travel bugging me

nearly eighteen months since we travelled overseas for the most amazing trip of my lifetime....geez. I can't help but think we won't be travelling again for a while, so it gets quite difficult seeing some of the good deals that are around at the moment.

Seeing a couple of my friends' blogs (and their recent travels) has inspired me to post a few more images from our European trip last year. I really loved Killarney, and Ireland, in general. I regret a little (a lot) that we didn't get to Scotland: NEXT TIME !!

This sensational river in County Clare had me desperately wishing I had a fishing rod in the back of the hire car. The lovely old mossy bridge shape immediately took my thoughts home to the town of Richmond and its famous convict-designed and built heritage bridge over the Coal River...

The mossy old tree trunk in the Killarney National Park gardens

This is the River Liffey flowing through the centre of old Dublin town, with the "Ha'Penny Bridge" in the foreground The greenish coloured penthouse to the left is owned by members of U2. They hang out there when home . .

The doors of Dublin - just sensational.

Extraordinary curved building designs in Bath, England.

David Gray & just how good are Radiohead - really?

I can't believe it is ten years since David Gray put out White Ladder - what a beautiful disc it is. Love listening in particular to "My Oh My" "Nightblindness" and "Silver Lining", along with the popular cut "Babylon". Tempered, subtle chords with gorgeous changes that sit somewhere between the evening light and your soul. I continue to be amazed at how his Dylanesque vocals get right inside me, each and every time I come back to the tracks. Love it - great stuff.

But on the subject of the post: Radiohead. Just how good are they? It's not hard to find writers saying they are the modern equivalent of The Beatles or The Who for sheer power of influence in the work of those that followed. I have to say I find In Rainbows compellingly weird and sooo turgid in parts - but very difficult to stop listening to. I reckon I must have discovered Radiohead about ten years later than all my colleagues.

Glad that I have...

RACT Insurance Portraiture Prize winner

"Fin" by Nathan Grey of Lindisfarne, Tasmania has won this year's RACT Insurance Youth Portraiture art prize.

It's a cracker of a painting.

An exhibition of the 33 finalists - all Tasmanian and under 30 years of age - will commence at Devonport Regional Arts Gallery Sept 5-20 and move to the Academy Gallery at the Inveresk campus of UTas in Launceston Sept 25-Oct 12, then onto the Sidespace Gallery Oct 17-31 in Hobart.

check it out - it was a really good exhibition last year.

extraordinary Tasmanian East Coast

This is the extraordinary East Coast of Tasmania (from Binalong Bay, near St Helens).

The orange-coloured lichen on the rocks on this part of the East Coast is a familiar regional visual locator for those who have visited the area.

Our family and friends love it.

wrought iron

This is some wrought-iron gates on a driveway next to the Barefield Inn near Ennis in Ireland, with the light playing some tricks. It rained a lot in Ireland in June last year - the rain had just stopped before I took this snap...it was absolutely pouring on the day when we tried to vist the famed Dingle Peninsula and drove through "...the Cork and Kerry mountains" - however we didn't mee t with "Cap'n Farrell, an' the money he was countin'..." etc etc. Whisky in The Jar. As I understand it, Metallica covered the old number (?)

Ah, wonderful Irish stuff sung by Patsy Watchorn/Dubliners - and a ripper version by Thin Lizzy is around. Just brilliant.

terraces in Dublin

The Georgian terraces in Dublin were, quite simply, extraordinary in their simple beauty.

It was a wonderful city, but a bit on the dirty side, and the people on the rude&arrogant side, as well.

But the Liffey, the wonderful river. Made me want to sing ballads - on the spot.

Paris tunnel

I have been reading Federal Budget papers, portfolio budget statements and a variety of analyses all night, trying to get a good picture of the appropriation bills and what they mean for all of us...

Urgh. It's done my head in.

My brain feels a bit like this shot from last year's trip to Paris; slightly jumbled-up...perhaps an artistic recreation of the kind of frantic imagery rushing past Henri Paul's eyes as he drove that infamous black Merc way over the limit(s).