Paintings...by us!

So I think I've told some of the folks out there that Cam & I were searching to put some things on our white walls. I was at the dollar store & did some quick mathematical calculations to realize that if we created our own wall art, we would spend way less than if we found/printed/framed stuff. With a carpet as my inspiration, I sketched out 4 designs & started on the following painting. (So this first one was done by me.) Each painting was to have one of the 5 colors as dominant. This one was brown:


Then Cam was bored as I was sketching, so he sketched & then painted another one of the designs. His dominant color turned out to be orange:


We finished the above in about a couple of weeks. Then I got a bit burnt out with the third one, but I was able to finish it with Cam's help. Thus this last one was a team effort and dominated by the color blue:

Hope you like the wall art!

Murray Bridge & Historical Conference

We headed to Murray Bridge, where State History Conference was happening. Its a river town about 1.5 hrs away from the city. I picked Cam up from a train station on Friday afternoon & we were in Murray Bridge in time for the opening reception. Overall it was a good conference, but I am not closer to getting/finding a job.

We took a tour along the river including railroad related buildings and a boat ride on a restored paddle riverboat. It was The Marion, appropriate that we should ride that boat because we lived about 4 houses away from Marion Road in the City of Marion. Here we are on the deck, just in front of the wood-fired engine.

Most of these shots are from the waterfront area. Here's Cam near a crane just next to the dock. There was a flour mill that is slated for becoming a shopping center just behind me when I took this shot.

From the deck of our boat, we saw another crane and some rail cars on spurs that connected with a main line running between Broken Hill and Port Adelaide, I think.

Finally, after the conference was over, we went upriver to see the Randell dry dock. Some folks from Flinders University had done some excavations that we heard about at the conference & although I saw pictures, I thought it would be nice to see it for myself. This dock was created as a floating dock to service riverboat vessels on the Murray. At some point, it was wedged into the shoreline at the town of Mannum. There are preservation issues with the dock due to the drastic decrease in river water.

Around A-Town

Cam & I have had a bit of time around Adelaide and snapped some shots at the Botanical Gardens and also Port Adelaide. Here's a shot of us over a small channeled creek right next to where we saw a kookaburra hanging on a bench, then in a tree.


The primary building in the gardens is this glass house, shaped more like a sail than a typical house. In front, there is a glass wave statue in the center of a fountain. I'm looking through its center.

I think the coolest part was a HUGE pond with super-sized lily pads floating on top. These pads were wicked spiky and I got a fantastic close up shot.

We also went to Port Adelaide as well, just up the road, with Gabriella. There were storage buildings for all the wool coming in from the countryside. Here's a shot with me next to one of the bail compactors. The building has been used right now as a storage facility & this bail compactor remains in the same place it has for 100+ years.


A shot of the port itself shows a boat and some silos...ahh, silos.

Weekend in Melbourne!

Things have been really crazy lately, including a weekend trip to the fair city of Melbourne! I've never been there & Cam hasn't been there for a decade or so, which made it quite fun.


We got to hang out with Cam's brothers including Ted, who currently is living in Shanghai. This is a shot of them in front of the wicked cool train station with some Krispy Kreme donuts & coffee.

We were in Melbourne over a short weekend (flew out Sat AM on a delayed flight and then left very early Monday AM). The city has 2 parts on either side of the river. In this view looking at dusk, the buildings on the left are only about 50 or so years old and Tony, Cam's dad, can remember all of that being completely flat.

We met up with his brothers, Yalda, his parents, and a bunch of cousins on Tony's side. Here's a shot of all the cousins, brothers, and parents. Some of you may recognize Cam'a parents on the right sides of the couch, Nick (on floor in front), Cam & I (far right), Toby & Yalda (next to us), and Ted (back, 3rd from left). We had a very tasty brunch at an Aunt's place before a football game between Melbourne & Sydney. Melbourne kicked butt (on the football field & just in general)!

FLASHBACK: Final Days in New Zealand!

Cam & I left New Zealand in the middle of April & were sort of tired of traveling at that point. But here is an excerpt of our final few days...

We went to a town that was the home of a famous shearer who is in the Shearer Hall of Fame. This statue was really great and since we were about ready to leave the land of sheep, we snapped a picture.

We went to this botanic garden in Hamilton, but we did & in the greenhouse I saw this plant & thought of hair.

Grow it
Show it
Long as I can grow it
My hair!

This will be the final post about New Zealand and our adventures on the North island. I hope you've enjoyed the other postings & will have to settle for our trips around Australia for the foreseeable future. Check out this car we saw: Elizabeth Norris Hartnell 6 (June) 14!!!

I couldn't believe it, seemed like such an amazing thing to see on our honeymoon: my name & birthday on the back of a Honda Civic.



We traveled around and found this crazy configuration of a railroad. The diagram in the foreground illustrates all the twists, curves, and tunnels needed to climb from this town to the next one. I've added arrows to help you see what is illustrated. We even got to see a train travel through it. Wicked!

The final shot of our trip is appropriately an airplane. With both the Quantas and Air New Zealand, its pretty clear where we were & where we were leaving.



An amazing holiday & can't wait till we return!

FLASHBACK: Tongariro Naitonal Park, New Zealand

Cam & I spent a couple of days in a place called Tongariro National park. It was absolutely a beautiful day, hardly a cloud in the sky as you can see from the photos.

One of the best parts was driving around the entire park and seeing the two mountains from different views. Snow capped the tippy top, not too much because it had already melted.


We drove up to where there were a few ski lodges and a ski lift for folks who visit when more snow is on the ground. Cam loved this chair & so I snapped a shot of him relaxing.


SPOTO: can you find Cameron in this shot? Breathtaking landscape throughout Tongariro National Park. The black and white really captivates all the subtle changes in the miles between us and the mountain.


Sweet time at a huge national park with two large mountains in the middle of it. Cam wanted to hike to the summit of one, but we realized that it was a much larger task than either of us anticipated. You know you'll be in over your head when you are the only 2 people traveling into the park at 3 and everyone else is traveling out.


We calmed our tired bodies by sitting in a hot tub at our hotel. It was very relaxing finish to our stay at the park.