Best of 2020

We took the ferry on the Noosa River, from Tewantin to Noosa Heads, had brunch at Bistro C, and wandered along the boardwalk and Hastings Street. The beach was busy! Saturday challenge - New Year's resolution. The ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to make New Year’s resolutions, some 4,000 years ago. They were also the first to hold recorded celebrations in honor of the new year—though for them the year began not in January but in mid-March, when the crops were planted. During a massive 12-day religious festival known as Akitu, the Babylonians crowned a new king or reaffirmed their loyalty to the reigning king. They also made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. These promises could be considered the forerunners of our New Year’s resolutions. If the Babylonians kept to their word, their (pagan) gods would bestow favor on them for the coming year. If not, they would fall out of the gods’ favor—a place no one wanted to be. A similar practice occurred in ancient Rome, after the reform-minded emperor Julius Caesar tinkered with the calendar and established January 1 as the beginning of the new year circa 46 B.C. Named for Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches, January had special significance for the Romans. Believing that Janus symbolically looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future, the Romans offered sacrifices to the deity and made promises of good conduct for the coming year. www.history.com/news/the-history-of-new-years-resolutions

Noosa, Queensland

Seem to be drawn to still life

Eumundi, Queensland

Queensland. A close choice between a Pelican and a Duck. Also have a heart of Bromeliad, quite a good sunrise, not to mention a few river shots. So much for trying to take less photos. The sunrise won :-)

Hand made, from the Soap Bar, too good to use :-)

Brilliant street artwork in Eumundi, Queensland, by John Murray 2019

A selection from our collection, on a tea towel from New Zealand. Saturday challenge - Dishes and dinnerware

Friday night. We had sundowners in the Sunset Bar, overlooking the Noosa River

We arrived in Australia on 26 January 1988, so for us this is always a special day, every year. Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, it marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales, and the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip.

Hibiscus in our garden, Queensland

In Eumundi, Queensland, where we celebrated Ian's Birthday, after drinks in his favourite pub :-) See photo in PiP Sunday challenge.. A guilty pleasure. eating out, not really guilty about it, but conscious of extravagance.

Noosa River, Queensland Contre jour... the technique of taking photographs into the light, with the light source behind the subject, from French, literally: against day(light).

Dora the Explorer, investigating the new flower arrangement.

At South Bank. Popular waterfront area with many cafes, bars and restaurants, beside the Yarra River.

Saturday challenge - Dramatic photography The world's first cable tram system commenced operation in San Francisco in 1873. This invention, and the progress of the San Francisco system, had been closely watched by an American transport entrepreneur and Melbourne businessman, Francis Boardman Clapp. Clapp set up the Melbourne Omnibus Company with William McCulloch and Henry Hoyt, bringing organised street public transport to Melbourne. In 1877, Clapp bought the Victorian patents of Andrew Hallidie's inventions and changed the name of his company to the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company. Melbourne's first electric tram began operation on 14 October 1889

We hopped off our cruise on the Cunard MS Queen Elizabeth, and took the ferry from Circular Quay to Barangaroo.

At Ballina, on our recent trip to New South Wales. Richmond River, principal river of the North Coast district, New South Wales, Australia, rising on Mt. Lindesay, in the McPherson Range, and flowing southeast through Casino and Coraki, at which point it is joined by the Wilson River. The river then turns northeastward, entering the Pacific Ocean at Ballina, 360 mi (580 km) north of Sydney. With a total length of 163 mi, it is navigable as far upstream as Casino. Henry Rous, a British naval officer, was the Richmond’s first European explorer (1828). The river crosses a district first settled by lumbermen and pastoralists in the 1840s. The area, also drained by the Clarence and Tweed rivers, yields sugarcane, bananas, dairy products, corn (maize), millet, and timber. britannica.com