The Labyrinth

The caravan moves on

2006-05-06T23:10:00.001+10:00

I have just moved to Canberra and made a new Canberra blog, Labyrinth 2. It is at http://web.mac.com/jane.maze
This is the last post on this original Labyrinth site. Thank you for visiting it and I hope you'll have a look at the new one.

Au revoir from Newcastle

2005-09-04T13:58:00.000+10:00

Workmate's daughter waves goodbye the morning after his Newcastle birthday party.

Paragon

2005-09-01T13:56:00.000+10:00

Paragon cafe, Goulburn

Tempest

2005-08-31T13:37:00.000+10:00

My Canberra host told me the weather forecast was for tempests.

Balmain walk with Sydney photobloggers

2005-08-27T13:08:00.000+10:00

Bull/sheepdog - et al

Balmain castle

Youngest photoblogger reluctantly trespasses to pose

Soft colours in a pile of pallets

A stall of beautiful pots, Balmain market

Swinging in the breeze

Adornments

Pretty bags

Millinery

Ultimo

2005-08-21T13:01:00.000+10:00

Modernist windows in Ultimo

Seaperson

2005-08-17T12:57:00.000+10:00

Emerging after a lunchtime surf at Manly Beach.

Avalon

2005-08-15T12:53:00.000+10:00

Eating lunch by the pool at Avalon beach

A cat's life

2005-08-08T12:46:00.000+10:00

Enjoying the flowers - late winter

Reflection

2005-07-28T12:43:00.000+10:00

Reflection from a Picasso print's frame.

At Propellor Park

2005-07-06T22:56:00.000+10:00

At the Birchgrove waterside.

Danger Will Robinson!

2005-06-18T22:40:00.000+10:00

Airconditioning Robot

This red car, on the other hand...

2005-06-16T22:51:00.000+10:00

...made driving to work more fun.

Birthday flowers

2005-06-14T22:37:00.000+10:00

Gift of flowers

Camellia vase

Camellias from above

Vase silhouette

Star Wars birthday party

2005-06-13T15:47:00.000+10:00

Sand person

Kate calls her family - from Central Australia to my place

That great Leia hairstyle

Darth Vader with light saber

Whistler's Darth Vader

ObiWan, Shmi, Luke, Han, Chewbacca

Starwars standoff

What's black and white and red all over?

2005-06-12T22:46:00.000+10:00

Any carpark these days...a slightly unnerving sidenote of conservatism

One view of a black bird

2005-06-10T22:42:00.000+10:00

Bird on a wire

Adoring Grandfather

2005-06-07T23:59:00.000+10:00

The love between these two lit up the street.

White flowers

2005-05-30T17:37:00.000+10:00

Mrs Macquarie's Chair

2005-05-29T21:41:00.000+10:00

Mrs Macquarie's Chair on a lovely Sunday afternoon: brides and backpackers jostling with Japanese tourists and photographers.

Not standing

2005-05-28T20:41:00.000+10:00

She's lying (on a stencilled No Standing sign) on the wharf outside an overflowing session at the Sydney Writers' Festival. The talk was relayed on lousdpeakers to lots of people outside, getting sunshine and harbour as their consolation for not seeing writers.

Stairs in The Rocks

2005-05-27T22:41:00.000+10:00

Stairs leading down to Hickson Road where an old wharf's been made into theatre spaces and the corridors and cafe have astounding views of the world's greatest harbour.

Floodlit bridge

2005-05-26T22:55:00.000+10:00

Walking under the Harbour Bridge on the way home from the Sydney Writers' Festival - a rehearsed reading of a play about a failed colony at the tip of Cape York.

Misty mirror

2005-05-24T23:59:00.000+10:00

I'm going hog-wild and posting a much less ephemeral self-portrait, with love to Mandy.

...while ye may

2005-05-23T23:59:00.000+10:00

Another Centennial Park childhood landmark. Probably the first place I encountered this idea.

Mysterious statue

2005-05-22T23:59:00.000+10:00

When I was little the base of this statue in Centennial Park was one of the favourite places to use as "home" in games of chasings or hide and seek. But I don't know whom the statue represents.

Recently some statues were returned to Centennial Park after decades of being locked in a statue compound - a surreal jumble of alabaster figures. They had been put there after someone started blowing up the statues in the park.

Pretty porridge

2005-05-20T18:52:00.000+10:00

Carambola is a very satisfying word.

After de rain

2005-05-18T20:02:00.000+10:00

As my brother once punned.

Basset Hound

2005-05-17T23:59:00.000+10:00

The true nature of a basset hound.

Ewan

2005-05-16T10:03:00.000+10:00

Ewan takes the stage on his neighbours' verandah.

I just heard John Howard refer on the radio to "Hunchback whales" - thus elegantly demonstrating his environmental ignorance and projecting his Richard III nature.

Early morning bathroom

2005-05-15T23:59:00.000+10:00

For Mandy, who suggested a fragment of self-portrait.

More barbs

2005-05-14T23:59:00.000+10:00

Another image from beneath the Harbour Bridge at Milson's Point.

The Golden Bough

2005-05-13T23:59:00.000+10:00

At the bottom of Dixon Street, Chinatown.

Crowded car

2005-05-12T23:15:00.000+10:00

"Where is our master?"

Barbed wire

2005-05-11T23:03:00.000+10:00

For Chris, who prefers not flowers.

Barbed wire: someone found
so many kinds he opened
a museum.

Window in Chinatown

2005-05-10T22:33:00.000+10:00

On my way back to the office from a meeting about how to build an effective resistance to anti-Union and anti-worker laws that threaten us here, I saw this and ate wonderful North Chinese lightly-fried dumplings.

Much cooler

2005-05-09T23:29:00.000+10:00

The other day I saw a girl of about 16 wearing a t-shirt that said "That's Queen Bitch to you." It would have been funny if it hadn't so completely matched her mincing, pouting, hard-eyed manner.

I think this little hot-pink angel is much cooler.

Park at Glebe Point

2005-05-08T23:58:00.000+10:00

Also a basset hound was in the park.

Seeing a basset hound
or, better yet, a beagle
makes it a good day.

Deep pink hibiscus

2005-05-07T17:23:00.000+10:00

For Jonathan. ;-)

Dappled sky

2005-05-06T23:59:00.000+10:00

A fragment of the beautiful complexity of clouds this dusk.

Turning 180 degrees...

2005-05-05T23:59:00.000+10:00

...I come to the lentils...

Which way?

2005-05-04T20:32:00.000+10:00

I have been thinking a lot about where I'm going next in my life. I just noticed that this decision was being unconsciously dramatised on the front of my own fridge by Pirate Maisie and Commuter Maisie.

Home

2005-05-02T23:59:00.000+10:00

Beloved home.

The small controller

2005-04-30T23:59:00.000+10:00

My cousin, once removed, and his train.

Autumn flowers

2005-04-29T23:59:00.000+10:00

The next door neighbours' garden, until now a fairly blank lawn bordered by unmemorable greenery, suddenly exploded into a brilliant chaotic array of flowers.

White worms

2005-04-28T23:15:00.000+10:00

I seem to be having what Snoopy called a post-happiness let-down: can't even be bothered taking photographs. Here's another one from Watson's Bay.

Red worms

2005-04-27T23:59:00.000+10:00

Strange creatures swarmed up Martin Place last week.

No flash, please

2005-04-26T11:59:00.000+10:00

The weekend's most photographed subject.

Verandah in paradise

2005-04-24T23:59:00.000+10:00

Self-portrait by guest photographer H5YO.

Punk quilting

2005-04-23T23:59:00.000+10:00

Today's image by guest photographer H5YO.

Scrabble happiness

2005-04-22T23:59:00.000+10:00

The beginning of a weekend by the beach with many friends and plenty of Scrabble. Is there an emoticon for "sigh of pleasure?"

Happy in Canberra

2005-04-21T21:01:00.000+10:00

All four of us. No, five - Tinker gave me a warm welcome too.

Sculpture?

2005-04-20T23:40:00.000+10:00

Clever, but is it
art? Or carpenters' supplies?
I really don't know.

Long live butchers!

2005-04-19T22:44:00.000+10:00

It lifted my heart to find this truly daggy joke, just when coolness seemed to be taking over Sydney.

Seamonster attack on Neutral Bay

2005-04-18T19:30:00.000+10:00

Will your neutrality protect you now?

What is it you do?

2005-04-17T19:40:00.000+10:00

Panelbeater or Photoshop expert?

Walk into the bush
And look for mushrooms. You'll see
unimagined things.

Dinner table objects

2005-04-16T11:59:00.000+10:00

The good china is used for the first time, at last!

Street mosaics

2005-04-15T21:28:00.000+10:00

It took me a while to see that there are real tools in this mosaic. They are part of a series of mosaics celebrating the working class heritage of Erskineville.
It happens that I've photographed street mosaics in three different Sydney suburbs in the last 36 hours. Not a deliberate, but an accidental, project. The one below is from Newtown.

Concrete sofa

2005-04-14T22:30:00.000+10:00

Street furniture in Narrabeen.

Little stars

2005-04-13T21:29:00.000+10:00

Does anyone else think "take him, and cut him out in little stars"...?

Double-take: the "suit"
beside me reads "Che Guevara
of the Middle East."

Dark. Comforted by
night jasmine and nameless
familiar scents.

Pink

2005-04-12T21:26:00.000+10:00

I saw a great t-shirt slogan the other day, "girls are the new boys."
Pink is the new pink.

By end of meeting,
he was feeling less threatened.
Inattentive, then.

Blue tent shadows

2005-04-11T23:59:00.000+10:00

One more from Canberra: the blue tent from inside.

Flashy rose

2005-04-10T20:00:00.000+10:00

I've never really bothered with flash photography, finding the effect of on-camera flash mostly unpleasant. But taking this one made me realise interesting things can be done with it. I experimented some more today.

So many blues

2005-04-09T19:44:00.000+10:00

Perfect day - Woonona pool.

Diddly diddly - this
"music is nice, but too long"
as the small boy said.

Coal miner's son sings
in a voice like mulled wine-
smooth, sweet, strong, and warm.

Curving

2005-04-08T23:59:00.000+10:00

What is the maths of these lines?

Midnight

2005-04-07T11:59:00.000+10:00

Midnight: no clocks tick,
but water drips measure long
calm seconds.

Murano glass

2005-04-06T11:59:00.000+10:00

Yesterday Darcy (four years old) said to me "No more experts!" which made me laugh hard, and sympathetically. But not about the mastery that makes things like this.

(I'd claimed to be an expert on stopping burglars.)

Andy

2005-04-05T23:59:00.000+10:00

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Andy.
Andy who?
And 'e sang as he sat and waited while his billy boiled, "you'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me."

I heard this joke so early this morning that I couldn't remember what to say in answer to "knock knock". Prompting was required.

Fire engine

2005-04-04T23:59:00.000+10:00

At Dickson Working Men's Club.
Reminds me of someone a former flatmate interviewed about moving into our house, who asked if he could keep his motorcycle in the hall.

I'm sure she said it was near the doughnuts

2005-04-03T21:14:00.000+10:00

Hanging out washing
I scatter skinks basking on
bricks and concrete stairs.

Balmy night

2005-04-02T23:59:00.000+10:00

Sunset from my back doorway - as I was preparing to go for an evening swim.

A little crooked house

2005-04-01T23:59:00.000+10:00

Canberra Easter,
no matter how early, brings
Autumn right behind.

Mosaic stairs

2005-03-31T22:14:00.000+10:00

He enters the temple of commerce.

Designers rock

2005-03-30T23:59:00.000+10:00

The designers of children's books deserve high honour for making reading so enticing.

In Australia,
seasonal reference is
a subtle challenge.

Snowdrops, crocuses,
fields of golden daffodils-
English spring unfolds.

Japan: plum blossom,
magnolia, cherry, pear,
while frogs croak all Spring.

Imaginary photograph

2005-03-29T23:59:00.000+10:00

You'll have to imagine today's photograph because I took it and all the others for work, and can't show them. But if I could, it would look like an attempt to evoke a bank manager having an acid flashback to the sixties (which is not quite what I was really aiming for.)

Surrounded by huge
cut-out paper flowers, your
smile looks slightly....odd.

Cloudstreet

2005-03-28T23:59:00.000+10:00

Cloudstreet getting up steam at the National Folk Festival.

National Folk Festival

2005-03-27T23:59:00.000+10:00

Tinker knows all the best places.

Bunting by day.

See The Department!

Scene from newly discovered Brecht epic: "Leningrad factory workers celebrate success of the first five year plan."

And people think Morris dancers are silly.

Touchwood

2005-03-26T23:59:00.000+11:00

Touchwood performing at the National Folk Festival.

Spookiness

2005-03-25T23:59:00.000+11:00

A Spooky Man at the Festival.

Bunting flaps wildly in the night wind.

Canberra in Autumn

2005-03-24T23:59:00.000+11:00

Looking over the racecourse to Black Mountain, through the preposterously clear Canberra air.

Cat on a warm steel vent.

That obscure object of desire

2005-03-23T23:59:00.000+11:00

How I wanted one of these when I saw it in an East Sydney shop at a price I couldn't afford at the time. How glad I am that my friend Mandy bought one, at New York's Museum of Modern Art, so at least I can look at it when I stay with her.

A beautiful stark photograph by Joel.
(Thanks M & J!)

Fallen blossom

2005-03-22T23:13:00.000+11:00

Very rainy night: crepe myrtle on the bonnet of my car.

Bunny-cruncher

2005-03-21T20:19:00.000+11:00

Home sick today, decapitating bunnies.

The Paris end of Bourke Street

2005-03-20T18:41:00.000+11:00

Family excursion to buy real bread.

Green Bans Park

2005-03-19T23:52:00.000+11:00

Andrew Ferguson speaks to a labour history pub-crawl "Struggles, Scabs and Schooners" about how Green Bans park was saved from developers.

Boat tied down

2005-03-18T20:09:00.000+11:00

Another Watson's Bay boat.

QVB from outside

2005-03-17T23:59:00.000+11:00

The domes of the temple of commerce against a soft rainy sky.

Shower shadows

2005-03-16T23:29:00.000+11:00

A late-night sight in my bathroom.

Surfboards

2005-03-15T21:18:00.000+11:00

Surfshop sale - must be autumn.

Floating on my back.
Staring at the sky. Drifting
like a child's lost ball.

Little ragged blossom

2005-03-14T19:34:00.000+11:00

There was a huge fire in an Ashfield warehouse this weekend, and I happened to drive by today - it was very, very burnt. I stopped to take a photograph of a sculptural looking element of the ruins, but this flower in a garden across the street made a better image.

"Little Ragged Blossom" is a character in a classic
Australian children's book, who wears a skirt made of a flower much like this.

Bottom of Natalie

2005-03-13T22:10:00.000+11:00

The bottom, or rather hull, of a boat called Natalie.
Something reminded me recently that I live on one of the world's most beautiful harbours, with beaches I haven't visited for a long time. So I have been luxuriating at Camp Cove, and wandering along Watson's Bay, where this boat was drawn up.

QVB

2005-03-12T21:08:00.000+11:00

The QVB is what the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney is usually called. We are not brimming with respect for our colonial monarchic history.

Welcome!

2005-03-11T23:45:00.000+11:00

Through the glass Jake greets me with my secret name.

While zooming home

2005-03-10T20:25:00.000+11:00

Washed by speed and light.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

2005-03-09T22:22:00.000+11:00

She lost her head

2005-03-08T23:27:00.000+11:00

She wore fur and
a wild beast ripped off her head.
That's how it goes.

Pigeons and figs

2005-03-07T20:02:00.000+11:00

In an unexpected half hour of peace I sat in dappled sun and watched pigeons among the figs of Rowe Street, Eastwood, which have been planted so as to grow twined around iron poles.

Figs bend to embrace
straight steel poles. Who's stronger?
Bet on the figs.

Beautiful wall

2005-03-06T21:27:00.000+11:00

This beautiful wall pulled me across the street, with its almost lemon-colour in the evening sun, its many different colours. Bricks can be one of the great beauties of the world, but the ugliness of most modern bricks in Australia is terrible. I hate that we tolerate such ugly bricks, and hence ugly buildings. The world has enough resources to provide beauty as well as food, roses as well as bread, for everyone. Let's get on with making a world where time, food, work, money, and education are distributed fairly.

Lovely bricks are soft,
soft-coloured, and worn by heat,
rain, cold, human hands.

Tangled up in blue

2005-03-05T23:59:00.000+11:00

Blue screens and wire protect an Officeworks carpark from the harsh light of day.