Andrew of ‘Have Bag, Will Travel’ is running a weekly challenge all about photographs of washing lines. I knew I had a couple of rather lovely washing lines, but a look through my archives resulted in a few more. A change of country this week – this colourful scene is from Cascais in Portugal. Must take a long time to get a full load dried and I never hang garments up in the middle like this. I always hang them from the bottom.
To find out more about this year’s photo challenge here on Travel Words, please read this post.
This month we will be looking for Green. Green signals new life in spring, fresh green leaves, the shoots of new bulbs emerging from the soil. It is a cool and soothing colour, bringing us moisture and shade. But green doesn’t have to be all about nature.
A 1996 bronze casting can be seen in YVR International. It is intended to represent the aboriginal heritage of the Haida Gwaii region in the Queen Charlotte Islands.
The 13 passengers in the canoe combine human and animal features. Reid’s factious “myth creatures” are drawn from the Haida world.
Eagle bites Grizzly Bear’s paw, Bear faces his human wife and cradles a club and Mouse Woman shelters beneath Raven’s wing.
Other passengers are Bad Bear and Good Bear, Beaver, Dogfish Woman, Eagle, Frog and Wolf whose claws are embedded in Beaver’s back and teeth in Raven’s wing and the human Shaman as the focal point.
Reid said “at least …. the man in the middle seems to have some vision of what’s to come”
In 2003 after taking time out whilst waiting to take up a place on a PGCE course I was able to spend three months in Australia visiting my son and granddaughter who then lived in Sydney. I always take time to go exploring on my own whenever I visit him. It can lead to all sorts of adventures!
I chose to stay in the youth hostel in Mission Beach, northern Queensland because of its unusual name and location.
The Treehouse, built on stilts and surrounded by verdant rain forest, is a big open plan log cabin with bare wooden floors and bamboo framed glass-less windows with shutters.
The small number of bamboo doors that exist are open at the top so all sounds drift effortlessly inside and out. Comfortable shabby sofas are arranged in cosy corners encouraging the residents to gather together and chat or make music. Or you can grab a random paperback from one of the many bookcases and curl up in a hammock on the shady veranda and lose yourself in the plot. The air is filled with incense and a touch of dank decay.
On my first morning I am woken early by the torrential rain, thunder and lightning and with the smell of rich earth assaulting my nostrils it almost feels like camping and only slightly drier. The close proximity to the rain forest also means that as soon as dawn cracks an opening in the night sky a cacophony of kookaburras crash into your dreams with the subtleness of falling pan-lids.
It is here that I meet Andy. I have noticed him over the past few days as he bumbles about the place. He’s a quiet, unassuming young man who appears very solitary. On the third morning I am disturbed by the cleaners who start sweeping the floors at 5 am and I can’t get back to sleep. I feel irritated and headachy; I had a hard time dropping off last night due to a group of travellers talking and drumming well into the early hours. The swish, swish of the brushes sweeping over the wooden floors is as annoying as the whine of a mosquito. It’s no good, sleep eludes me. Drowsily I stumble into the kitchen and find Andy with his head in the fridge. Over strong coffee and cereal on the sundeck overlooking the swimming pool we exchange names and watch as the rain drips languidly through the forest. He then tells me about the cassowaries that live here.
A bonus Green.
“Remember, green’s your colour.
You are spring!”
~ Gwendolyn Brooks
Andrew of ‘Have Bag, Will Travel’ is running a weekly challenge all about photographs of washing lines. I knew I had a couple of rather lovely washing lines, but a look through my archives resulted in a few more. Another one from Venice. I think I must have been in Venice on washing day!
TRAVEL WORDS 