Autumn Shadows

The clocks changed in England last night and it reminded me about how subtle the change in season is here. Queensland doesn't have daylight saving and if you are used to big seasonal changes you might not even notice the difference between summer and autumn. Generally here in the autumn months the nights get a little bit chilly so that you might need a blanket. The sun is supposed to shine a bit more than the cloudy, wet summer and the overall humidity of the past couple of months lifts. Good news for shadow shots! This one was taken in the local school playground. I like the defined leaves and the "bokeh" leaf shadows too!

Yesterday's Birthday Lunch at Pearl Cafe (and Animal theme day!)

My thanks to Joanna. I had completely forgotten about the theme day but she pointed out in the comments that as today's City Daily Photo theme day is "Animal" I could still enter! (apologies to my vegetarian readers)

Being that a friend and I share the same birthday, we felt like we should make a bit of an effort so we trotted off with a few of our frocked-up mates to the Pearl Cafe in Wooloongabba. I had the ploughman's lunch because I am a bit sentimental it reminded me of home.... except it was much fancier than any ploughman's lunch I've ever had in England. There was smoked Wagyu, leg ham, homemade pickles, pommery mustard, cornichons, sourdough, French butter, mature cheddar and a mouthwatering dark brown pickled onion which I think was preserved in balsamic vinegar and a watercress salad. It was glorious.

It probably should have been washed down with a mug of real ale if I was being a purist. I plumped for several glasses of ice cold sparkling wine instead. You need it in this heat, really.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants and hopefully to see pictures of animals more alive than this one.

Salad Days

Bloody Marys all round! With plenty of Worcester and Tabasco. And Vodka.

Delicate Bokeh

Twas the night before the night before the night before Christmas last night so that's more than enough reason for me to have a glass or two of vino, right? Besides which, I needed something in the foreground of the shot, didn't I? Yesterday I learned a bit about putting some bokeh in your photos (say "bouquet") which is when you get the lights all out of focus like this. This was using the lights on the Christmas tree.

Fig.1

When you live in Brisbane you see big Moreton Bay fig trees all over the place but the tiny fruit they produce is loved and eaten mostly by birds and fruit bats. I've never seen proper figs growing so I don't know for sure but it looks pretty figgy to me.