Thai Seasons

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

What is it with Thai Restaurants and their propensity for witty names? It was only that we were eating at the marvellously simple Thai Seasons in Mooloolaba while the Australian Open Tennis Tournament was on, that I realised it's former moniker, "Thai Breaker" was not about the beach and the waves after all.

Then of course there's the Hard Wok Cafes, the Wok on Inn, the Bangkok Milton, and a seemingly endless round of Thai puns.

If it wasn't for the food, well we just wouldn't go!

Mooloolaba

Eumundi Surfboard

Was once a hall of some description, now a house.

With a surfboard for decoration.

Eumundi

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Eumundi House

Just a house. Harking back to times gone by, but the clear timber is a giveaway. No self respecting old-timer would have left timber exposed to the elements like that.

There is a curious conflict among some of the house "restoration" crowd which involves stripping off the history which is documented in the layers of paint and render, to expose the materials in their raw state. But the builders knew better originally, and always protected the materials with thick paint.

Once again I digress, timber houses on stumps with metal roofs are our vernacular form of residential architecture, or were, until the concrete slab came along in the nineties.

Eumundi

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Happy Commercialisation!

I know they meant well, but wishing someone a "Happy ANZAC Day" is not cool.

It's a sad fact of life I suppose that the intent a somewhat solemn day of reflection and remembrance should be lost in a sea of smiley faces, and a 15% surcharge.

Noosa Heads

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

ANZAC Day Skywatch

ANZAC Day, tomorrow, is probably Australia's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day.

Australians and New Zealanders recognise 25 April as an occasion of national commemoration. Commemorative services are held at dawn – the time of the original landing – across the nation. Later in the day, ex-servicemen and women meet and join in marches through the major cities and many smaller centres. Commemorative ceremonies are held at war memorials around the country. It is a day when we reflect on the many different meanings of war.

More information may be found at the Australian War Memorial website here.

This photograph was taken almost a year ago, outside the Maleny RSL - The Returned Servicemen's League.

The vibrant sky and the blazing red of the hibiscus in flower needs little further comment.

Don't forget, there links to lots more Skywatch images from around the world on the Skywatch Portal!

Maleny.

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Southerners

It's getting cooler. The southerners are arriving.

Round here almost all our estuarine fish species are bottom feeding, so typically fishing lines are rigged with small lead sinkers to ensure that the bait stays down where the fish are likely to see it. When the tourists arrive from the south, it's easy to spot them. They're the ones fishing with the floats.

Mooloolaba

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Not Here

Oh no, you'd never find graffiti this clever on the Coast! There's a bloke who paints it all out with mission brown anyway, so the cure is actually worse than the disease.

This picture is interesting (to me) as it is actually a single unretouched photograph, yet could be something of a modern diptych! The three colours are actually in three different planes. The white line is a verandah post, it all looked quite arty really, in no way due to the original "artists" work I have to say.

Sawtell, NSW

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

It's football season again, but of course we call "Football" soccer, and we call Rugby League, Rugby Union and Australian Rules "football". To make things even more confusing, a lot of Soccer leagues play fixtures in summer to stay in sync with the Northern Hemisphere.

I have no idea whether this goal is in use or not, but I thought it made a nice photo anyway, and we've had lots of rain so the grass is uncharacteristically lush.

Kawana


Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

The last Frangipani

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

The Plumeria or Frangipani as it is known is a native of southern India, Venezuela and Mexico, but it has spread through most temperate climates and has become somewhat synonymous with Coastal areas, including our own.

Autumn is apon us, and the leaves of the frangipani are already starting to thin, but here is one last shock of flower in our garden. The white ones and red ones have long gone.

Mooloolaba

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

DidgeridooEumundi Markets

I am not sure what the collective noun for didgeridoo is, a forest perhaps?

Whatever it is, I'm sure I can see a bamboo tent post hiding in their among the instruments!

Eumundi

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Need a drink?

Saturday is market day at Eumundi, and this fellow was running by quite early in the morning.

I've never been one for jogging, and certainly don't have any attributes which would justify me doing so half naked. Some people seem to spend an awful lot of time getting the right amount of sun, exercise and finding the right brand of sunglasses.

I don't, which I suppose is why I'm more comfortable taking photographs than being in them, but couldn't help but smile as this poor tortured soul laboured past the front of the bottle shop signage.


Eumundi

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Market PuzzleToday's Skywatch from the Sunshine Coast

For today's puzzle, let's see who can find the sky!

Hint: It's drizzling, so it isn't the customary bright blue!

Find links to lots more Skywatch images from around the world on the Skywatch Portal!


Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

LightsEumundi Markets

These lanterns were sold at the Eumundi markets by a couple who have just moved back to Korea, apparently they are based on a Korean tradition with paper, I know little more after my brief conversation but if you have one of them at your place I guess it's now a collector's item!

Eumundi Markets
Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Loo with a view

I know that once or twice I've made a joke of my subject, but not today, that really is what this building is called!

This is the verandah of the public toilet on Mooloolaba beach, and well patronised it is too, in stark contrast to the one at Beerwah, the Council spent many millions ensuring this facility was first rate!

Mooloolaba

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Loo Too

Another view of the Beerwah Bookshop facility, one was just not enough.

Beerwah


Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Bookshop Loo

The "facilities", Beerwah Bookshop

Beerwah

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Waiting for the crowds

One last check of the concessions before the madding crowd arrives.

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Circus

Having been fortunate enough to have seen the Great Moscow Circus in Moscow, I can assure readers that the resemblance of the circus building to the famous St Basil's Church in Red Square is entirely in the minds of the marketeers!

None the less, there's something quite Russian about a series of coloured inflatabel onion domes appearing in a sports ground near you!

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Great Moscow Skywatchon the Sunshine Coast!

An interestingly dark sky for Good Friday I thought.

Actually it's not Moscow, it's Kawana, however for a few days in late February the inflatable onion domes of the Great Moscow Circus sent out a confusing message to visitors.

Find links to lots more Skywatch images from around the world on the Skywatch Portal!

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Fishermans Road

They are by no means the main provider of goods and foods, but the weekend markets do provide a pleasant way to top up the larder, with everything from fresh produce to machinery parts if any take one's fancy.

This is a small section of the Fisherman's Road Market at Maroochydore, open from dawn on Sunday till around midday.

Maroochdyore

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Time Travel

As economic times get tougher, people are holding on to their cars for longer.

Didn't Doctor Who have one of these a few years ago?

Maroochydore

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Wombi the Kombi

There's a colloquial description of the Wombat as one which eats roots and leaves.

Perhaps this is the conveyance within which it all occurs, but whether or not that's the case I rather liked the gum leaves decorating the rear window in reflection.

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Trolley Hatchlings

The supermarket trolley, having accomplished it's mission on land, now laden with its young, slides gracefully back into the water with the coming tide.

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Noosa Mangroves

All mangroves are protected in Queensland, if not Australia, and large penalties apply should anyone be silly enough to cause them damage. They are a vital part of the estuarine ecosystem, and rather pleasant to poke around among as well if I do say so.

Noosa River

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Trolley Breeding

If you sit quietly in the shadows, you may be fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of a supermarket trolley coming out of the water to breed.

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Low tide and late afternoon

Low tide and late afternoon can be quite pleasant beneath the bridge.

If you can ignore the beat of 45,000 cars per day going over Nicklin Way.


Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

The White Faced HeronToday's Skywatch from the Sunshine Coast

Find links to lots more Skywatch images from around the world on the Skywatch Portal!

According to Wikepedia, the White-faced Heron, Egretta novaehollandiae, also known as the Blue Crane, can be found almost anywhere near shallow water, fresh or salt, and although it is prompt to depart the scene on long, slow-beating wings if disturbed, it will boldly raid suburban fish ponds.

If you look closely enough, you will see that this fellow's neck is wet, all the way down to his shoulders, although you aren't to know that he got into that state fishing in my pond. I suspect that Mr Goldfish in yesterday's post is no longer happily swimming around, although he has plenty of siblings remaining.

I can't imagine a more perfect setting to photograph a Blue Crane, than in front of a pale grey sky, while standing on a pale grey roof. The sky almost looks as though it's been painted as a studio backdrop.

We've seen a bit of sky that colour of late, another 125mm (that's five inches) of rain overight, and we're only on the edge of the system!

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Gold Fish

I very nearly made this my "yellow" theme picture, arguing that a goldfish is really not gold, since fool's gold is yellow and since it was April Fool's day yesterday, and in some countries it was "poisson d'avril" (I hope I got that right!). In the end, it seemed as though I was stretching the whole thing a bit too far.

So here is a soon to be ex-goldfish in my pond.

A prelude to tomorrow's skywatch!

Mooloolaba

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Body Boarder with a touch of yellow.

This shot was taken last Autumn, but I've kept it as a reminder that Easter is almost upon us, and the water will start to cool off enough that we'd all better start pulling out our wetsuits again.

The flash of yellow is just about enough to make it theme day compliant too!

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Caloundra

I'm finally back from the wilds, had a great time, and thanks to all of you who've visited regularly in my absence, I'll get to your comments over the coming days.

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Ball

Today I should arrive back from our camping trip down the Coast. A real busman's holiday that one, and if all went well, Mr Auto Pilot has kept posting in my absence.

We had a ball!

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Going Fishing

Off for a day fishing. The tide is so high that he had to crouch down going under the bridge, (or take his hat off, and that would never do!)

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Gutters

It's been a big month for architecture! Many of our buildings, even the large commercial ones, have roof guttering exposed, so that in extreme rainfall conditions they can overflow without causing damage to building interiors.


Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Brasserie

The Plaza is empty at night, but the Brasserie remains illuminated for our enjoyment as we leave the cinemas.

Sunshine Plaza
Maroochydore

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

A Skywatch PuzzleToday's Skywatch from the Sunshine Coast

Just where does the sky go to on those nights when there's no moon, and not a star to be seen?

It completely fails to reflect!

I don't think we get a better idea of the infinite nature of the universe than when we peer into inky blackness!

Sunshine Plaza at Night
Maroochydore

Find links to lots more Skywatch images from around the world on the Skywatch Portal!

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Foxtail

The foxtail palm, Woodyetia bifurcata is a native to the World Heritage listed rainforest in Cape Melville in far north Queensland. For many years there was a huge black market in seeds smuggled out of the forest, and it was illegal to actually possess them.

Despite that, the palm is very hardy and fast growing and now appears in large numbers with a plentiful supply of seed. It's a particularly pleasant "self cleaning" tree, with leaves in the characteristic "fox tail" that gives it its common name.

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Cassia

I thought they were the leaves of what we call a Cassia, but after a bit more research it appears that there are numbers of plant species which share that common name. I am fairly certain this one is Senna surattensis which is also known as Singapore Shower among dozens of other names.

Whatever its real origin, it is covered in yellow flowers in early summer, and it has no place in our native forests! This picture taken from below, in full sun and once again illustrates the depth of shade elsewhere on the path I think!

Mooloolaba

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Supergraphic 4

This will be the last in this series for a month or so, it's too easy to have too much of a good thing!

But it's interesting to me that, building components can accidentally give the same effect when viewed from angles other than the ones intended by the designer.

How do I know this was unintended?

Well the Garden and the fence I had to climb were a strong hint!

It looks like I really am away a few more days this time, hopefully the scheduled posts are appearing and you can read this!


Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

SuperGraphics 3

This is a deep (1.5 metre) panel on a shop verandah facing west. It could have been obliterated by signs for the retailer behind but the graphic gives something of a consistent, subtropical, sunny even, disposition to an otherwise simple building.

It looks like I really am away a few more days this time, hopefully the scheduled posts are appearing and you can read this!


Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Supergraphic 2

If you read the link yesterday, by now you will have become an expert in Supergraphics. Here's a beauty I think, simple fins and a sun awning over small slotted windows. The form of the building creates the "lines" for the colour.

It looks like I really am away a few more days this time, hopefully the scheduled posts are appearing and you can read this!

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Supergraphic 1

In our new environment, our designers and planners are constantly seeking ways of disguising utilitarian buildings economically. We have dozens of examples, some better than others, some enormously complicated, and over the coming year I'll make a point of photographing more.

Can the designer of this building really have foreseen the blue of the sky, or the shadow of the streetlight interacting with his/her seemingly random vertical lines? As time goes by, I have no doubt the original intent will be obscured by trees, and many will be painted over in the quest for economy in the future, so perhaps I can record some for posterity!

Since this won't be the last, you may as well be informed!

Supergraphics is a coined word of prefix Latin Super meaning ‘more, speacially, extremely’ and Greek Graphikos ‘write and schematize’ joined together to mean ‘an oversized graphics’. And the prefix super means Big and Gigantic. But the oversize not only denotes to the size of the picture but also transcendence of spatial limitations.

Supergraphics has a wide use with many different appellations.

Supergraphics are often called as the street art and urban murals used in urban environments. In the beginning it used to be called Giant Graphics, and Outdoor Wallpaintings, Urban Fantasy, Mural Painting and Big Art. In France it was called le Mur Peint, and Die Bernalt Stadt in Germany. The history of
supergraphics dates way back to the prehistoric cave paintings, however it was only in the 20th century after the Industrial Revolution that Supergraphics settled itself in the urban settings. The first use of the term ‘supergraphic’ is thougt to be by Prof. Charles W. Moor who covered the walls of the shower-room in
Sea Ranch with powerful colors and patterns.

If you would like to read more on the role of Architectural Supergraphics in Identity Design, here is a paper published by the HongKong Polytechnic which I rather enjoyed!

It looks like I really am away a few more days this time, hopefully the scheduled posts are appearing and you can read this!


Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Skywatch last week

It seems like much more than a week ago when the sea was a mass of spray and foam, and the sky full of anger, but this was indeed what it was like last Friday at Caloundra!

Find links to lots more Skywatch images from around the world on the Skywatch Portal!

It looks like I really am away a few more days this time, hopefully the scheduled posts are appearing and you can read this!

Caloundra.


Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Maybe not quite normal..

Back to normal after the storms, except...

See that black stuff on the bags? That's oil. Part of 20,000 tons or was that 200,000 litres, no one can say, but it seems to be lots, which is being frantically removed from 60 kilometres of coastline after a shipping accident during the gales.

The bags themselves are part of a foreshore protection project at the mouth of the Maroochy River.

Maroochydore.

It looks like I really am away a few more days this time, hopefully the scheduled posts are appearing and you can read this!

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Back to normal

By Sunday, everything was back to normal.

Maroochydore

Well we've tried to disappear for a few more days, let's see how this trip goes - no cyclones perhaps?

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Collapse

The next gust destroyed this umbrella, it just imploded on itself and it's hapless owners. I've seen plenty of umbrellas turned inside out, but not just give up. By the time it happened the heavens had opened, and I was standing under a fire hose, trying to keep my camera dry.

Alexandra Headland

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Gales

Once the sunshine returns it's hard to come to terms with the fact that just three days ago, severe gales were lashing the coast. The world was an almost monochromatic grey-green and for the first time in years not a solitary surfer was to be seen.

Maroochydore from Alexandra Headland

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

It's been a year!

It hardly seems possible that a year has gone since the establishment of the new Sunshine Coast Council, and not coincidentally, this blog.

Just as the Council has struggled in its first year, I've still not quite worked out what I'm trying to communicate, but perhaps that will come with time, and it's been a lot of fun anyway. While I am grateful for our endless blue skies and cheery new buildings most of the time, I must admit to the odd wistful glance at photographs from other places, of changing seasons and the patina of centuries of history, and with every visitors comment, I am prompted to visit some far flung corner of the globe!

Here, the changes of season are far more subtle. Notice that there are no beach umbrellas in the picture? It's Autumn and things are cooling down!

If things get too hard, I can always go to the beach, no matter what time of year it is!

Thank you to all who have visited over these past 365 posts, I hope to see more of you in the coming years!


Mooloolaba.

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Storm

We were going camping for a couple of weeks, but Tropical Cyclone Hamish had us scuttling for home. After a week of storms and wind and relentless seas, Hamish seems to have retreated, leaving sixty kilometres of coastline damaged from oil leaking from a damaged freighter.

Without a surfer to give scale, these waves could be a metre high, rather than three metres of boiling foam they were in reality, and yes I am about to get drenched once more by the line of squalls coming across the sky!

Cyclones aren't all that conducive to getting out with one's camera!

Caloundra

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Today's Skywatch from the Sunshine CoastWith Apologies to Jeffrey Smart 4 of 4

Reluctantly I have to admit that I quite like the lighting from this angle, and I quite like the way the evening sky composed itself around my subject too.

Sadly to get to this angle, one has to cross four lanes of freeway on foot, then climb the centre of the cloverleaf landscaping, none of which is in all probability strictly in compliance with all of the local bylaws!

"I'm sorry officer, I have no idea how I got here!"

Find links to lots more Skywatch images from around the world on the Skywatch Portal!

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Bridge DetailWith Apologies to Jeffrey Smart 3 of 4

Perhaps this is pushing the "Smartesque" a little far, and it still doesn't explain to me the purpose of the decoration in this apparently carbon aware age in which we live!

Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Motorway BridgeWith Apologies to Jeffrey Smart 2 of 4

This little bridge crosses four lanes of motorway. All of the other similar bridges are simple utilitarian structures of concrete and steel. I'm all for public art, but does bunging up some green mesh, and lighting it create a beautiful environment?

I think not.

I rather enjoy the changing of the coloured reflections of the traffic lights in the concrete crash barriers more!

There is none the less, something quite surreal about this bridge.


Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia