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Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.
Ilovedoodle at Etsy:
www.etsy.com/listing/69997816/whatever-will-be-will-be-print
A Group of Four Optimistic Cactus Flowers In My Front Garden
These glorious cactus flowers in my front garden open at night and last for a single day. They are so optimistic that they will be fertilized quickly.
IMG_2587 - Version 2
I am optimistic about actually doing this year's Life Book lessons. Last year got away from me, but thankfully, I've got all the lessons saved. Yay! This year, though, I am going to sit down once a week and actually do the lessons. This Fairy Art Mother is totally inspired by Tamara LaPorte. willowing.org
"I'm an optimistic beauty. Never impolite. / Easy like Saturday, mid-day. / Breezy, chilled-out, dumb girl."
Filmed in Stiletto Club.
Stiletto Club: A stylish steampunk themed venue to chat, mix mingle, dance and play!
Femdom Oriented: Dominants, submissives, femmes, Bondage, Femminization, Maids, Footplay
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Flamerider/170/185/2751
Thanks to Evie for: Kaithleen's Robin Bodyfur Fatpack
marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Kaithleens-Robin-Bodyfur-Fat...
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"That's Life"
Bif Naked
I like babytalking, popcorn without butter,
and anybody who will pay attention
to these requirements.
I'm an optimistic beauty. Never impolite.
Easy like Saturday, mid-day.
Breezy, chilled-out, dumb girl.
Thats life with me. I know.
Around and around you will go.
But, if I french kiss you
in the broad daylight,
you'll fall in love..oh,oh,oh.
That's life with me. I know.
Well I am pretending to be a free-bouncing lover.
I wear my defensive mask of optimism like a badge.
And ultimately. I am much to lazy to change.
I'm rather conditioned to my life of melodrama.
Thats life with me. I know.
Around and around you will go.
But, if I french kiss you
in the broad daylight,
you'll fall in love..oh,oh,oh.
That's life with me. I know.
That's life with me. Thats how it will be, my friend.
A roller coaster ride you won't forget.
I am just a mess. I am just a mess, at best.
I am just a blue-ribbon prize winner till the end.
Thats life with me. I know.
Around and around you will go.
But, if I french kiss you
in the broad daylight,
you'll fall in love..oh,oh,oh.
That's life with me. I know.
Album : Snailspace Brighton.
Description from the Snailspace website.
Designed by:Osomi & Natalie HancockSponsored by:Impact Initiatives
Inspired by Brighton and the diversity of its inhabitants, Gary represents the city’s many faces, celebrating those who live, volunteer and work here. This colourful Snail also reflects the city’s relaxed and optimistic vibe, and our seascape drenched in sunshine.
The design was created as a collaboration between Impact Initiative’s Ben Glazebrook, Osomi Design Agency and artist Natalie Hancock who painted it adding her own unique flair. Recognise anyone you know? The team asked people of all ages to send in their self-portraits to be featured, so you might spot a familiar face!
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." ~Elwyn Brooks White, Essays of E.B. White, 1977
Made for the group thee game. T.V. provided by the group. Image from Bolsa Chica, California. Camera man taken in San Francisco.
Classic Space is bright and optimistic and shiny and innocent.
Not any more.
Those that may have been following my photostream (or my blog ghsquarefeet.wordpress.com) may recall that I've been wondering "what if the old catalogue images are propaganda? What if the Blacktron are the good guys and the Classic Space faction are an oppressive tyranny?"
This is the first major build definitively tied into that universe. It has scary-looking Space Police. It has remote cameras. It has faceless transcorporate Classic Space goon squads. It has peaceful Blacktron protesters being gunned down. It isn't nice, and it's not innocent. This is the dark underbelly of the Classic Space System.
History & Meaning of Yellow Roses:
With their optimistic hue and general association with good cheer, yellow roses are the perfect way to toast friends, lift spirits and send a general wish for well-being. And that’s great news for those who love roses—the rose is known for its simple, architectural beauty, but some colors are so loaded with significance that they can be a bit tricky to work with. Sending a get-well bouquet of red roses to your administrative assistant might raise eyebrows around the office, for instance. Suffice it to say, you can never go wrong with yellow roses.
Long associated with the sun and its life-giving warmth, yellow is the age-old spokes-color for warm feelings of friendship and optimism. In many Eastern cultures, the color represents joy, wisdom and power. But while any yellow flower will send a lighthearted message, the history of the yellow rose in particuar has an optimistic, serendipitous character that really makes it the complete package.
By the 18th century the worldwide love of roses was in full swing, but they were only cultivated in shades of pink and white. At last, the elusive yellow rose was discovered growing wild in the Middle East, and the European love affair with yellow roses was born. The early yellow rose lacked the sweet scent for which the rose is famous, however, which was not to be tolerated. So, as cultivation methods were developed and refined, the beloved sweet-and-spicy rose scent was soon introduced and the yellow rose achieved all its optimistic and aromatic glory.
www.proflowers.com/blog/history-and-meaning-of-yellow-ros...
Brief History of Mt Gambier – the second city of SA after Adelaide (region population nearly 35,000, urban 28,000).
Lieutenant James Grant aboard the Lady Nelson sighted and named Mt Gambier in 1800 after a Lord of the Admiralty. The first white man to traverse the area was Stephen Henty of Portland in 1839 when he sighted the Blue Lake. He returned with cattle and stockmen in 1841. He later claimed that had he known the lake and volcano he had discovered in 1839 was in SA he would have immediately applied for an 1839 Special Survey. But Henty thought he was squatting on land in NSW and he was not an official SA settler so the government ordered him off the land in 1844. Thus the first official white settler of the South East and the Mt Gambier district became Evelyn Sturt, brother to Captain Charles Sturt, who took up an occupational license in March 1844 and a property he named Compton just north of the present city. In April 1844 Governor Grey and a party of assistants including the Assistant Surveyor General Thomas Burr and artist George French Angas explored the South East naming Robe and doing the first surveys. Evelyn Sturt became the first to have an occupational license to squat and the first purchase freehold land near Mt Gambier which he did in 1847- a section of 77 acres when 80 acres was the norm. He left the district in 1854 selling his freehold land to Hastings Cunningham who in 1855 subdivided some of this land thus creating the town of Gambierton. The town lands were adjacent to the site of the first police station selected near what is now Cave Gardens by the government in 1845. A small bush inn also operated at this spot. The first streets were named after early locals such as Evelyn Sturt, Compton, Ferrers and Crouch (built the first general store before the town was created) etc. The town grew quickly because of the mild climate, fertile soils, plentiful water and the influx of settlers from across the border in what was to become the colony of Victoria. Cunningham himself was a great benefactor and donated land for the first school in 1856. In 1861 the town name was changed by act of parliament to Mt Gambier. The Hundred of Mt Gambier (along with three other hundreds) was declared in 1858 and began the closer settlement of the South East.
Unlike other areas of SA the South East was seen as paradise for pastoralists and the optimistic pastoralists flocked to the area with their flocks in 1845. The large runs locked up the land and prevented farmers from settling in the region except for the fertile lands around Mount Gambier. Here small scale farmers had small properties and grew potatoes, hops, and later had dairy cows as well as growing wheat and oats. Land acts in the early 1870s designed to break up the big runs only partially succeeded in the South East where most station owners bought up their lands freehold. It was after 1905 before the big pastoral estates were really broken up for farmers and closer settlement, except for near Mt Gambier. Apart from Evelyn Sturt the other early white settlers of the South East in 1845 were Alexander Cameron at Penola, John Robertson at Struan, William Macintosh and George Ormerod at Naracoorte, the Austin brothers at Yallum Park (later John Riddoch), the Arthur brothers (nephews of Governor Arthur of Van Diemen’s Land) at Mt Schanck( now Mt Schank) and the Leake brothers at Glencoe. In fact in 1845 nineteen leasehold runs were taken up in the South East with a further thirty runs in 1846 and most had several 80 acres sections of freehold land near the main homestead. Most had got to the South East from Casterton and Portland in Victoria as the swamps near the coast were too difficult to traverse except for the country near Robe. Many of the estates were huge. Evelyn Sturt on the Compton/Mt Gambier run had 85 square miles as well as his freehold land; Robertson had 135 square miles at Struan; George Glen (and William Vansittart) of Mayurra had 110 square miles; the SA Company had 159 square miles on the Benara run; the Leake brothers had 194 square miles on Glencoe; Hunter had 56 square miles on Kalangadoo; Neil Black of Noorat Victoria had 45 square miles on Kongorong run and 101 square miles at Port MacDonnell and the Arthur brothers had a huge run at Mt Schanck. By 1851 almost 5,000 square miles of the South East was occupied by Occupational License and most licenses were converted to 14 year leases in that year. A third of all leasehold land in SA was taken up in the South East because of its higher rainfall and suitability for pastoralism and a third of all sheep in the colony were in the South East. When Hundreds were declared in the South East in the late 1850s and early 1860s pastoralists bought up the land. In one case John Riddoch of Yallum Park owned the entire Hundred of Monbulla. Another pastoralist W. Clarke who had purchased Mt Schancke station from the Arthur brothers in 1861 owned SA land valued at £1.25 million when he died in 1874 and he had 120,000 acres freehold in Victoria, 75,000 acres freehold in SA( Mt Schank) and 50,000 acres freehold in each of NSW and Tasmania! Mt Schanck was changed in Schank in 1917 when German place names in SA were changed as Schank without the second “c” is an old English name!
In the 1850s Mt Gambier was a shanty village as the South East was a region of large pastoral estates and little agricultural farming and very low population numbers. It was far from Adelaide and remote and it was only after the Princeland episode in 1862 with the threat of possible secession to a new state that the Adelaide government began to invest in the South East and really encourage settlement there. The Border Watch newspaper was established in 1861, the Mt Gambier Hotel opened in 1862 and the Mt Gambier Council was formed in 1863.By the early 1860s Mt Gambier had almost 1,000 residents making it one of the largest towns in SA after the copper mining centres of Burra, Kadina and Moonta. By the 1881 SA census Mt Gambier had 2,500 residents making it the biggest town outside of Adelaide. In 1865 four iconic historic buildings were erected-the Courthouse, the Gaol, Christ Church Anglican and the Post Office and Telegraph Station. The flourmill which later became the Oat Mill opened in 1867 as wheat farmers had now taken up lands around the Mount. Mt Gambier was growing into a fine prosperous looking town with churches, stores, banks, hotels and fine residences. In the 1870s the rural population increased dramatically with tenant potato farmers on Browne’s Moorak estate and intensive hop growing in several localities such as Yahl and OB Flat and Glenburnie etc. Also in 1876 the first commercial forestry was started at the behest of George Goyder. A tree nursery was established on the edge of Leg of Mutton Lake in 1876 on a site selected by George Goyder himself. A stone cottage for the first nurseryman Charles Beale was constructed and it survived until demolished in 1969 but the nursery closed in 1929. The nursery propagated eucalypts, Oak, Elm, Ash, Sycamore, and North American pines. Pinus radiata was first grown at Leg of Mutton Lake and was being dispersed to other areas by 1878. Pinus canariensis was also grown in the 1880s. Pinus radiata is now the most commonly grown commercial forest tree in SA and Australia. Also in the 1870s the first hospital was erected and Dr Wehl, the town’s doctor for many years was in residence.
In the mid 1880s the first rail line was laid as the railway lines pushed out from Mt Gambier to Naracoorte. The service to Naracoorte began in 1887 and connected on with the line to Bordertown and Adelaide. By 1897 a railway connected Mt Gambier to Millicent and the port at Beachport. The railway line across the border to Heywood and Melbourne was not completed until 1917 as the SA government resisted a line that would take goods and passengers from Mt Gambier to Port Melbourne rather than to Port Adelaide. Mt Gambier railway station used to be a hive of activity with daily trains to Adelaide and an overnight sleeper services several times a week. Passenger trains to Mt Gambier from Adelaide stopped in 1990 after Australian National took over the SA railway network. Freight services stopped in 1995 and the railway line and station was formally closed. The railyards and other buildings were cleared in 2013.
The Buandik Aboriginal People.
The Buandik people are commemorated in a city street but by little else. Yet they were resilient and determined fighters opposed to the white settlement of the South East. Their occupation of the Mt Gambier district stretches back to around 20,000+ years but their dated occupation from archaeological sites goes back to about 11,000 years with their myths and legends including stories about volcanic activity at Mt Gambier. The last volcanic explosions were about 4,000 years ago. Both Mt Schank and Mt Gambier were important places to the Buandik for ceremonies, hunting, access to water and stone implement making. A government report in 1867 noted that the Buandik people in government care were few in number mainly sickly and elderly. The younger people had presumably moved out into the white community. But back in the 1840s the Buandik were a force to be reckoned with. There are no common stories of Aboriginal massacres but white pastoralists certainly retaliated when sheep were stolen. On Mt Schank station the Buandik were so troublesome that shepherds would not venture out to care for sheep alone and the Arthur brothers gave this trouble as their reason for them selling the run in 1845. In 1845 the government established a police station at Mt Gambier, which the Protector of Aboriginals visited, to ensure that pastoralists did not massacre the Buandik.
William Vansittart and Vansittart Park.
Vansittart Park has been a focal point of Mt Gambier since 1884 for activities such as family picnics, political rallies and speeches, bike racing, band rotunda concerts, bowling greens, sport oval, grandstand (1927) and Anzac memorial services. But who was William Vansittart? He was an Anglican reverend from England (Vansittart is a noble and political Anglo-Irish family in the UK) who arrived in SA in 1847 as a young bachelor. He was never licensed as a minister in SA but he developed his passions for making money and horse racing here. He mixed with the elite of Adelaide like Sir Samuel Davenport, the Governor and was a friend of Hurtle Fisher and he was Master of the Hounds. In 1850 he purchased 35 acres at Beaumont where he built Tower House and 80 acres at Mt Gambier. He imported a thoroughbred horse from Hobart called Lucifer. Ironic that a minister of religion would have a horse called Lucifer! His horses raced in Adelaide, Salisbury, Gawler, Brighton and Clare as well as in Mt Gambier and Penola. In 1851 he also took over the 110 square mile 14 year lease of Mayurra run with George Glen of Millicent. In 1852 he returned to England for a short time and on his return he purchased more freehold land bringing his estate to around 800 acres. Not long after in 1854 his horse shied, he was thrown against a tree and died of head injuries but he died intestate with an estate worth over £10,000. Glen bought out his share of Mayurra; the Beaumont house and property was sold in 1867 as were his race horses and his brother Captain Spencer Vansittart eventually inherited the Mt Gambier property. In accordance with William’s wishes 115 acres were set aside to provide income for a scholarship for boarders at St Peters Boys College which happened from 1859. Later in 1883 Spencer Vansittart offered 20 acres to the Mt Gambier Council for a memorial park at the “nominal” sum of £400 which hardly seems “nominal”. The Council raised a loan and purchased the land and the park is still enjoyed by the city’s residents and visitors. Captain Spencer’s widow sold the last package of 300 acres of land in 1912 thus ending the Vansittart links with Mt Gambier. The Vansittart scholarship is still available for boarders from the South East and is operated by a group of College trustees.
Some Historic Buildings in Mt Gambier and a town walk.
Your town walk is basically straight ahead along Penola Road towards the Mount itself which becomes Bay Road( the bay is at Port MacDonnell) once you cross Commercial Street which is the Main Street. There are just a few diversions to the left as you face the Mount. The coach will collect you at the Mount end of the walk near the Old Courthouse.
If you a good walker check out the fine houses in Jardine Street at numbers 1, 7, 9, 11, 12, 17 and 22. They range from cottages to Gothic and turreted mansions including the home of Jens the hotelier. This detour will add another 10 minutes to the walk if you elect to do it.
1.Catholic Covent. Sisters of Mercy setup a convent school in 1880. This wonderful convent was not built until 1908 in local dolomite stone & limestone quoins. Note the fine stone gables with small niches for statuary, the well proportioned arched colonnades and upstairs oriel windows – the projecting bay windows with stone supports. This is one of the finest buildings in Mt Gambier. The convent closed in 1986. Now Auspine.
2.Wesleyan Methodist Church Hall/Sunday School. Across the street is pink dolomite neo-classical style Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School Hall. Hundreds of children attended Sunday School in those days. It opened in 1904. It is now commercial offices. (If you want to walk up Wyatt Street beside the Sunday School and turn right at second street which is at Gray you will see the old two storey Methodist Manse at 101 Gray St. It was built in 1868 and sold 1941. As you turn into Gray Street the Salvation Army Hall is on your left. Allow 10 minutes for this detour before returning to Penola Road).
3.Methodist Church now Liberty Church. A Gothic large church built in 1862 by the Wesleyans. Opened by minister from Portland. Additions made 1877 with new entrance. The old lecture hall and Sunday School was beneath the church. Note the buttress on corners and sides. Became Uniting Church 1977 and closed 1994 when services moved to St Andrews Presbyterian Church. Behind the church (walk through the car park) in Colhurst Place is LLandovery two storey mansion now a B&B. Built 1878 for a flour and oat miller who had his mill in Percy Street.
4.St Paul’s Catholic Church. This impressive Gothic church with huge tower with crenulations was opened in 1884 and will be open today. There are 1966 extensions to the rear of it. The Presbytery is behind the church facing Alexander St. it was built in 1901 when the church was free of building debt. The first thatched bush church was built in another location in 1855. From 1857 the priest was Father Julian Tenison Woods, explorer, academic, horseman etc. A second church opened in 1861 in Sturt St and is now demolished. It closed in 1885 as this church opened. The bells came from Dublin. The church fence and gates built 1936.
5.The Mount Gambier Club. Across the street is the Club. It was built in 1904 for a local distiller as chambers for lease. The wealthy pastoralists of the South East formed an exclusive men only club in 1913 and it has used the upper floor of Engelbrecht’s chambers ever since. They purchased the whole building in 1920. The Club is a beautifully proportioned classical style building with pediments, balustrades, window entablature, and perfect symmetry. Look down the sides and you can see it is made of Mt Gambier limestone blocks.
6.Mt Gambier Caledonian Hall. Next door is the Scots Club. Its prominence signifies the Scottish links of many Gambier residents. The hall was opened in 1914 and opened by the former Prime Minister Sir George Reid, another Scot. It has classical features but is rather ugly and neglected these days. It is now a night club.
7.The Trustees Building. Next to the Caledonian is the Trustee Building erected in 1958. Its blue and bone tiled façade is typical of 1950s architecture yet the rectangular appearance has a slight classical look about it. It is on the SA Heritage Register. Accountants now occupy it.
8.Turn left into Percy Street and go along here beyond KFC for one town block to the next corner for the Oatmills (now a coffee shop and cinemas). Milling and brewing were two of Mt Gambier’s prime 19th century industries. The 4 storey complex here was started in 1867 for Welsh Thomas Williams who eventually had five flour mills. His mill was called Commercial Flourmills. A new owner converted the mill from wheat milling to oat milling. A new oatmill was built in 1901 and operated until 1975 producing Scottish porridge oats. The mill has now been restored with café, shops and cinemas. Return to Penola Rd.
9. Mt Gambier Hotel. No hotel could have a more remarkable origin than the Mt Gambier. An African American John Byng built a weatherboard hotel near here in 1847. The third licensee Alexander Mitchell, another Scot, took it over and moved the hotel to this corner site in 1862 as an impressive two storey hotel which was unusual at that time. The western wing was added in 1883 and balconies affixed in 1902.
10.Cross towards the Mount with the traffic lights then turn left into Commercial Street East.
11.Mt Gambier Town Hall. Marked as the Riddoch Gallery this fine Venetian Gothic style building is impressive with its coloured stone work contrasting well with cement rendered horizontal lines and vertical panels around windows and doors. The upper windows are mullioned with stone divisions between the glass. It was built in 1882 with the clock tower added in 1883 after a donation. The first Council meeting was in 1863 with Dr Wehl as chairman held in a hotel. Later the Council hired a room at the Foresters Hall and then they purchased this site in 1868 with a weatherboard room. This was used until 1882.
12.Mt Gambier old Institute. The Literary Institute was formed in 1862 and a foundation stone laid for a reading room/hall in 1868 by John Riddoch. The single storey institute opened in 1869. The upper floor was added in 1887, so that it would match the new Town Hall. It is built in a similar style- Venetian Romanesque as the windows and rounded and not arched as with a gothic structure.
13.Captain Gardiner Memorial Fountain 1884. The fountain was presented by Captain Robert Gardiner the grandfather of Sir Robert Helpman (his name was originally Helpmann). The fountain was made in Melbourne .Gardiner was also a benefactor of St Andrew’s Presbyterian -he donated the pipe organ in 1885.
14.Jens Hotel. After demolishing an earlier hotel (the 1847 hotel of John Byng) Johannes Jens had the first section of his Jens Hotel built on this corner in 1884. An almost identical eastern wing was erected in 1904 and the Spanish Art Deco section in 1927. Turn right here and go behind the Town hall to the Cave Gardens.
15.Cave Gardens. This spot was an early water supply. A garden was created in 1893 and then improved and reconstructed in 1925. This sink hole has recently been upgraded again and it is lit at night.
16.Post Office. This important communications centre was erected in 1865 as a telegraph office/post office. This is till one of the finest buildings in Mt Gambier and a rare example of the Georgian style for the city. . The single storey side wings were added in 1906 in a sympathetic style. It is still the main city Post Office.
17.Norris Agency Building. This superb Italianate building was completed in 1900 as chambers for businessmen. Owner was Alexander Norris who died in 1917. The façade is pink dolomite with cement quoins and unusual lined decoration work above the windows and door each contained within a triangular classical pediment.
18.Farmers Union Building. Another classical style building built when this style was out of fashion in 1914.Erected for Farmers Union as a large two storey building. It has none of the grace of the Norris building next door. FU was formed in 1888 in Jamestown by Thomas Mitchell, a Scot and others to provide cheap rates for grains, seeds and superphosphate but in the early 1900s they branched into products for dairy farmers and the marketing of milk products. The Mt Gambier district had plenty of dairy farmers. It is now owned by a Japanese company Kirin but it still markets its chocolate milk drinks as Farmers Union. Upper floor has double pilasters (flattened pillars) with top volutes but little other decoration.
19.Savings Bank Building on the corner. The former Savings Bank in Gothic style is unusual for commercial premises in Mt Gambier. It is constructed of weathered local limestone and was built in 1906. Note the different cut stone for the foundations, simulated turrets on the corners and by the door to break the façade appearance and the stone line above the lower window which then divides the façade into equal thirds.
20.Macs Hotel. This hotel was built in 1864 and is largely unchanged except that the upper floor was added in 1881. The first licensee was a Scot named John MacDonald. The double veranda supports are very elegant.
21.Roller flourmill now a painted hardware store. Built 1885 as a steam flourmill in pink dolomite. Note the small 12 paned windows set in much larger indented niches in the walls on the northern wall. (Sturt St.)
22.Christ Church Anglican Church and hall. Dr Browne of Moorak donated half the money for the construction of Christ Church in pink dolomite and with an unusual gabled tower. Church and tower completed in 1866. Adjacent is the Jubilee Hall built in 1915, destroyed by fire in 1951, and rebuilt exactly the same in weathered local limestone blocks with the original foundation stone still in place. It has the single Gothic window in the street facing gable and a crenulated square tower. Adjoining it is the 1869 Sunday School with the narrow double pointed Gothic windows. It was extended in 1892. The lychgate is more recent as a memorial to a regular church goer, Margaret French who died in 1927.
23.The old railway station just visible along the rail lines to your right. The first rail line was to Beachport in 1879 and the second to Naracoorte (and so to Adelaide) in 1887. Portland and Melbourne line opened 1917. A spur line to Glencoe was completed in 1904. First station was erected in 1879. It was demolished for the erection of the current station in 1918 which is similar in design to those in Tailem Bend, Bordertown, Moonta etc. Bluebird rail cars started on the Mt Gambier run in 1953 when the old 3’6” gauge line to Wolseley was converted to 5’3”. The last passenger service to Adelaide finished in 1990 and the station closed for freight in 1995. The railyards were cleared in 2013 and the future of the station is bleak. The rail lines to Beachport and Glencoe closed in 1956/57.
24.The Old Courthouse, 42 Bay Rd. It has a great low wall suitable for sitting on. This well designed Georgian style Courthouse opened in 1865 and the similarly styled side wings were added in 1877. The front veranda, which is not Georgian in style, was added in 1880. In 1975 the Courthouse was granted to the National Trust for a museum. The adjoining new Courthouse opened in 1975 at the same time. Note the “blind” windows to the façade but the same rounded Georgian shaped, 16 paned windows on the sides.
The Blue Lake, Mt Schank and Volcanoes.
The jewel in the crown of Mt Gambier is undoubtedly the volcanic cone, the crater lakes especially the Blue Lake and the surrounding Botanic Gardens and parklands. The Botanic Garden on the north side was approved in 1872 but nothing happened about plantings and care until 1882. The first pleasure road through the saddle between the Blue Lake and the Valley Lake was created in the 1861 as a more direct road to the then newly created international port named Port MacDonnell. That is why the road is called the Bay road. Surveyor General George Goyder explored the lake surrounds himself in 1876 when he selected the site for the government tree nursery. Later the government established the first sawmill on the edge of the crater reserve near Moorak homestead in the early 1920s. The Centenary Tower was initiated in 1900 to celebrate the centenary of Captain Grant sighting Mt Gambier. It took several years to complete and was opened by the Chief Justice of SA Sir Samuel Way in 1907 but it was completed in 1904. The whole complex is a maar geomorphological formation which originated during a volcanic era about 28,000 years ago but in a second phase of volcanic activity 4,000 to 6,000 years ago the cones and lakes of Mt Gambier were created along with the cones of Mt Schank and Mt Burr near Millicent. Mt Gambier was the most recent volcanic explosion in Australia. The crater lakes are: Blue Lake, Valley Lake, Leg of Mutton Lake and Browne’s Lake (dry). The Blue Lake is linked to the aquifers beneath the deep layers of limestone which underlay the entire South East. Blue Lake is about 72 metres deep and some of the water in it is estimated to be about 500 years old but it is mixed with rain runoff each year as well. The Lake provides the water supply for Mt Gambier. Deep in the lake are examples of the oldest living organisms on earth- stromatalites. The lake changes colour from grey to vivid blue each November and reverts in the following April. The change in colour is related to the position of the sun and reflected light from suspended particles in the lake which reflect blue green light rather than brown grey light. Secondly the suspended matter only occurs because the water near the surface rises in temperature in the spring and it is this which causes the particles to precipitate out of the water. The precipitated matter settles on the bottom of the lake ready for a new cycle the following spring. Like the Blue Lake various sink holes in the district have linkages to the underlying aquifer through the layers of limestone too and they include Cave Gardens, Umpherstone, Piccaninni Ponds, etc.
Moorak Station and Tenison Woods College.
Moorak station as originally known as Mount Gambier Station established by George Glen in the 1840s. The leasehold was later taken over by David Power who in turn sold it to Fisher and Rochford who in turn sold the estate as freehold to the Scottish Dr William Browne who had established Booborowie run with his brother in 1843 north of Burra. The Browne brothers dissolved their partnership around 1865 and John went to live at Buckland Park and William took up residence at Moorak. William had purchased Moorak Station in 1862 and built the grand Moorak homestead in impressive Georgian style onto a smaller house there. William died in 1894 and the Moorak Estate passed to his son Colonel Percival Browne who was to disappear on the ill-fated voyage of the new steamer the Waratah in 1909 which disappeared during a storm off Durban, South Africa. Also on that voyage was Mrs. Agnes Hay (nee Gosse) of Mt Breckan Victor Harbor and Linden Park Estate Adelaide and some 200 other poor souls. Around 1909 the Moorak Station was subdivided for closer settlement and in the 1920s the Marist Brothers purchased the homestead with a little land for their and monastery and opened the Marist Brothers Agricultural College for boys in 1931. That college in turn merged with the Mater Christi College in 1972 to become Tenison College. (Mater Christi College had been formed in 1952 by the merger of the St Josephs Convent School (1880) and St Peters Parish School but the primary section of St Peters broke away in 1969 from Mater Christi College and formed a separate St Peters Primary School. This primary school in turn merged with Tenison College in 2001 to form Tenison Woods College!) The College name commemorates the work of Father Julian Tenison Woods who arrived in Mt Gambier in 1857 to work in Penola and Mt Gambier. It was he who encouraged Mary MacKillop to take her vows and establish her Sisters of St Joseph.
Dr Browne’s manager of Moorak Estate in 1868 introduced hops as a viable crop in the South East and large quantities were grown for about 20 years. Other early experimental crops grown included tobacco, cotton and flax. Dr Browne and Moorak were also important in the potato industry. Dr Browne leased around 830 acres to 20 tenants for the express purpose of growing potatoes. He was keen to emulate the British aristocracy although he was a good Scot with being a manorial style landlord with tenant farmers. Potatoes were also grown from the early years at Yahl, OB Flat and Compton near Mt Gambier. The potatoes were carted down to Port MacDonnell and shipped to Adelaide for consumers. As one of the major wool producers of Australia William Browne contributed roughly half of the funds for the erection of Christ Church Anglican in Mt Gambier. The Moorak estate consisted of around 11,000 acres of the most fertile volcanic soil in SA with another 2,000 acres in a nearby property, German Creek near Carpenter’s Rocks. Dr Browne ran Silky Lincolns on Moorak for their wool as Merinos did not fare well on the damp South East pastures. About 2,000 acres was in wheat, about 2,500 acres was tenanted to other farmers and around 4,000 acres were in lucerne, clover, rye and other pasture grasses. William Browne returned to live in England in 1866 so his sons could attend Eton and military training colleges there. He made regular trips to SA about every second year to oversee his many pastoral properties here. When he died in 1894 he left 100,000 acres of freehold land in SA to his children who all resided here as well as leasehold land. He was an extremely wealthy man. Son Percival took control of Moorak. Before Percival’s death Moorak Estate was partly purchased by the SA government in 1904 for closer settlement when they acquired around 1,000 acres. After Percival’s death a further 6,300 acres was acquired for closer settlement and the remainder of the estate was sold to other farmers. The government paid between £10 and £31 per acre for the land. Percival Browne was highly respected in Mt Gambier and a reserve around the Blue Lake is named after him. The fourth of the crater lakes of Mt Gambier is also named Browne’s Lake after the family but it has been dry for decades. In 1900 Colonel Browne planted the ring of English Oaks around what was to become the oval of the Marist Brothers College.
Moorak.
There is a memorial by the station to William Browne as founder of the Coriadale Sheep Stud. The great Moorak woolshed was demolished in 1939. The Union church which opened in 1920 was used by the Methodists and the Anglicans. It is now a private residence. Moorak hall was opened in 1926. New classrooms were added to the Moorak School in 1928 and the first rooms opened in 1913. The cheese factory in Moorak opened in 1913 as a cooperative and was sold to Farmers Union in 1949. They closed the factory in 1979. Most of the cheese produced at Moorak went to the Melbourne market. The first cheese maker at Moorak was trained at Lauterbach’s cheese factory at Woodside. Moorak was one of a circle of settlements around Mt Gambier that had butter/cheese factories. These towns were: Kongorong; Glencoe East; Glencoe West; Suttontown; Glenburnie; Mil Lel; Yahl; OB Flat; Moorak; Mt Schank; and Eight Mile Creek.
Yahl.
In the 1860s this tiny settlement was a tobacco, hop and potato growing district and it persisted with potatoes up until recent times. Today Yahl is little more than a suburban village of Mt Gambier with a Primary school with approx 120 students. The old government school was erected in 1879. It had a Methodist church built in 1880 which operated as a church until 1977 and it had a large butter factory which had opened in 1888. The butter and cheese factory was taken over by the OB Flat cheese factory in 1939 and the two operated in conjunction with each other. The OB Flat cheese factory closed in 1950 and all production moved to Yahl. The factory finally closed in 1971. The township of Yahl also had a General Store and a Salvation Army Hall which was built in 1919.
Sink Holes: Umpherston Gardens and Cave Gardens.
James Umpherston purchased land near Mt Gambier in 1864 which included a large sink hole or collapsed cavern with a lake in the bottom. He was born in Scotland in 1812 and came to SA in the 1850s with his brother William. William purchased his first land at Yahl in 1859. James Umpherston was a civic minded chap being a local councilor, a parliamentarian in Adelaide for two years and President of the Mt Gambier Agricultural and Horticultural Society for 13 years. When he retired from civic life and farming in 1884 he decided to create a garden in his sinkhole. He beautified it and encouraged visitors and even provided a boat in the lake for boat rides. Access was gained by steps and a path carved into the sinkhole walls. However after he died in 1900 the garden was ignored, became overgrown and was largely forgotten in 1949 when the Woods and Forests Department obtained the land for a new sawmill at Mt Gambier. By then the lake had dried up as the water table had fallen over the decades. In 1976 staff, rather than the government, decided to restore the Umpherstone gardens. The cleared out the rubbish that had been dumped in the sinkhole, restored the path access, trimmed the ivy and replanted the hydrangeas and tree ferns. In 1994 the Woos and Forests Department handed over the land around the sinkhole to the City of Mt Gambier. It was added to the SA Heritage Register in 1995.
Part of the United Kingdom Set
Hey! here is a portrait(s) for a change. You might remember one of the girls from this other portrait. Still continuing shots from the London trip with the class. I can't remember the exact name of the place but its the church where they filmed the Hogwarts lunch room in Harry Potter. There was a gift shop and while a lot of the students bought stuff, most of them where wise and thought that a poster of a knight should not cost 35 pounds / 57 dollars.
Have a great monday!
Nathan
Optimistic girl that I am, I bought this Summer dress four months ago with the idea of being the Belle of Blackrock. We have the fire on tonight trying to dry clothes and keep warm so it's fair to say that it didn't quite work out as expected. Never one to be daunted, however, I'll buy a large bag of sand on Monday and pretend I had a lovely time at Bangor (as the song goes).
I woke up Saturday morning feeling optimistic. It was totally overcast, but there was no wind and no rain. Perfect weather for long exposure water shots! I grabbed my gear and headed out to one of my favorite spots, Catherine Furnace in the George Washington National Forest.
Only when I got there, I was shocked by what I found. The area all around the stream was torn up, bushes and trees removed, dirt and rocks misplaced, barriers everywhere. WTF?! Turns out the Forest Service has decided to replace the bridge that spans Roaring Run where it empties into Cub Run. So despite the ideal weather conditions and beautiful Spring foliage, my composition options were limited if I didn't want barriers to appear in my photos.
This is just another event in a long string of events that convinces me I have a photography curse. Last year, everyone I know that went to Shenandoah National Park saw a LOT of bears. Me? I saw two all year. I've been up to shoot the sunrise 6 or 7 times in the last few months and they've all been a bust. I can't find ducklings or goslings anywhere. My 5D broke. And now they've torn up one of my favorite photo spots! If that's not a curse, I don't know what is.
On a positive note, this is some of the best water flow I've ever seen at Cub Run, thanks to all the constant rain.
...hard work in a heat that would make most of us collapse within a few hours. Still there is room for a pure and warm smile!
Rice- farmers working after the sunset. Somewhere on the road west of Nong Khai, near the Mekong river, north-east Thailand 2008...
Large: View On Black
Copyright © Ioannis Lelakis.
All rights reserved.
Optimistically headboarded Peckett 0-4-0ST no 2111 'Lytham St Anne's' heads the last Midland Railway Centre vintage train service of the weekend away from Butterley.
Life can push me down
Life can wrinkle my skin
Life can shadow the sun
Life can simply pass me by
That will never break my spirit
I will stay optimistic
That just how it is
Life is what I live for
Went out for an optimistic look for butterflies this afternoon - always a chance of some relatively docile ones resting up on a dull, windy day. Sum total for roughly 1.5 hours was a green-veined white, yes one. When I look back at last year in a months time I would have been at Collard Hill looking for an early Large Blue.
Did notice a greater variety of flowering plant emerging - Bugle, Germander Speedwell and others the identity of which I have no idea. Did see a Trefoil looking close to flowering on Walton Hill - maybe some Common Blues soon?
I have no idea what this little fella is however I liked him being completely immersed in this Buttercup. Looks good on black.
I asked my best buddy if he liked to assist me as a model for my first photo shooting ever and surprisingly he agreed. That`s the result. I hope you like it.
Swans flag flying on the coathanger.
Image available for purchase from www.ballaratheritage.com.au
NHL citation
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Source: Go to the National Heritage List for more information.
Identifier: 105888
Location: Bradfield Hwy, Dawes Point - Milsons Point
Local
Government: North Sydney City
State: NSW
Country: Australia
Statement of
Significance: The building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was a major event in Australia's history, representing a pivotal step in the development of modern Sydney and one of Australia’s most important cities. The bridge is significant as a symbol of the aspirations of the nation, a focus for the optimistic forecast of a better future following the Great Depression. With the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia was felt to have truly joined the modern age, and the bridge was significant in fostering a sense of collective national pride in the achievement.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge was an important economic and industrial feat in Australia's history and is part of the nationally important story of the development of transport in Australia. The bridge is significant as the most costly engineering achievement in the history of modern Australia, and this was extraordinary feat given that it occurred at the severest point of the Great Depression in Australia.
The bridge is also significant for its aesthetic values. Since its opening in 1932, the Sydney Harbour Bridge has become a famous and enduring national icon, and remains Australia’s most identifiable symbol. In its harbour setting, it has been the subject for many of Australia’s foremost artists, and has inspired a rich and diverse range of images in a variety of mediums – paintings, etchings, drawings, linocuts, photographs, film, poems, posters, stained glass - from its construction phase through to the present.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is also significant as one of the world's greatest arch bridges. Although not the longest arch span in the world, its mass and load capacity are greater than other major arch bridges, and no other bridge in Australia compares with the Sydney Harbour Bridge in its technical significance. In comparing Sydney Harbour Bridge with overseas arch bridges, Engineers Australia has drawn attention to its complexity in combining length of span with width and load carrying capacity. The construction of Sydney Harbour Bridge combined available technology with natural advantages provided by the site. The designers took advantage of the sandstone base on which Sydney was built, which enabled them to tie back the support cables during construction of the arch, and to experiment with massive structures. Although designed more than 80 years ago, the bridge has still not reached its loading capacity.
The bridge is also significant for its important association with the work of John Job Crew Bradfield, principal design engineer for the New South Wales Public Works Department, who ranks as one of Australia's greatest civil, structural and transport engineers.
Description: The Sydney Harbour Bridge includes a steel arch spanning the harbour between Milson's Point on the north side and Dawes Point on the south side, and elevated approaches to the arch from both the north and south sides.
The total length of the bridge, including the approach spans, is 1149 metres. The arch is made up of two 28-panel arch trusses set in vertical planes, 30 metres apart centre to centre, and braced together laterally; it is 57 metres deep beside the pylons and 18 metres deep in the middle of the arch (Godden Mackay, 1992: ref no 0076). It is anchored by two bearings at each end, which take the weight of the bridge and allow for expansion and contraction of the steel. Under maximum load, the thrust is approximately 20,000 tonnes on each bearing (Australian Government, Culture and Recreation Portal).
The span of the arch is 503 metres and the top of the arch is 134 metres above mean sea level. The arch is founded on sandstone rock excavated to a depth of 12 metres and filled with mass concrete. A total of 39,000 tonnes of structural steel was used in the arch, over two-thirds of it silicon steel (Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, 2000). Two granite-faced concrete pylons, with a height of 89 metres above mean sea level, are located at each end of the arch (Australian Government, Culture and Recreation Portal).
A deck carrying road and rail traffic is suspended from the arch. Pairs of hangers, ranging in length from 7.3 metres to 58.8 metres, support cross-girders, each weighing 110 tonnes. The cross-girders support the concrete bridge deck (Nicholson, 2000: 26-27). The width of the deck is almost 49 metres and the clearance for shipping is also 49 metres. The deck currently caters for eight lanes of road traffic, two railway tracks, and two pedestrian footways.
The northern and southern approaches each contain five spans, constructed as pairs of parallel-chord, six-panel steel trusses. The spans are supported by pairs of concrete piers faced with granite (Nicholson, 2000: 10-11). The combined length of the approach spans is 646 metres.
Available at HypeForType: www.hypefortype.com/affair.html
Type designers are crazy people. Not crazy in the sense that they think we are Napoleon, but in the sense that the sky can be falling, wars tearing the world apart, disasters splitting the very ground we walk on, plagues circling continents to pick victims randomly, yet we will still perform our ever optimistic task of making some little spot of the world more appealing to the human eye. We ought to be proud of ourselves, I believe. Optimism is hard to come by these days. Regardless of our own personal reasons for doing what we do, the very thing we do is in itself an act of optimism and belief in the inherent beauty that exists within humanity.
As recently as ten years ago, I wouldn't have been able to choose the amazing obscure profession I now have, wouldn't have been able to be humbled by the history that falls into my hands and slides in front of my eyes every day, wouldn't have been able to live and work across previously impenetrable cultural lines as I do now, and wouldn't have been able to raise my glass of Malbeck wine to toast every type designer who was before me, is with me, and will be after me. As recently as ten years ago, I wouldn't have been able to mean these words as I wrote them: It’s a small world.
Yes, it is a small world, and a wonderfully complex one too. With so much information drowning our senses by the minute, it has become difficult to find clear meaning in almost anything. Something throughout the day is bound to make us feel even smaller in this small world. Most of us find comfort in a routine. Some of us find extended families. But in the end we are all Eleanor Rigbys, lonely on the inside and waiting for a miracle to come. If a miracle can make the world small, another one can perhaps give us meaning.
And sometimes a miracle happens for a split second, then gets buried until a crazy type designer finds it. I was on my honeymoon in New York City when I first stumbled upon the letters that eventually started this Affair. A simple, content tourist walking down the streets formerly unknown to me except through pop music and film references. Browsing the shops of the city that made Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, and a thousand other artists. Trying to chase away the tourist mentality, wondering what it would be like to actually live in the city of a billion tiny lights.
Tourists don't go to libraries in foreign cities. So I walked into one. Two hours later I wasn't in New York anymore. I wasn't anywhere substantial. I was the crazy type designer at the apex of insanity. La La Land, alphabet heaven, curves and twirls and loops and swashes, ribbons and bows and naked letters. I'm probably not the very first person on this planet to be seduced into starting an Affair while on his honeymoon, but it is something to tease my better half about once in a while.
To this day I can't decide if I actually found the worn book, or if the book itself called for me. Its spine was nothing special, sitting on a shelf, tightly flanked by similar spines on either side. Yet it was the only one I picked off that shelf. And I looked at only one page in it before walking to the photocopier and cheating it with an Argentine coin, since I didn't have the American quarter it wanted.
That was the beginning. I am now writing this after the Affair is over. And it was an Affair to remember, to pull a phrase. Right now, long after I have drawn and digitized and tested this alphabet, and long after I saw what some of this generation’s type designers saw in it, I have the luxury to speculate on what Affair really is, what made me begin and finish it, what cultural expressions it has, and so on. But in all honesty it wasn't like that. Much like in my Ministry Script experience, I was a driven man, a lover walking the ledge, an infatuated student following the instructions of his teacher while seeing her as a perfect angel. I am not exaggerating when I say that the letters themselves told me how to extend them. I was exploited by an alphabet, and it felt great.
Unlike my experience with Ministry Script, where the objective was to push the technology to its limits, this Affair felt like the most natural and casual sequence of processions in the world – my hand following the grid, the grid following what my hand had already done – a circle of creation contained in one square computer cell, then doing it all over again. By contrast, it was the lousiest feeling in the world when I finally reached the conclusion that the Affair was done. What would I do now? Would any commitment I make from now on constitute a betrayal of these past precious months? I'm largely over all that now, of course. I like to think I'm a better man now because of the experience.
Affair is an enormous, intricately calligraphic OpenType font based on a 9x9 photocopy of a page from a 1950s lettering book. In any calligraphic font, the global parameters for developing the characters are usually quite volatile and hard to pin down, but in this case it was particularly difficult because the photocopy was too gray and the letters were of different sizes, very intertwined and scan-impossible. So finishing the first few characters in order to establish the global rhythm was quite a long process, after which the work became a unique soothing, numbing routine by which I will always remember this Affair. The result of all the work, at least to the eyes of this crazy designer, is 1950s American lettering with a very Argentine wrapper. My Affair is infused with the spirit of filete, dulce de leche, yerba mate, and Carlos Gardel.
Upon finishing the font I was fortunate enough that a few of my colleagues, great type designers and probably much saner than I am, agreed to show me how they envision my Affair in action. The beauty they showed me makes me feel small and yearn for the world to be even smaller now – at least small enough so that my international colleagues and I can meet and exchange stories over a good parrilla. These people, whose kindness is very deserving of my gratitude, and whose beautiful art is very deserving of your appreciation, are in no particular order: Corey Holms, Mariano Lopez Hiriart, Xavier Dupré, Alejandro Ros, Rebecca Alaccari, Laura Meseguer, Neil Summerour, Eduardo Manso, and the Doma group. You can see how they envisioned using Affair in the section of this booklet entitled A Foreign Affair.
The rest of this booklet contains all the obligatory technical details that should come with a font this massive. I hope this Affair can bring you as much peace and satisfaction as it brought me, and I hope it can help your imagination soar like mine did when I was doing my duty for beauty.
I once wrote that one stranger leads to another. There is a portrait that is important to my project because it has led to a number of other portraits. However, it doesn’t appear in my stranger gallery. I photographed Jean-François Bélanger a few weeks after I first met him at the end of one of his concerts. I had heard him say he would play an acoustic concert with traditional Swedish instruments named nyckelharpas at the Redpath Museum. I offered to document it. He agreed that I shoot his performance as long as it was done very discreetly and only in available ambient light. The Redpath concert was special for its context. It was part of the Montréal Baroque Festival and set amongst the museum’s artefacts.
I met my stranger # 77, Meaghan, when I first visited the exhibition hall, where there is a standing dinosaur skeleton, to make sure there was enough light to make decent handheld camera photos. The day of the concert, I met Matthias, my stranger # 85. He is a composer and a co-director of the festival.
That day I learned Jean-François would be playing guitar in a quite different context at the Festival Mémoires et racines, in Joliette. I spent a day there in July. At the inn where my wife and I stayed the night before, we met Vern and Pat, visitors from California and my strangers # 92 and 93. On the Festival’s site, I met another J-F. Jean-François Berthiaume is a set caller and contemporary visual artist and my stranger # 94. I also met my stranger # 95 there, Malin, a singer from the Swedish vocal group named Kongero.
Malin told me Kongero would give a concert garage in Montreal the following week. I went to it and met Rossana, my stranger # 97. Rossana told me she gives workshops where she teaches “optimistic writing”. Recently, she sent me an e-mail letting me know that I could attend to one of her workshops in the course of the twentieth edition of “Les Journées de la culture”, a week-end of open door event and free of charge cultural activities.
So, off to the workshop I go. It was held in the exhibition room of l’Artothèque, a bank of art works for rental at affordable cost. There were two tables set-up. In total, there were seven participants. I was seated with three women. One of them was Ornella. I thought the workshop was going to be a bit directive. Things turned out different. Rossana made us listen to Louis Armstrong singing “What a wonderful world” and basically told us to think about something positive and write. So we all wrote and then read out our texts. It turned out everyone could write pretty well, admittedly, with different levels of positivism. There was only one other man but he had the craftiest, most poetic style.
This almost filled the scheduled time for the activity. I hadn’t had the opportunity to speak to my table mates at this point. Ornella was with a friend whom, I felt, seemed the most outgoing of the three women. I thought she would agree to be photographed. I was wrong. It’s OK, I respect refusals. I turned to Ornella who, as you can see, accepted to pose for my project.
As she and her friend had to leave because of another commitment, I got to know very little about either of them. She said she was born in Ukraine, her friend was from Congo. Ornella clearly had a strong sense of style. She had lovely round earrings made of colored beads and was wearing what looked like a hand knitted scarf also with colorful designs. I was very surprised to hear that it was actually a table centerpiece cloth that she had cleverly diverted from its original function. The earrings and the centerpiece cloth were from South Africa.
I wish I could tell you more. The ladies had no time left and ran away in a hurry.
Who knows, our paths may cross again…
J'ai déjà écrit qu’un inconnu mène à un autre. Il y a un portrait qui a été important pour mon projet parce qu'il a conduit à un certain nombre d'autres portraits. Cependant, vous ne le trouverez pas dans ma collection d’inconnus. J'ai photographié Jean-François Bélanger quelques semaines après l’avoir brièvement rencontré à la fin de l'un de ses concerts. Je l'avais entendu dire qu'il allait donner un concert acoustique avec des instruments traditionnels suédois nommés nyckelharpas au Musée Redpath. Je lui ai offert de documenter cet événement. Il a accepté que je couvre sa performance à la condition que ce soit fait très discrètement et seulement en lumière ambiante. Le concert au Redpath était particulier pour son contexte. Il faisait partie du Festival Montréal Baroque était joué au cœur de la collection du musée.
J'ai rencontré mon inconnue # 77, Meaghan, lors de ma première visite dans cette salle d'exposition où il y a un squelette de dinosaure debout. Je m’y étais rendu pour m’assurer qu'il y avait assez de lumière disponible pour faire des photos adéquates. Le jour du concert, j'ai rencontré Matthias, mon inconnu # 85. Il est un compositeur et est co-directeur du festival.
Ce jour-là, j'ai appris Jean-François jouerait de la guitare dans un contexte bien différent au Festival Mémoire et racines, à Joliette. J’ai donc passé une journée là-bas à la fin de juillet. À l'auberge où ma femme et moi avons passé la nuit précédente, nous avons rencontré Vern et Pat, des visiteurs venus la Californie et mes inconnus # 92 et 93. Sur le site du Festival, j'ai rencontré un autre J-F, Jean-François Berthiaume, qui est un calleur de set et un artiste visuel contemporain. C’est mon inconnu # 94. J'ai aussi rencontré là mon inconnue # 95, Malin, une des chanteuses du groupe vocal suédois nommé Kongero.
Malin m'a appris que Kongero donnerait un concert de garage à Montréal la semaine suivante. J’y suis allé et j’y ai rencontré Rossana mon inconnue # 97. Rossana donne des ateliers où elle enseigne «l’écriture optimiste». Récemment, elle m'a envoyé un e-mail me laissant savoir que, dans le cadre de la vingtième édition des «Journées de la culture », un week-end de portes ouvertes et d’activités culturelles accessibles, je pourrais participer à l'un de ses ateliers. Je me rends donc à cet atelier qui avait lieu dans la salle d'exposition de l'Artothèque, une banque d'œuvres d'art en location à un coût abordable.
Il y avait deux tables de préparées. Au total, il y avait sept participants. J'étais assis avec trois femmes. L'un d'elle était Ornella. Je pensais que l'atelier allait être plutôt encadré. Les choses se sont avérées différente. Rossana nous a fait écouter Louis Armstrong chantant «What a wonderful world » puis nous a dit de penser à quelque chose de positif et d’écrire. Nous avons alors tous écrit puis lu nos textes. Il est apparu que tout le monde pouvait écrire assez bien, avec, il est vrai, différents niveaux de positivisme. Il n'y avait qu'un autre homme, mais il avait l’écriture la plus fine, la plus poétique.
Cela a pratiquement rempli le temps prévu pour l'activité. Je n’avais pas eu l'occasion de parler à mes compagnes de table pour la peine à ce point. Ornella était avec une amie qui m’avait parue être la plus communicative des trois femmes. Je me disais qu'elle serait d'accord pour être photographié. J'avais tort. C’est OK, je respecte les refus.
Je me suis alors tourné vers Ornella qui, comme vous pouvez le voir, a accepté de poser pour mon projet. Comme elle et son amie devait quitter en raison d'un autre engagement, je n’ai pu apprendre que très peu de choses sur elles. Ornella m’a dit qu'elle et née en Ukraine, son amie est originaire du Congo. Ornella a clairement un bon sens du style. Elle avait de belles boucles d'oreilles rondes en petites billes multicolores et portait ce qui ressemblait à une écharpe tricotée main comportant aussi avec des motifs bien colorés. Je fus très surpris d'entendre qu'il s’agissait en fait un centre de table qu'elle avait habilement détourné de sa fonction d'origine! Les boucles d'oreilles et le tissu provenaient d'Afrique du Sud.
Je voudrais bien pouvoir vous en dire plus. Les deux dames étaient pressées et sont parties à la hâte.
Qui sait, nos chemins se croiseront peut-être de nouveau...
This photo is part of my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page