Transformation

I've kind of lost touch with what photography can mean to me in the last few years...only on days like this rare holiday Monday do I feel that little spark of joy that it can bring to me.  It only takes a bunch of my favourite blooms to get me to pick up my camera attached to my favourite lens and get to work.  During the process of taking these images and dropping the camera when I'm called on (multiple times) then picking up from where I was interrupted, I watched each time I came back to discover that the unbloomed buds have started to open then to when they eventually break free...it brings so much amazement and joy to me...even though it's nothing new to me, I've seen it all happen before but it still gives me that sense of wonderment.

The Poppy transformation, I tend to compare it to, The Ugly Duckling or even the Caterpillar to Butterfly process. Whenever I see them "A Beautiful Mess" comes to mind every time. This subject I've blogged seven years ago when my life was a whole lot different than it is today...at the time I had a primary school child and one just embarking on high school. Today, they have both graduated from high school and my time for my camera is almost non existent...transformation of our family has happened too.

A B E A U T I F U L M E S S

It begins with a bud...

...that ends in something beautiful...

I started the day with seven and finished the day with nine blooms

If capturing images never appealed to you...you should never say never...it only takes one good image (that captures your attention) to get you hooked.  Great as our minds are...we will always appreciate being able to look back at our images, they can take us back to that moment in time when they were captured...these images will forever give me the feeling I had today as I took them.

One Year and a Bit On

HOW

do you delete her from your phone

do you miss someone who isn't gone in your heart

do you grieve for someone who left you in the blink of an eye

do you not see her waiting for you at her happiest place as you drive past

do you cry for someone you were seeing that day but instead know you cannot anymore...EVER!!

?

Tears you want to shed that just won't shed

Words that were left unsaid that won't ever be said

"I may not have shown how much I love you but it's literally more than I could put down in words...it is infinite! "

They always say we need to express our love when it still matters, that is so true...but mum was the silent type when it comes to expressing her love, it would be in things and the lengths she would go to do things for us but not so much in words, hugs and kisses so that kind of defined our relationship. She had nine children so she needed a lot of love to go round...but I know her love for us all was INFINITE!

I miss YOU!

♡

Eighteen Heartstrings

An invisible tether connected us from the day you were born. From your first few shuffles of a crawl on your chubby fours to your first unsteady steps towards me, it started to gradually grow longer and stronger. At times I would lengthen it and let you take the lead but most of the time I would shorten it a little and lead your way.

Today, the tether has faded somewhat and lengthened quite a ways but it is still as strong as it was on day one.  It's now time, with mixed feelings I start to learn to loosen it but it will not be without any hesitation, worry or anxiousness but I can say it will be combined with lots of happiness and pride to see you morph into a fine well mannered determined young man.

PLEASE WATCH CHRISTOPHER ROBIN WITH ME???!!

Time has flown, I always wondered how to slow it down, only to find that it seemed to speed up as each year passed. And here we are at the end of our journey together, with me in the lead. Your journey now will be yours to shape and plan. Wishing the roads you choose to go down are more smooth than bumpy but sometimes bumpy can be fun too so make the most of them.

Thank you for sharing and giving me these simple happy 18 years with you! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my boy!!!  

I wish you the all the happiness in the world!!!

Remember I will always be on the other end of that tether, maybe a little further than before...all you need to do is turn around... I will be there!

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Christmas 2015

And here we are at the time of the year when family, love & friends all get rolled up into one big happy (or disastrous for some) day of feasting, laughing, being silly and over indulging in all things.  Twenty fifteen certainly had a lot of challenges for me and I could probably sum it up in two words...OVER IT... I can say I've never really had a year where I thought it was a disaster but this year topped it.  Bring on twenty sixteen!!!

With the passing of my dad in mid January my year was never going to be a great one...looking up at the sky that night the stars seemed to have multiplied and filled up the night sky...he was now one of them watching over us, a child's ideology yes, but seemed so fitting at a time of grief...

It was also one nutter of a year with international issues at the back of everyone's minds and the humans of the world showing their bit of humanity in little ways to show support for each other, the terrorist attack in Paris on Friday 13th November, was one poignant reminder of how precious and delicate each one of us are, how easily one could just cease to exist in a split second because of the actions of another....Sydney showed it's small bit of support by colouring the Opera House and the cathedral in the French flag colours...

Onto something a little less melodramatic...the annual St Mary's Cathedral Light Show was a beautiful delight like all it's predecessors...to be honest I've been on a downer and never really wanted to go  but the husband suggested to go and I went along with it but usually in these cases once I get there I'm the one enjoying it most and taking load of pics, which I did.  So here is the result, the show that you shouldn't miss if you are in the area during the leadup to Christmas, but if you missed going this year here it is...Enjoy!

St Mary's Cathedral Light Show 2015 from Jessica Sue on Vimeo.

Whether your year was a great one or not so great one, tomorrow you can party the year away then recover for the next few days after that. When the clock turns over the midnight gong on the 31st the slate will be wiped clean and we can start it all over again and hopefully 2016 will bring everyone joy, good health and love but most of PEACE and definitely no war!!!!

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Watsons Bay Walk

If you enjoy a hike but really don't want to work up a sweat doing it then I highly recommend this walk, only 2.8km long, the easiest hike you could do to get the best views in town. To avoid crowds it's definitely worth going on a weekday in the morning to avoid the heat, if you have to go on a weekend then do a morning walk may help avoid the crowds but no guarantee since it is one of the top tourists spots and very popular with the locals too.

Entering via Cliff Street we pass Watson's Bay and Camp Cove...passing glorious views the beaches, city skyline and South Head harbour, also by passing Lady Bay Beach (no photos please) along the way...

Cannon facing our city skyline...protecting our harbour in war days

Beautiful views of the city skyline

...lots of seaplanes passed overhead, flying tourists to their lunches on the north shore I assume...

Hornby Lighthouse Cottage

As always the harbour is a hive of activity with pleasure boats

and ferries taking passengers between the city to places north of the city

One of the prettier and well kept lighthouses...

Hornby Lighthouse built in 1858

One of the many bunkers in the area

Pidgeons eager to get away from the mad photogs

It was a nice Spring walk with spectacular views.

•   •   •

Spring Twenty Fifteen

Spring is...

the season after winter and before summer

in which vegetation begins to appear

in the northern hemisphere from March to May and 

in the southern hemisphere from September to November...

...and is an explosion of colours all round us, from pastel hues to strong contrast purples and reds.

Someone who's very happy Spring has come round

Every Spring we look forward to the tulips festival "The Floriade" held in Canberra and it didn't disappoint...tulips of all shades and shapes were blooming at their best when we visited accompanied by a few other florals but the tulips were definitely the star...by the end of my visit I had seen enough tulips to last me till next year or beyond.

The Floriade without the ferris wheel wouldn't be The Floriade

From pastels to burgundy... 

And as always I always love to process some to outside of it's natural state...

...to end Spring with some abstracts that I just love...

...hope you are unlike me and can breeze through Spring without a sneeze or itchy eye.

•   •   •

Bridge Walk with my No. 2

22nd September 2015

Harbour Bridge view from Kirribilli.

Okay so the Spring term break is upon us once again, I hadn't even gotten back into the routine of the kids being back to school after their Winter break and here we are, the holiday cycle is in motion again.

This holiday No. 2 asked if we could walk across the bridge this holidays and I was more than happy to oblige {more photo ops for moi}, as long as we did the flat one and not the arched one.  The weather is always a little unforgiving when it comes to holidays especially the two mid year breaks, we got lucky this time, we went the first Monday and the weather turned on a great show for us {the rest of the week was a little wet, cold and windy...to say the least}.  This was my second time on the bridge walk it's easy enough, we went at a slow {and constantly stopping for pics} pace taking twenty minutes to the reach the suburb of Kirribilli on the other side.  Easy enough for us to think "oh maybe we can walk the return trip as well"... but we chose the other scenic mode of transport, the ferry ... which took all of five minutes to cross the harbour.

So this is the arched way of walking across the bridge.

No. 2 enjoying the view from up high

The scenic route via the harbour ferry

Lots of activity happening on the harbour with
Fort Denison in the background

Food is the first thing in our minds when we stepped of the north side of the bridge... it was closing in on lunch time, we walked around the two streets bordering the Milsons Point train station {which was also one of our options for getting back to the other side}...we settled into a quaint little place set back in a quiet street called "Cool Mac", a Japanese fusion cafe, quickly being asked by the owner "oh so where are you from?"...a common question that gets asked of us Aussie Chinese in which we reply with a quick "oh we're just {boringly} from Sydney".  The food was a fusion of Japanese sauces and dressings with your normal cafe food, no. 2 went with mushroom "oh I love mushrooms" on sour dough and I went with a light Chicken and Salad...happily watered down with no.2's vanilla malt shake and my skim latte.

Mushroom with poached egg on Sour Dough and Chicken Salad
BTW if I could I would've taken this table home with me.

Can't do without one of these most days

I may have said this before but I really do think Sydney Harbour is one of the most beautiful harbours in the world...it is easy to forget but when you get a chance to get out there and enjoy it on a beautiful sunny day...it is a sight to behold when you are looking over the emerald seas from above...it is really quite the gem.

Unsure of what to do when we got off the ferry and not really wanting to end the day we walked over to the big sails of the Opera House and sat on the front steps enjoying her Choc Mint and my Burnt Caramel ice creams from Gelatissimo...giggling at all the tourists with their selfie sticks and checking out the locals like us out with their holidaying children.

With the Botanical Gardens near by we decided to walk through it and catch the bus on the other side of it home...being in the midst of Spring fever there was obviously an ulterior motive on my part to choose this route home...and I wasn't disappointed...

Honey bees are always in abundance when the sweet lavenders are blooming

Poppies never fail to make me smile everytime they bloom...
just love their random pops of colour

No idea what this bloom is but have never seen one before, they seem to have weeds
growing out of the middle of the flower itself

This one of growing out through the iron fence

It's nice to get out with my no. 2, haven't done this in a long while and we both enjoyed it.  As they both grow older it gets harder and harder to find things that they are interested in doing with you...as you noticed it was only no. 2 in this post so you probably guessed my no. 1 is definitely no longer finding this something he would like to do with me anymore...much to my disappointment but we have to accept the changes that happen along the way and to cherish and treasure the little moments that were shared before the changes happened.

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