Suprise

Yesterday morning we slept in. I was sure I'd heard it raining all night so was very pleasantly suprised when I raised the blinds to see that it was white outside. I'm glad the weatherman didn't predict it. It was like a little gift from God now I think about it. I jumped about excitedly like a silly idiot. Today it is raining again.

I love the woods

Yesterday we walked through the woods on the way to Deep Cove. We sat in Honies Cafe with a coffee and a fresh, fat, doughy on the inside and crispy, crunchy, honey outside doughnut. I drew, Josh read.

Penguin Plunge

On this first day of the new year we thought it would be good to join local history books by participating in the annual Penguin Plunge at Deep Cove.

To set the scene: Let me remind southern hemisphere readers it is Winter here. The last few days have been sunny, but averaging about -1 degrees celcius. Today you could have been excused for thinking there was snow on the ground.

This photo is not particularly pertiment to the story except that I wanted to point out how much I like secret tunnels leading towards light like this. We did walk through here this morning.

The fountain was frozen.

Everything was covered in a thin layer of ice.

There was even ice on the top of the water we swam in. One of Seth's crazy (I've got a mix of admiration and something else I can't find the word for...) 15 year old female friends not only plunged but swam out to a nearby plontoon. She came back with bleeding hands having had to crack through sheets of ice in order to reach her destination. Thank goodness for a large communal bonfire.

A band to play some merry jigs. There was a great old fashioned village feel to it all.

A picturesque setting.

At 1.30 there was a costume parade: here are 2 penguins, baby penguin can't be seen.

A green dinosaur man...

One of a pair of guys dressed up as presents. Yes he has those flouncy things on his nipples. And yes they wore this in the water.

How cute is the little kid in the fluffy costume?
A photographer doing his thing.

Lining up by the water at 2. It was packed.

After a count down people galloped into the water enthusiastically, and did not last long before racing out again with a sense of urgency into a crowd of yet-to-plunge participants and dry onlookers. People pushing in all directions. Lips turning purple. Steam rising from a pack of wiggling sardines. Mayhem.

The thing that hurt the most were my toes. I had thongs (of the footwear kind, I think they might be called flip-flops here) but my toes felt like stiff, frozen, fish fingers and I couldn't bend them to get my shoes on. Some dry clothes and we warmed up quickly. Seth was seriously shivering and I was worried he might have hypothermia. He was one of the first in the water and I think he had trouble getting back out through semi-hysteric crowds. I kept thinking about Bear Grylls stripping off (seems to happen every episode) after one of his routine swims in much too cold water but there were a few too many people around to convince Seth that was a good idea. Thankfully, we all made it back with 5 toes on each foot. Thankyou Deep Cove people for a great adventure and a badge to prove it.

Slices

The Varty's Street





This suburb is called Deep Cove and is right at the base of snow capped mountains, not far from the harbour(cove I guess). Alongside the usual suburban characters there are delightful excesses of moss, red berries and squirrels. Deep Cove is also (in)famous for it's honey doughnuts. The greyness makes the red berries and green moss all the richer and I can't help but think of the 'bad colour' from M. Night Shyamalan's the Village. Jeremy also told us J-Lo has a house here so I'm hoping to bump into her.







We've spent a few days this week riding into town with Teresa and exploring the city on foot. We've done Main St, Broadway, Commercial & Hastings and various back streets together. Josh has done more on his own.

Ranunculus

I visited Bondi in Sydney for work recently - quite a treat, and bought these flowers back on the plane - just because I could (we just don't get flowers like they do down south up here in the tropics). Here they are wilted but still eerily beautiful don't you think? (I love the morning light so I suppose these could go in my light series).

I haven't spent much time in Sydney and could tell straight away that it is very different to Brisbane. Equally beautiful, but different. I left a sunny, warm Brisbane and arrived in a cool, cloudy Sydney where everyone was wearing boots and jumpers. I especially loved and wish I had taken more pictures of all the bagel shops, Jewish men in their traditional hats, and the inside of all the taxsis I drove in - it's cute the way they personalise their 'workspace'. Here is some interesting comissioned street art down by Bondi Beach and I can't believe noone ever told me about double-decker trains in Sydney - I was so excited when I went to hop on and realised.