Sunshine Coast Daily Photo

Monday, 30 September 2013

Deserted

There is no doubt that business along the beach front is slow at times. It must be tough trying to make ends meet when the customers are all in other places.

But the summer holidays are just around the corner, and then hopefully the traders here will be begging for respite.

Coolum

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International Souvenirs

I am not sure what it is about the human condition that prompts us to buy things when we are on holidays, but we must, or the cards and umbrella and beach shoe sellers would go out of business.

No matter how localised the cards may be, the overall colours and presentation is the same in beaches the world over.

Coolum

Bonnets

Sunbonnets and sculpture on the footpath at Coolum.

After lunch, before closing time.

There are some that think cafe chairs do little to express the culture of the place, but even as they wait another day for customers there's something nice and relaxed about the slight misalignment of the tables, and the fact that they are not perfectly aligned.

In a restaurant this might be seen as sloppy, but this is a beach side cafe.

Climate Control

Balconies with large overhangs go without saying, so do hoods over windows, then when all else fails there is the air conditioning.

Air conditioning units on balcony faces don't last long though, the salt air puts paid to their working parts in just a few years. Is that what is meant by built in obsolescence?

Lost, Stolen or Strayed.

Two aluminium "O"s seem to have gone off on a holiday of their own.

Cool!

Coolum

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia
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More beachy timberwork.

There's something quite beachy about all these battens. These are actually under a clear roof so that the wet stuff doesn't get down as far as the shoppers.

Coolum

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One to watch

The window to the information centre is nicely shaded by the timber battens, and they look all trim and neat now in their new and freshly oiled state, but I think it will be interesting to watch this one over the years as it weathers, nicely at first to a silver-grey, but what then?

How long will it be before some public spirited person decides it needs painting?

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But what does it mean?

A nice piece of timber decoration on a public amenities block in Coolum, but what does it mean?

It could, for instance be evocative of pandanus leaves blown against it in a storm, or perhaps it is a copy of the Asian script tattooed on the artist's shin. Who cares?

Coolum
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The Huddle.

After spending an extended time in Europe each year, one of the "oh so Australian" things that we notice on our return is the "huddle".

Instead of lying for endless hours near naked in the sunlight, we huddle in whatever shade we can find to keep out of it's lethal rays!

Coolum

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Shade

With winter temperatures actually hitting the thirties of late, picnic shelters get a workout all year round!

Coolum

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Pandanus, balustrade.

Should I have included more in this photo I wonder, or is it simply good enough to say that out there in the background, there is a beach?

Coolum
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Gum?

Actually it's a piece of fungus, growing with the lichen in what I thought was a very unlikely spot, on a dry tree trunk in a dry beach side suburb.

And then I spotted the garden watering system. I thought they had been abolished in the last drought, but apparently not, so the colour abounds where one least expects it!

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Voyeur

In Coolum, a bloke can't even have a quiet shower by the beach without those pesky turtles taking a peek.

Coolum.

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Fishing

There's an expression to explain a day when no fish are being caught, it is something like:
"The only bites they got were mosquito bites."

Today, there weren't even any mosquitos.

Coolum.

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Postcard from Coolum

The view north in the afternoon breeze.

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Empty seed pods.

With their crop of seed spread to the wind these casuarina seed pods are ready to drop onto the ground.

They look harmless enough, and they are, unless they come into contact with the soft part of a bare foot!

Even then the damage is never long lasting, no cuts or stings, just discomfort until one moves off them. Perhaps they are the single reason for the rubber thong becoming synonymous with the beach.

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Sheoaks

The Casuarina is perhaps better known as the sheoak, I don't know why, but I do know that the coast wouldn't be the coast without the sound of the breeze whooshing or whispering through them depending on their mood, or the carpet of soft brown mulch beneath the canopy.

But there are bombs lurking in that mulch in the form of the seed pods, which are small, half to three quarters of an inch in diameter, and quite sharpish under bare feet.

Anywhere on the coast!

Beach Retail - Coolum

If you give them a bucket they will build it.

If they build it, more will come.

Self-fulfilling retailing!

Sneaking a smoke.

It's probably not usual for a major regional shopping centre to be built over a waterway, but Sunshine Plaza is, and the green windows are the reflections of trees opposite.

Note to file. If one is going to sneak out to have a smoke, one should hide behind something more solid than a metal balustrade.
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Sales of beige

Looking up at Sunshine Plaza, the colours aren't anywhere near as interesting as one might imagine them to be, but then for some of us neither is shopping it must be said. They do provide a pleasant enough backdrop for the business for which the centre is intended.

There is always a sale happening somewhere under the sails.

Passed the medical!

Does adding the word "healthy" to a product description make it more worthy somehow?

What is the procedure for determining the health of a burger in any case?

I giggled when I saw this sign, imagining the conversation in the doctor's office.

"Hi Miss Burger, do you mind if I call you Patty?"

Sign Art and Vandalism

Another photograph where I was questioned as to my motives! An unidentified stranger approached and told me I couldn't photograph this sign as it was someone's "intellectual property".

I happily explained that I was exploring the juxtaposition of the vandalism and the shop sign, and noted that it was quite difficult to determine what the motives of the "artist" may have been, or even if it was intended as a part of the sign. He wandered off shaking his head.

So if you feel your intellectual property has been trespassed by the publication of this photo, please let me know how and I'll blank out the bits that offend.

Maroochydore

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Why I live where I live - Six of Six

It's an interesting question - why do you live where you live?

We only live at "home" for half the year, but perhaps the images we chose to illustrate our home on our "calling cards" best explain the reason we keep returning.

The six images in this series are cropped to the proportion of the cards.

Hopefully no further explanation is necessary.

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Why I live where I live - Five of Six

Why I live where I live - Four of Six

Why I live where I live - Three of Six

Why I live where I live - Two of Six

Why I live where I live - 1 of 6

It's an interesting question - why do you live where you live?

We only live at "home" for half the year, but perhaps the images we chose to illustrate our home on our "calling cards" best explain the reason we keep returning.

The six images in this series are cropped to the proportion of the cards.

Hopefully no further explanation is necessary.

Pink

Well maybe the top is orange more than pink, and certainly the tans are too deep to be described as pink, but there's a theme day at City Daily Photo, and I thought I'd try to stretch my colour blindness to see if I could take part!

For more "Pink" interpretations don't forget to visit the theme day links page!