gargoyles by request

That's enough gargoyles.

Nike of Samothrace

Not a running shoe.

Bondi Beach, yesterday evening

Paradise regained

I took this photo out of the window of my small apartment. Small apartment, big view. A developer wanted to put a hotel between me and this. A grass-roots protest campaign was fomented in my building. The case went to court. The Development Application has been denied. Victory. (However, I still have to walk past Poo On Sticks every day.)

Bubenreuth cemetery

They say that birds sing loudest in cemeteries, perhaps because the worms are juiciest there. I think we hear them more clearly because we are quiet. My wish is to be cremated, after any useful bits of me have been taken. But I like to walk in cemeteries. It is peaceful. Things move gently into perspective. This headstone has no engraving.

Neukirchen

The trouble with photographing Bavarian alpine villages is that they are just so damn picturesque.

wurst

Delicate sweet and savoury. I ate this perfect meal in the Frankische Sweiss at a family Sunday lunch table. Thanks, Schatzi.

Ribes rubrum

These red currants grow in Omi's garden in Mainz, where she calls them Johannesberren. I picked two kilos of the little buggers. Then we made Rote Grutze.

gendarme

Do you think this poilceman knew there was a camera on him?

Chilehaus

In the port city of Hamburg they like to build with bricks.

Cacatua galerita

There is a flock of wild sulphur-crested cockatoos living the high life in my urban neighbourhood. Like many native Australian birds they are flashy, raucous, opportunistic, marvelous. Their black currant eyes shine with tenderness and calculation. My friend Kate drew a cartoon of me as a cockatoo for my 30th birthday, long ago. I think they are my dreaming animal.

a swell couple

Shiny.

Punica granatum

Today I bought pomegranate juice at the supermarket. It was on special.

the language of cranes

I look up at things.

Pont Neuf

I look under things.

Marvelous Melbourne

I am flying to Melbourne today on a Qantas aeroplane. Melbourne is the capital of the State of Victoria. In common with everyone I know who lives in Sydney, I love Melbourne and take every chance to go there. Yet according to the media, there exists a bitter, ineluctible rivalry between the two cities. What gives? [thanks to Stan Orbit, certified genius, for correcting my spelling.]

high beetle

This guy lives near the summit of Schneibstein, a Bavarian alp. I saw him on my way up in my new Lady Lillehammer boots.