasant. If you want to see more of my Instax shots, you'll have to visit my LomoHome at bit.ly/ADGlomo.
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Camera: Lomo'Instant Wide
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In the meanwhile visit my Etsy shop for my Instant Art at www.etsy.com/shop/AleDiGangi