Suzanne returned from Cuba and Mexico last week, and the dog walking has returned to normal, with each of us taking us taking turns in walking Ari separately and Kayla and Maleko together. Though the walking has has become easier, the weather has changed. The bright, sunny days that existed during the four weeks whilst Suzanne was overseas have gone, to be replaced by days of low rainfall and overcast conditions. However, there is still very little wind, even though we live on the southern coast.
The roadside vegetation photos that I had been scoping for a reshoot with my film cameras have yet to result in any reshooting. The problem has been the lack of early morning sunlight around 8am. I am waiting for some clear, sunny mornings to reappear.
grass tree+ wattle, Waitpinga
There is a sense that these humble photos refer to inhabiting this place on the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. How can this ‘inhabiting a place’ be unpacked?
I’m starting to slowly realize that the snapshot style photography that I do whilst I am on the poodle walks is about the moment. They are photos of fleeting moments that cannot be rephotographed:
Kayla, Halls Creek Rd
They are also about nothing much. Just everyday scenes that I am walking through, or walking past and that I wouldn’t pay much attention to, if I didn’t have a camera and we weren’t hanging about. It is through the ‘hanging about’ that I start to see the little things around me that I wouldn’t normally notice. Continue reading “about the moment”
Suzanne has left Cuba and is now staying in Oaxaca in Mexico for 12 days or so before she and Lariane return to Australia.
In the meantime the household chugs along with its daily routines in the balmy autumn weather, with its still, sunny days.We are usually up before sunrise walking along the back country roads:
dawn, Baum Rd, Waitpinga
With the walk over I have time to take some photos with the Linhof film cameras as the sun starts peeping through the trees and lightens up bits of the roadside vegetation. The images have been scoped on earlier walks and the time when the sun lightens up the trees duly noted. So it is just a matter of setting things up and waiting.
Suzanne is now in Cuba before going to Mexico and I’m at home in Encounter Bay looking after the three standard poodles. It is four weeks of walking along back country roads on the morning and evening walks as Ari cannot walk over the rocks along the coast. This is Baum Rd, Waitpinga, which I walk down most mornings when Suzanne is away:
Baum Rd, Waitpinga
It is a no through road that leads to a couple of farm properties that have become holiday houses. The road side vegetation lessens as we approach the entrance to these properties. The owners are hostile to walkers whilst the local farmers in the area are not very friendly. Rarely do they slow down along these roads and say hello or give a wave. Continue reading “Baum Rd, Waitpinga”
Suzanne’s return from walking the Heysen Trail freed me up to walk Ari on his in the morning, and then walk with Maleko and Kayla amongst the coastal foreshore on the afternoon poodle walk. I am able to reconnect to what I was doing with the Littoral Zone.
Unfortunately, Suzanne is not at home in Encounter Bay long enough for me to do a road trip to the Mallee to continue to work on the Mallee Routes The week or so that Suzanne is at home before she goes to Cuba and Mexico is a brief interlude.
Whilst Suzanne has been away walking the Heysen Trail in and around the Flinders Ranges with friends, I have been without internet access for 4 days. It was disconnected on Thursday. Internode , I discovered, was rebuilding the NBN gateway at Stirling because those on the NBN broadband were experiencing frequent dropout–probably due to live streaming Netflix. Whilst I was disconnected I realised just how integral the internet is to my life.
Internode advised me this morning that they had things at their end finally up and running. However, I still had no access. I was then on the mobile phone with Internode’s tech support for 3 hours to reconfigure the Fritzbox 7490 before studio’s computers could access the internet. (We finally realised that the Fritzbox’s wizard was playing up and the settings in the Fritzbox modem had to be manually configured). We are still experiencing problems connecting the Fritzbox modem and the VoIP FritzFon: a second session with tech support this afternoon failed to establish a phone connection via the Fritzbox.
After being connected this morning I quickly uploaded a couple of images into my digital gallery for the Mallee Routes project that I working on.
Whilst I was disconnected from the internet the local boat ramp car park was still being extended, mainstream newspapers continue to sack their photographers, and I continued to walk the 3 standard poodles in the morning and evening. These are autumn days on the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia, and the mornings can be quite spectacular:
am, Baum Rd, Waitpinga
There was heavy mist on the fields along Baum Rd on Saturday morning, and the mist hung around after sunrise. The next morning I took my film cameras with me on the early morning walk along Baum Rd hoping for a repeat, but there there wasn’t any mist at all. Unfortunately, for me, there hasn’t been any mist since. Dam.
I returned from my quick but fruitful trip to Melbourne to solo household duties. Suzanne left the day after I returned from Melbourne to continue with her walking the Heysen Trail in the Flinders Ranges for 9 days or so. She is based at Quorn then Hawker. I am minding the standard poodles, walking 3 of them in the morning and the evening.
The places that I can walk are limited because Ari is nearing 16 and the Maleko and Kayla are 2-3 years old. So I mostly walk along the back country roads where Ari is able to walk and the other two can check the smells and hunt amongst the roadside vegetation. So my photographic options are rather limited:
trees, Jagger Rd, Waitpinga
I am pretty much limited to photographing the roadside vegetation whilst on the poodlewalks. The problem is that there aren’t many suitable quiet roads with limited or no traffic. So I end up walking the same roads in the morning and the evening.
On my morning poodle walks with Ari I have noticed how the Bluff Boat Ramp car park extension at the western end of Encounter Bay is taking out a beach to construct a carpark for boaties, which will they only use during the peak summer Xmas season.
The extension allows for an additional 34 parking spaces to accommodate 14 boat trailers and 20 cars. Currently there are 34 parking spaces for boaies at the Bluff Boat Ramp car park, and this only overflows 4 days a year around Xmas with the summer influx of boaties. The extension costs $548,300 with the Victor Harbor Council receiving funding of $242,150 from the state government for the project.The extension has State Agency (DPTI) support of the project and it was approved by the Development Assessment Commission.
Bluff carpark extension
The current parking area in front of Whalers is used by boaties, school buses, paddlers and sightseers and there is space for approximately 60 cars. But with the boat ramp expansion the parking area will be reduced to only 20 with the rest of area being used strictly for boaties and their cars and trailers. So half a million is being spent for the current car park for boaties and their trailers that will be used for 4 days a year.
A beach goes in the name of car parks to foster tourism.
Ari is going on 16 years of age and he has slowed down a lot. His hearing and sight are limited, he has dementia, and he is wobbly on his back legs. The course of acupuncture is keeping him going as is the companionship with the younger poodles.
The morning walks have decreased in terms of the time spent we spend walking. We walk slowly along the road down to the beach, shuffling along as it were.
Ari, am, Encounter Bay
The autumn mornings before sunrise are a great time to be walking. It is soft and gentle time. There a few walkers, runners and bikers but it is pretty quiet. So we can meander and hang out amongst the rocks along the beach . We are able to just enjoy the moments together and he still enjoys having his photo taken.
With walking along the rocky foreshore of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula out for an Ari, who is unsteady on his legs, I have shifted to walking on sandy beaches and country roads for his morning walk. He now walks on his own with me in the morning and with Suzanne in the afternoon. Kayla and Maleko walk together with Suzanne in the morning and with me in the afternoon. They are becoming easier to handle together.
This picture of roadside grasses– phalaris— was made on an early morning walk inbetween the trips to New Zealand and Tasmania in mid-February:
Grasses, Waitpinga
It had been grey and the light was flat and drab as we walked along the dusty, country road. Then the sun came out from behind the cloud cover for several minutes.
