Posted on December 6, 2023
I have to be honest. The past couple of weeks have been hectic and a little stressful. We had a call for my husband to go for an ultrasound. That is never a good feeling when you are dealing with melanoma. Some of his blood levels had spiked. However the good news was that the ultrasound came back clear, and they will just monitor the blood levels.
I had a crazy spike with my blood pressure. Not sure what caused it but I saw the doctor and he put me on medication. Now every time I take my blood pressure it is low. Can’t win.
Lukie has to go back for more ear surgery in the New Year. Apparently his body is rejecting his tubes. Poor little guy. In addition his tonsils are enlarged and his adenoids appear to be a problem as well. So I guess that those will come out as well.
In addition we have had a run of birthdays. Everyone is getting older, myself included. Which brings me to the theme of the month {Vintage}, and I am right up there with it. I am a collector of family history, and so when things have been handed down to me I hate to let them go. I have a clock that is almost 100 years old. It fell off the wall and broke the glass. The way the glass was fitted meant it was hard to replace. I could not get the same thickness. In fact everything was too thick. I could not see it in the garage, so I asked my husband what he had done with my clock, thinking that he had tossed it. Turns out it was hidden, and I asked him if there was a way to just put a piece of glass in and secure it so that I can get my clock back up on the wall. I am not sure that the clock has ever worked to be honest. I hung at my mother’s house for years with it not working. I may try to get a clock maker come to the house to get it going again.
Another {vintage} that I have packed away is a cutlery set that my grandmother was given in 1925 when she got married. I opened it up the other day thinking I could use the casing and the cutlery is all tarnished. But I packed the box back away again because I couldn’t bear to take the cutlery out and use the box for another set that I had bought. I wanted gold for the Christmas table and ended up using it for thanksgiving as well. I liked the look to be honest.
One of my favorite {vintage} items that I have is books. I have a collection of classics that include Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Rabbit Hill, Call of the Wild, Jane Eyre, The adventures of Sherlock Holmes. These are linked to beautiful memories of evenings cuddled up on the bed with my dad as he read us stories. I cannot wait for Luka to sit still enough to pull out these books and read to him.
Digging away in the same display cabinet is my mother’s tea set. It is named Crown Regent 1950s Gold Chintz from what I can see. I have a couple of variations of the set. In an endeavor to get gold plates for Christmas I set out to find a set locally and managed to pick up another variation of the same style. So for this theme I decided to use the china set to show my take on {Vintage}.










I am a collector of history (and my husband will say all sorts of junk), I love things that link me to the past. To the memories of loved ones, and times that have slipped away. I miss my folks and this is just a little part of them that I can pass on to my children, with the hopes that they will pass it on to their children. I have this doorstop that used to be at my grandmothers. Every time Luka comes to the house he makes a beeline for the doorstop. It is a soldier on a horse. I am not sure what they attraction is for him, but I told him that is going to be his.
This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Lupji Photography up next. I can’t wait to see what he has to share. You can see more of his work by clicking on his Facebook page and Instagram page. Definitely check out his sportrait art.
Don’t forget to share your photos on the theme {Vintage} Tag us #sharesix_vintage.
Look out for more blogs.
Stay well
Category: Share Six Tagged: #flatlay, #flora, #saucer, #sharesix_vintage, #sharleenstuartphotography, #teacup, #teaset, #vintagebooks
Posted on November 6, 2023
For the month of November, Lupji Photography chose the theme {Shallow Depth of Field}. I have to confess that this is one of my favorite themes and I love to get out into nature to get these images.
I had the perfect opportunity to get out today. A old school friend arrived at our home on Friday. He has been hitch hiking through the USA, sleeping on the beach, catching up with friends, sleeping on more beaches. He is a very interesting character who has traveled the world. Today instead of sitting watching sport, which him and Richard did yesterday, I dragged him out into the wetlands for the morning. That freed up Richard to do his own thing.
For me nature is beautiful. I love finding leaves on the boardwalk and taking pics of them. I love that sliver of focus that I am able to capture this way.










Getting out into nature does wonders for my soul, and I have needed it this week. This walk was not as quite and contemplative as I may have wanted but it has helped lift a little of the sorrow of last week.
I would encourage you to keep in touch with family and friends, let them know you are thinking of them. If they are close by give them a hug. If they are further away, drop them a note letting them know you are thinking of them. You don’t know when time will become short or when time will end, either for yourself or your friend. While I stayed in touch with my friend, I was still stunned when I heard the news he had passed away so unexpectedly. We have no idea when time will stop, lets not waste it unnecessarily. This is in memory of you my beautiful friend. Myles you were my rock.
This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Elizabeth of It’s Still Life Photography by Elizabeth Willson up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Facebook page and Instagram page. Definitely check out her incredible art.
Don’t forget to share your photos on the theme {Shallow Depth of Field} Tag us #sharesix_shallowdepthoffield.
Look out for more blogs.
Stay well
Posted on October 30, 2023

We’re back in Sydney post the Bondi walk and I had things on my list that I wanted to see. In 1846 the Customs House (below) was built near the Sydney city center. Over a period of 10 years from 1837 to 1847, convicts worked to reclaim the land to form Circular Quay. The Customs house form the solitary symbol of British power over the land and sea, with custom officers checking for contraband and smuggling.

Towering over the customs house is this very unique building. Again I am fascinated by the juxtaposition of old and new buildings and grateful that Sydney has maintained it’s unique history with the upkeep of these interesting old buildings.

We were not the only people taking pictures of the city that day.

Below is a mix of new and old that we found on our walk back into the city center.




Below is the Sydney Sky Tower. We did not go up but it stood tall amongst the buildings and was pretty neat to look at.

The building that impressed me the most, and one that I had researched and also been told to visit was the Queen Victoria building. I loved the old dome roofing and the beautiful arched windows, along with the intricate scrolling on the outer façade of the building. Walking inside this gorgeous building is a shopping mall. And I wanted one pic, but I did get a few more.


The pastel window in the ladies bathroom was gorgeous. In fact, the ladies bathroom was impressive.

In the center of the mall was this tall clock with historical images in the center of the clock.

There were also some incredible stain glass windows.


This was the photo I wanted showing all the levels and the beams of the roofing.

We’re back out on the street again and the first thing I saw was this vibrant burst of color.

Last but not least I was out of time and added to that super tired. I will explore the clock tower on another day.

We’re back at the hotel, ready to put our feet up, but there is still the repacking to do. We have to switch up the contents of the suitcases because we are traveling Qantas in the morning to Melbourne, and honestly my camera back is equivalent to a small suitcase. So I am going to be booking my two suitcases and Richard’s one, and he will take clothes for both of us in his small suitcase, just in case.
My nerves are already getting the better of me. We are off for a quick dinner and then it is off to bed. We have an early start in the morning back to the airport. I am looking forward to seeing family again. We have not seen our nieces since they were 5 and now the one has a little girl who is 5. Crazy how time has flown. I am so glad that we are doing this trip now.
Check out my friend Lupji Photography to see what he has to share this month.
Until next time …. stay well.
Posted on October 6, 2023
This months theme was chosen by Katherine of Cobert Photography and it is {Artifical Light}. I don’t typically use additional lighting so this challenge was harder for me.
However, I was part of a meet up Photography group that did some studio work, and so I pulled some images that I had taken and edited them. I also pulled an image I found of my daughter during her pregnancy.
The meetups happened over a period of about 1 year.
I wish I could say that I rushed out and took photo’s but it did not happen this month.








In Amy’s case she has all the studio lights, but never uses them. At that stage she had them out so that we could do this maternity shoot.

If I have to be honest I wish the meetups were still happening and that we were still spending time working with different lighting but as all things happen for some reason or another, this group stopped meeting.
Perhaps one day I will consider asking my daughter for her light set and turn the bedroom into a studio and play some more. Right now my other room is my at home office, craft room, come Luka playroom.
This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Katherine of Cobert Photography is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Facebook page and Instagram page. Definitely check out her incredible art.
Don’t forget to share your photos on the theme {Artificial Light} Tag us #sharesix_artificiallight.
Look out for more blogs.
Stay well
Category: Share Six Tagged: #lighting, #maternity, #models, #portraits, #sharesix_artificiallight, #sharleenstuartphotography, #studio
Posted on September 6, 2023
This month theme {Beautiful Light} was chosen by It’s Still Life Photography by Elizabeth Willson. Beautiful light can mean different things to different people. Since I am still working through my Australian images, I decided to look though them and find the images where the light appealed to me. Walk through them with me as I share just a little bit more of our Australian trip.












In addition to the Australian photos are some of my older sunrise and sunset photos which are favorites of mine.



And, finally, a few outdoor flora shots.


Beautiful light, I believe, is in the eye of the beholder. We all see light differently. When googling the definition of light my favorite was this found in the Marriam Webster dictionary:
“the sensation aroused by stimulation of the visual receptors”
This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Liz of It’s Still Life Photography by Elizabeth Willson is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her Facebook page and Instagram page. Definitely check out her incredible art.
Don’t forget to share your photos on the theme {Beautiful Light}
Look out for more blogs.
Stay well
Posted on August 28, 2023
This blog is probably encompasses the 30 minutes, plus a few add on’s. The Sydney Opera house is an impressive sight to see. Unfortunately we timed it badly because 10 days after we left there was a light up Sydney event and the opera house looked stunning with all these lights on them. However, it is what it is. The fact that I was there makes it so much more impressive.
An unknown fact, maybe, is that I love different kinds of architecture and I have to be honest you just have to be impressed by this incredible building. In fact there was a lot of different architecture in Sydney that appealed to me.
So what is the history to the opera house. From what I have read Sir Eugene Goossens, conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra believe that “all people, regardless of their class or background, had the right to enjoy fine music”. In 1956 a competition was created for the proposed new building. In 1954 the beginning stage to support an Opera House began. In 1957, Jorn Utzon, an unknown Danish architect was announced as the winner. The estimated cost of the design would be around 3.5 million pounds It was believed that this design would become on of the greatest buildings in the world. In 1959 the construction began. Stage 1 was completed in February 1963. Stage 2 began in 1063 and took 2 years to complete. Due to a number of issue the cost of the building had now increased to 13.7 million pounds, In February 1966, after some conflict Utzon quit the project, blaming the then Minister, Davis Hughes, of forcing him out. In April 1966, a panel of Australian architects were appointed to complete the job. In 1966, Peter Hall was asked to complete the Opera House. Initially he declined, but later accepted the request. In January 1967, stage 2 was completed. Stage 3 focused on the interiors. On October 20, 1973 the Opera House was finally opened by Queen Elizabeth 11, and on September 28, 1973. the Opera House’s first productions opened. I have radically summarized the story. Credit is given to https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/our-story/peter-hall-and-completion-opera-house for this information. There were 6 pages of interesting reading, which if you are interested in architecture and in this incredible building it is well worth visiting the website.





















Sadly we did not get to go inside, we were out way to early in the morning and nothing was open, but I enjoyed every minute of this architectural masterpiece.
One of the other things I wanted to get was some images from the ferry both day time and night time.
These were taken on our return to Sydney were we headed out to Watson Bay on the Saturday evening to meet up with a cousin of mine and his family. Here are a few night shots coming back into the Harbor from the moving ferry.



These images were taken the last day of our Australian trip. We headed out to Manly via the very efficient ferry system. Although there were tourists it was a little blustery, and so most of them headed inside. I on the other hand was determined to stick it out.



Next stop will be the some of the downtown area that we got to walk through, so look out for the posts.
My friend Lupji from Lupji Photography is co-blogging with me today. Don’t forget to check his blog to see what he has been up to.
You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.
Stay well.
Posted on August 7, 2023
We postponed 30 Minutes in the Life last month as Lupje had a conference and since it is just the two of us blogging these days, we are open to being flexible. That said, I have been editing for the past 3 hours. Friday I spent most of the morning making a birthday cake with intricate flowers and fondant icing. It takes a while to get that all together. Saturday was a memorial service and then it was Lukie for a sleepover. We took him home after his sleep today and had enough time for a swim and hang out and then it was back home to edit. Life seemed really busy this weekend.
That said, it was back to editing our time in Sydney. These photos come from a short walk from the Oversees Passenger Terminal point along the green walk way, under the bridge, around the corner and back again. Seems short but I managed to find a lot to see.
As I have said before, is that I love the fusion of old and new. You will see it in so many pictures. I love that they have preserved the old buildings while adding in new development. We often see historical buildings torn down to make way for new and I did not get that feel in Sydney.

This is the ASN Co building and it was and is an extremely prominent building in Sydney. The Flemish styled building was designed by William Wardell. It was one of the many store houses found in the Rocks in the early years.

Walking on I came across this piece of artwork on our walk that looks like a front to a the Park Hyatt Hotel.

It was in the same area that I came across this young man sitting on a set of steps, probably listening to his phone. I used this image in yesterdays blog where we were challenged to create the Adamski effect. This probably was one of my favorite images that I created.

Moving along the walkway there were a few boats moored in a small bay area and I loved the rigging to this boat.

We arrived at Hickson Road Reserve and stopped to look back. This is just a different perspective of the Brewery, The Squires Landing and city sky line.

One thing I have to say. People were out and about running, walking, doing some form of exercise. For me, it was walking and a fair bit of it. It was amazing to be standing just below this enormous structure, The Sydney Harbor Bridge.

Across the waterway, near Milsons Point area is Luna Park, the amusement and entertainment park. I have seen some amazing pics incorporating the Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Lunar park.

Another thing that I really loved about Sydney was the billboards showing the history of the city. There was a stretch of them where we walked. Above was the view of Millers Point from Balmain East with the Sydney Observatory in the Center c.1870

Above is the view along Sussex Street from Napoleon Street c.1890

Above, Trinity Avenue, Dawes Point, site of the present day Trinity Avenue playground c.1901.
This gave me a feel for the early days in Sydney when my grandfather would have been growing up.

Looking across and beyond the Opera House is the Royal Australian Navy Heritage Center and this large ship was looming in the background.

From what I can work out this building is the present day Arts Exchange. It was initially built between 1902-1908 for the purpose of a direct current power station. In 2015 it was restored and now houses meeting rooms and facilities along with it being a major hub for Sydney’s major festivals.

Heading back we are again looking at the Brewery and the city skyline.

I actually took this photo for our staff. We use Salesforce, USA as our platform that houses our EMR system.

The local gulls.

Again a fusion of green space, old and new. This area is the famous Rocks of Sydney. In the background you will see the Metcalfe Bond Stores which was built in the 1910’s. A feature of the building is the steel and timber columns. From what I have read there could be a gin distillery opening up there in the future.

I came across this graphic while walking along the area. The painting painted by convict artist, Thomas Watling shows two men, watching the sun rise and ship set sail on the morning tide. The board cites this painting as c1797 and goes on to share that many of the landmarks can still be identified such as Pinchgut Island (For Denison) and Kirribilli Point. The man with the telescope appears to be looking at the small hut built for the Wangal man Bennelong, on the site of what is now the Sydney Opera House.

This is a typical picture of Richard, waiting patiently for me to catch up with him. I get side tracked with what is around me.

We are back walking past the Oversees Passenger Terminal back towards Circular Quay.

While there is a lot of old in Sydney, there is also a lot of glass and I for one, would not want to be the person cleaning the windows of those Sky Scrapers.

We had a quick stop at Circular Quay to learn more about the ferry system and how it works, what the running times are and when they stop. We are going to be making use of the ferries in the coming week.

Next stop will be the Opera House, so look out for the posts.
My friend Lupji from Lupji Photography is co-blogging with me today. Don’t forget to check his blog to see what he has been up to.
You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.
Stay well.
Posted on August 6, 2023
How did we get to August. Seriously this year suddenly seems to be flying. Share Six is up again and this month I chose to challenge myself with something I skipped in another project. The theme for this month is the {Adamski Effect}. Its a very neat technique, but I was challenged with new tutorials and working with my old CS6. Sometimes I did not have the tools they were talking about or I had to get to them via a different format. That said I did what I could to try and get the effect I was looking for.
I used my Australia photo’s again to play around with this technique. It is painstaking selecting process to get the main object, and I think on a couple my selection was a little off. I also found that they talked about modifying and expanding the selection but that did not seem to work for me. Then I found on some images it would fill with content aware and on others it would not. The effects typically used a motion blur but I did do one with gaussian blur to see what kind of effect I would get.
All that said, it was fun to see how creative I could get. So some of these pics you may have already seen in their normal format and now you will see them in the Adamski Effect.

I choose this image because it was the easiest of images to start with. That said I was not crazy about the black streaks to the right of the man. It was a person and I should either have selected them as well or cloned them out. This was taken on our walk from the hotel to Darling Harbor. Australia has what I think they would call green walkways. No cars and it is the best.

This image had the tall buildings and I kind of visualized the rainbow effects being a little different. We started walking up towards Bangaroo Reserve and then kind of did a detour and I am not sure where we resurfaced but we did eventually find our way back to our hotel.

So this is the effect I was looking for, however, I was not too crazy about the giant white pole in the way but I had spent too much time on the selection and was not starting over again. I loved the movement in the tall buildings. This was on one of the main streets in Sydney, George Street, on our walkabout back to our hotel.

This is probably my favorite of the images I played with. Instead of blurring vertical, I blurred horizontal. This was taken the morning we went to watch the sunrise over the Opera House. This guy was randomly sitting on the steps listening and looking at his phone.

I honestly love the background effect to this building. The boat was on it’s way in but it feels a little awkward given the height of the buildings. This was taken from the Sydney Harbor Bridge looking back towards Luna Park – the amusement park near the Kirribilli markets.

You met this guy in my last blog of the walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte. For the most part I think I did a reasonably good selection of the surfer and I do love the effect of the slightly off horizontal blur. And who doesn’t like a surfer.

For this image I used a Guassian blur instead of a motion blur. This is such a common picture of Richard – he always has his toes in the water. That comes from growing up within walking distance to the beach and spending time out on the water either fishing, surfing, paddle boarding, you name it and he’s probably done it.

For this image I was back to the motion blur. However, I did not want to do too much so this has more of a painterly look to it. This is the 12 Apostles on The Great Ocean Road. What I will say is I think that they are down to about 6 or 7 apostles these days. This image was taken on an overcast day with lots of wind and water spray. The scenery is stunning and this will be back on my bucket list when we go back. The cliffs here are incredible and so high.

For this image I used a horizontal motion blur. I loved the colors in this image. We had visited Australia in the fall and so we got to see a lot of reds and yellows. I am not sure where this was. It could have been after we came out of the Great Otway National Park. We had taken a detour through the Park to the light house.

I did this image twice. The first time I just isolated the leaves, but then it looked like floating leaves so I redid this to get the vine in to ground the leaves. Again I opted for a slightly off horizontal effect. This was taken during our time in Melbourne where we decided one afternoon to take a drive to a wine farm. What I loved about it was that it was about 15 minutes from where our family live. I could do that easily on a weekend for sure.

This is my last image. By now I was tired of tirelessly selecting the image. My version does not have “select subject”. So it was a painstakingly back and forth to get the selection as accurate as I could. I loved the way the colors in the back ground blurred. This was taken in Sydney 2 days before we left. There was a local market that we thought we would walk through and see what we could see. I had visions of bringing things home but that did not work out. So we ended on one of those Richard walks through the Rocks and up to the Lord Nelson Hotel and then made our way back to the hotel. This was a great day, as my childhood friend, who was now living in Brisbane came through with a friend to Sydney, and after a few beers back at the market area we headed by ferry out to Watson’s Bay to meet my cousin and his wife for the first time.
So those were my attempts at the Adamski Effect. Not perfect but I enjoyed trying to get the effect. I really hope that you will be challenged to try it as well.
Here are a few links that you can check out when trying:
https://photographychef.com/how-to-get-the-adamski-effect-in-photoshop-step-by-step/
I used this one a fair bit.
and this one as well.
This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. I hope that they are all challenged to do my (Adamski Effect) challenge. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Janet of @wiredtothemoon_ is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her IG page. Definitely check out her incredible art.
Look out for more blogs.
Stay well
Posted on July 6, 2023
Two months in a row we have tried to do a particular theme. It’s not happening. First, I came back from Australia to a dead computer. It took around 3 weeks before I got it back. Then this past weekend, I managed to damage my 34″ monitor giving it the kiss of death. A huge black spot and then black lines going up and down the screen. Reminded me of Christmas bows, and it was definitely a expensive oops. That said I managed to get a new monitor via Amazon within 3 days and it is all set up, and it is better than the last one so I am all good.
Most of us were challenged with the theme we had originally chosen. So to keep it simple this month, we made the choice easy. The theme we finally selected for Share Six is (Your Choice). However, just a heads up this post is going to be a lot longer than 6 images. I would like to keep the whole story in one blog.
So why Bondi Beach to Bronte? My childhood friend, who lives in Brisbane, shared with me that this was a must do on our list. She told me this was the opportunity to get out and explore the natural coastline of New South Wales, and to really enjoy the beauty of this area. Not everything is about the city.
It’s around 7:30am and we are trundling along the city streets, by bus, watching with interest the world going by. The outer suburbs of Sydney city are much older and the buildings are dated, but they are interesting as well. People hop and off the bus using the tap on and tap off system.
Richard always has these options of how to get to places that involve walking. We could walk from the main Bondi terminal or catch the bus. Obviously I opted for the bus.
The weather is not bad, but kind of hazy while we were heading along the walk. This is also the one day in Sydney that I carried a light jacket. I wasn’t expecting to be cold but there was a gusting wind coming off the ocean.

We finally arrive, about 20 minutes later, at the infamous Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is Sydney’s most famous beach. Is it a nice beach town? Absolutely. We did not explore the town as we were on a time agenda but it looked like there was a fair amount of shopping that could be done. As for the beach, it’s a wide open beach with lots of space and it spans a fair distance. I could imagine that it could be quite busy on the weekends. There were some surfers out, not as many as I expected. Perhaps because it was a weekday.
Richard walked down onto the beach. He loves to get his toes in the sand and he wanted to get closer to the ocean, since his camera was his phone.


I, on the other hand, decided to walk along the promenade taking photo’s of the graffiti. Eventually Rich and I met up again at the end of the beach boardwalk.






Below I tried to capture the bay’s two heads and the rolling waves in-between. The surf appeared to be pumping, however the only person I saw going into the waves was the lifeguard. The were a few people hanging out on the beach enjoying the weather.



Bondi Beach has everything you could want. Lots of restaurants and cafe’s, some interesting shopping area, a grassed area for you to sit on or picnic, and a very interesting board walk filled with beautiful graffiti. I did spot this interesting surfers code below as well.




At the end of Bondi beach we climbed stairs (the first of many) up towards Bondi Icebergs on Notts Avenue. Bondi Icebergs is a local swimming club with a restaurant and a beautiful sea pool.
This is where we started our Bondi to Bronte walk. For the most part the walkway is concrete, with a lot of ups and downs. The map below gives you a time frame for the walk but I think that is for speed walkers. To give you a time frame, the first photo I took was at 7:58am (at Bondi Beach), and the last one of the walk was at 9.26am. Of course, I keep stopping to take photos and Richard keeps walking, eventually he would have to wait for me to catch up. Clearly the beach area is a more upmarket area and the homes are really nice along the walkway. Perfect views of the water line.
Another heads up is that this is a popular walk so you are constantly passing people. There is also a exercise workout stations along the way as well.



We walked through some incredible rock formations. The pathway left the concrete road way and headed down some steps and along a created cement pathway.








I loved the rocky out crops and the different colors in the stone . We passed Mackenzie’s point lookout, and were heading down towards Mackenzie’s Bay. From what I read every so often Mackenzie’s Bay becomes a beach when the sand gets washed up. For the most it is a bay.





Beyond Mackenzie’s Bay we arrive at Tamarama Bay seen above in the distance. Tamarama Bay generally offers rough surfing conditions and strong rip tides and is generally better for suntanning. As you can see there is a wide open beach.







Moving along we now were on the last stretch of the walk, from Tamarama Beach, to Bronte. Again there is this rugged coastline to traverse and steps going down and back up again. While Bronte is a surfing beach, the water can be dangerous at times.








Bronte was the end of our journey, but the walk continues and you can follow the trail to Coogee Beach and Gordon’s Bay and beyond to Malabar Headland.
The one interesting thing that happened was switching busses on our way back. If you are traveling from Bronte to Sydney, the bus drops you off outside the terminal in Bondi. The pick up bus was about 15 steps away from where we were dropped off. However, due to our lack of knowledge we ended up walking into the terminal and then had to look at virtually every pick up point before trying to find our way back out of the terminal to the street. My advice check the outside bus stops prior to going into the terminal.
Bondi to Bronte was a beautiful walk and I certainly recommend it if you are traveling in the area. The area is rugged and stunning and like Day 2 on The Great Ocean Road it coast line was very impressive.
This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. The sneak peaks are stunning and I cannot wait to see the rest. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My incredibly talented friend Janet of @wiredtothemoon_ is up next. I can’t wait to see what she has to share. You can see more of her work by clicking on her IG page. Definitely check out her incredible art.
Next up is Days 2 of exploring Sydney – The Opera House, a short walk alongside the Botanical gardens, a bit more exploring through the city before packing out bags to head to Melbourne.
Look out for more blogs.
Stay well
You can also find me on Facebook, and Instagram.
Posted on July 4, 2023
Sleep came early the previous night. 5pm and we were lights out. That does not bode well for wake up time. 3am and we are hello… it’s still dark outside. Somewhere around 4:30 Richard decides that he is going to walk down to the Opera House and go and watch the sunrise. Well, of course I am going to go, but I see no point in going all the way back to the hotel, to go all the way back virtually to the Opera House to start our day.
So off we go…… navigating our way in the semi dark, down to George Street and along to the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It’s somewhere around 5am. We are going to hang out there to watch the sun come up around the Opera House.


We stop at the end of the pier adjacent to the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The bridge is one huge piece of metal. Fascinating structure that spans the river from one side to the other. Interestingly, you can actually climb the arch of the bridge. Not something I would choose to do but I found it interesting that others would want to do that. It’s a lot of steps and I am not crazy about heights. When you stand under the bridge you really look so small. Looking across the river, you can see Luna Park, the amusement and theme park, in the distance.

One thing I do have to say about the people of Sydney, they are very health conscious. There were more people out running so early in the morning than I expected on a work day.



Sunrise is happening and there is nothing nicer than watching the day start with the sun peaking out through the clouds. OK, the setting sun is pretty awesome as well but we really did not do any of that on this trip. However, watching the sunrise over the Opera House is pretty epic. I never thought I would ever see that happen.









This morning was the culmination of a dream that has long been on our hearts. Standing in Sydney watching the sun come up was a thrill. Standing in the city of my grandfathers birth was even a bigger thrill.
Next on our agenda is the Bondi Coastal walk. So another cup of coffee and sausage roll later, yes…. I said sausage roll. Do you know when I last had a decent sausage roll? Not for a long long time, unless I made it myself. Okay I digress. With the coffee and sausage roll in hand we head back to Circular Quay to the bus that will take us to Bondi Beach. Join me as we walk along one of the beautiful coastlines of New South Wales in my next blog.
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sharleenstuart
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