Sandcastles

Long ago people enjoyed swimming in the Cooks River at Marrickville and Tempe. They would take day trips by train from the overcrowded and polluted inner city - from places like Darlinghurst and Paddington - to enjoy the fresh river water and the clean Marrickville air. Picnics, swimming, boating...

Marrickville even had its own lifesavers: this is the Steel Park River Patrol Lifesaving club sometime in the 1930s. Quite a bunch of spunks. I wonder what colours their stripey swimming costumes were?

Actually, although the Cooks River is unfit for swimming now, and may still be the most polluted waterway in Australia, we do have a beach of sorts. A little bit of sand only about 15 metres wide in a curve of land between mangrove patches. A few years ago it was always littered with Coke bottles, discarded homemade bongs, bits of toilet paper and the occasional car tyre, but lately it's been much cleaner... and last week, on a day I left work early and took a long walk after hearing an old friend was dead, here's what I saw:

Fedeterranean Furniture

I spotted this dear little cabinet languishing on the nature strip last week and brought it home immediately. I'm slightly ashamed to say I abandoned it again this evening. Like a very bad adoptive mother I put it back on the street, unable to actually countenance it in the house. It is a classic piece of Fedeterranean furniture: note the faux marble, the faux walnut veneer, the faux gold handle.



I'm not all bad. Here's another true story: today on King St Newtown I paid $5.00 for a big tub of strawberries. I was asked a few minutes later by a beggar for some money, and as I had none left I gave her the strawberries. She was pleased & I saw her sharing them with some of her colleagues a bit later at the bus stop outside the Bank Hotel.

Beauty in modest trinkets

Before Christmas I looked around Marrickville for a home decorated with coloured lights to feature here, but never found one that took my fancy. Today I took a slightly different route on my walk and spotted this delightful assemblage in front of a modest single fronted home on Illawarra Rd, way down near the river. As well as flashing lights these people have set up two decorated trees, numerous Santas, a set of sliver bells, a fairy castle (Santa's home?) a nativity scene, and a set of elephants (heading towards the manger).

The nativity scene. I like the toy pony at far left, and the dangling angels.


From left to right: Daddy & baby Santa, a fairy castle, Mr & Mrs Santa.

From left to right: nativity scene, cherub figurine holding book, set of black elephants.

Bless the Beasts & the Children

I heard on ABC news radio yesterday that a 14 year old girl had successfully fought off an abductor in Dulwich Hill in the morning. In Herbert St he had grabbed her around the waist and tried to drag her into his white utility vehicle. She escaped and ran to a nearby school. It turns out she is in Hugh's class...

Teach your kids, especially the girls, to fight dirty with whatever they've got - teeth, nails, fists, feet - and to go hard for his balls & eyes. Teach them to scream "Fire!!" and then scream and keep screaming. Teach them to be on the lookout. What else is there to do?

Barbies and Kens

Once a month or so there's a market outside the RPA hospital in Camperdown. Yesterday I spotted these baskets of Barbies and Kens ($1.00 each). I liked how the vendor had separated them along gender lines. I also like how most of them don't have any clothes left.

Political Poo Art

Our Glorious Leader... I walked through some back streets of Newtown yesterday afternoon and came across this under a gum tree in Station Street. The flag is about the size of a matchbox. I've never seen one before but would love to know more about this political/arty action. So clever!

Signs of Marrickville

I went for a long walk last week, from my place up Illawarra Rd to the Addison Rd Markets, & took lots of photos of signs. I like ordering things, putting them in sets & making patterns. My friend Zoe would say that it's because of my Virgoan sensibilities. Here are some of my favourites - there are more on my flickr account.


The neon sign of the Vietnamese cafe opposite the Hellenic Bakery.


An old houseplate.


The hepC graffiti on the railway bridge.