ALL IS MISTY CALM

Last week the seas were benign in Providence Bay at Bennetts Beach and the town of Hawks Nest to our north. Here's an island strangly shaped like Ularu. The rare and endangered seabird, Gould's Petrel, comes ashore to breed and does so only on Cabbage Tree Island. Several isles make up a group in a protected nature reserves set in a marine reserve.
Broughton Island has a very tiny fishing village and several years ago, my relatives and others, went there over the waves for a quiet memorial and wake for our relative, who had been a very keen fisherman, but, sadly, died of cancer and was farewelled in that special setting.

The islands are a short distance north of Yaccaba Headland photographed from inside the entrance to Port Stephens, a large harbour given over to small towns, holidays, boating, whale and dolphin watching.

MINMI AN OUTER SUBURB

A little rural village that has almost become a suburb. People still ride trail bikes and horses to the pub surrounded by bushland but for how long.

RIDING

Sunday afternoon and riders are indoors taking a break at a watering hole on the outskirts of town where the suburbs petter out and riders escape to the byways for off-road riding.
Cowboy and Moby are tethered near the fence. Guess which one used to be called Dick but the current owner said he didn't like the name.
The landmark TV towers are there on Mount Sugarloaf.

NEWCASTLE EAST PUBLIC SCHOOL

Here is an appealing old school building on The Hill. Not just any old building. The sign states the earliest school in Australia 1816. But what is the reality? As an institution of learning the primary school had several sites until more recent times when it moved to this latest building.
The fluid and dynamic nature of 'signs.' Another sign (lower photo): Public education: Our students are Australia's future. What this really means is stop privatising education.
Why does this country copy others that way? Who wants to be like all the rest?

EVEN 'ROO PARENT NOSE A GOOD IDEA

" TEN MINUTES A DAY. The best investment you can make in your child's future. Reading aloud to your child is a great opportunity to share and bond with your child. At the same time, they're learning valuable skills and you're giving them a wonderful base to begin their education." Poster in Wallsend library.

One of the many paths to begin to 'see outside the square'

ULARU

Here is a frightening replica of the monolith Ularu. It serves as a roadhouse on the Pacific Highway north of Newcastle.
It was originally build by the Leyland Brothers as part of a theme park but that venture struggled and was unsuccessful. The Leyland Brothers, their wives and family were initially into outback adventure and pioneered entertaining films about their travels to remote corners of the land and probably influenced many others to take to the roads in their four wheel drives and take up camping or caravaning.

HOMMAGE TO NATHALIE

Reflections a la Nathalie, this city of Sydney is a close acquaintance of hers.
(That poster/billboard just happens to be there with the wrong message yet isn't that typical...even amusing in some way)