Somewhere Else

The everlastings that we mentioned yesterday aren’t the only wildflowers you can find in Three Springs. The floral emblem of this West Australian wheatbelt town is the Eucalyptus Rose Mallee (Eucalyptus Rhodantha).

That’s it depicted on a sign on the edge of town. And if you look in the garden of the local hospital, you can see this amazing flower in full bloom right now.

It’s winter in the southern hemisphere, but here in Western Australia the wildflowers already think it is spring. Earlier this week we drove through the wheatbelt towns of Mingenew, Three Springs, Carnamah and Moora. This is prime wildflower territory. Next month the area will be invaded by tourists looking for those iconic carpets of everlastings.

But the everlastings aren’t waiting – some are already starting to flower. The ones above are a few kilometres south of Three Springs, beside the Midlands Road. These flowers look like daisies, but they are not like daisies at all. The leaves are pointy and have distinctive stiff, papery texture. They are like dried flowers, even while they are still growing.

Next month they will form carpets to the horizon – some white like these ones, others pink or yellow.

We saw this cute metal cow in the Margaret River region in the extreme southwest corner of Australia. It shows what can be achieved with a creative mix of hardware (steel laundry tub, bucket, etc) and software (human imagination).

It’s certainly an eye catcher. That’s no accident; this hard working cow is on the roadside outside Sunflowers Animal Farm helping to attract visitors.

The famous Italian composer, violinist and priest Antonio Vivaldi died on 28th July 1741. His most famous music is the set of four violin concertos known as The Four Seasons.

These concertos are among the most popular classical music of all time – if you listen to classical music on the radio, it’s a rare week when you don’t hear The Four Seasons. Oddly enough, Vivaldi’s music was largely ignored until the 20th century when it was rediscovered.

If you are a fan of Vivaldi, head for Venice. Vivaldi was born and baptised there, lived in four different houses in the city, and taught violin at the girl’s orphanage known as La Pieta.

With a little bit of online research, you can track down many places associated with Vivaldi’s life in Venice. But they’re not well signposted, so it takes a bit of detective work to find them. As a starter, he was baptised in the church of St John the Baptist in Bragora (below). But don’t get too excited about the baptismal font inside; it was replaced after Vivaldi’s time.

Enthusiasts and collectors always want to take detailed photos of tiny objects – stamps, coins, badges, door handles, manufacturer’s name plates, or whatever. Like the name badge on the vintage electric fan above.

But point and shoot photographers, soon learn that most cameras aren’t good at close-ups of small objects. Not if they are used in fully automatic mode, anyway. Most cameras can automatically focus on objects between about 50cm away and infinity. But get too close and you will get a fuzzy pic like the one below. If that looks painfully familiar, read on.

To focus on small objects, you have to give the camera a little help. It’s very simple – you just choose close-up mode (typically called the close up macro). It is usually indicated with a small icon of a flower and selected by pressing the close-up button or choosing close-up mode in the scenes menu. If you can’t find it easily on your camera, try reading the manual.

Once the close-up mode is activated, you will find that the camera can take amazingly sharp close-ups. And it doesn’t need to be a great camera. We find that even our cheapest and least sophisticated cameras can take good close-ups.

You have to feel sorry for sculptors. They put their heart and soul into creating a life-like statue, have it displayed proudly in a park or town square … and watch the pigeons sit on it and mess it up.

You can see the problem in the picture above. That’s Martin Luther in Worms, Germany with a pigeon on his head, another one on his Bible, and mess running down his face. You might think the church should excommunicate those pigeons!

But a sculptor in Padua, Italy found a novel solution to this “foul” problem. He included a carved pigeon in his statue, as shown below. No pigeons sat there while we were watching.

Another interesting building in Beverley, Western Australia is the old railway station. In one sense it’s a dead station. Passenger trains don’t come here anymore. So what can you do with a dead railway station? Many towns have decided to turn them into railway museums.

But Beverley came up with a more unusual idea. The town started an artist-in-residence program, with invited artists living in the station master’s house, doing paintings and displaying them in the station building.

We talked with Graeme Wild, who is just completing his stint as artist in residence. He has filled the station with an impressive collection of still life paintings. He has obviously had an enjoyable and productive stay in Beverley.

We were in Beverley, about 150km east of Perth on the weekend. When we visit a town, we have several key criteria for deciding what we think of it. The first is that there should be something interesting to see and/or do. In fact almost everywhere meets that criterion, though sometimes you have search hard to find the interesting bit.

Beverley passed that test easily – the town is full of interesting buildings. These two are both in the main street. The old Beverley Court House (above) was built in 1897. It ceased operating as a court house in 1980, but still looks great. The Union Bank building (below) was built 10 years later in 1907 and is now a private residence.

But we have a second criterion that many country towns fail. It’s the SOC Index – the number of “Sunday Open Cafes”. Our minimum requirement is a SOC Index of one. Beverley also passed that test, with two cafes open on Sunday morning. So we had mocha and lamingtons while dodging a rain shower.

Lamingtons? They’re an Aussie icon – a cubic chunk of sponge cake dipped in chocolate sauce and rolled in desiccated coconut. And generally called lammies for short. O course, they are tasty, nourishing and very healthy … sort of.

This amazing rig belongs to Richard R of Perth, Western Australia. The 15 foot caravan is a 1936 Paramount which Richard restored. The soft outer masonite had rotted away and the corners needed to be rebuilt. The tow car is a 1946 DeSoto 6-cylinder sedan, which he restored with a little help from his friends.

When you step inside the van, you are taken back in time to a more stylish era. The unusual roof is canite covered in canvas, the cooker is a methylated spirits stove, the tap is a hand pump, and there are even stained glass windows. This is one where you can definitely say, “They don’t make them like that anymore.”

22nd July is the saint’s day of Mary Magdalene. If you happen to be in Paris, you could celebrate by visiting the Madeleine Church. As the name suggests, this monumental church is dedicated to Mary Magdalene. And like the saint, the church has had a rather chequered history.

There was a synagogue on the site until the 12th century, when it was replaced by an earlier church dedicated to Mary Magdalene. In the 18th century plans were developed for building a new church. But Napoleon had other ideas and decided that the building would be a “Temple to the Glory of the Great Army”. After his departure, some suggested that the building could be used as a railway station. But in the end it became the Magdalene Church.

The church has 52 Corinthian columns, each 20 metres high. The sculptures in the pediment show the Last Judgement, with Mary Magdalene kneeling at Jesus’ feet interceding for the damned.