Return of the Sculptures

It's that time of the year again, time for Sculptures by the Sea. The time in "autumn" when Cottesloe beach is turned into a display of local and international art all made accessible to the public. You'll even find 96fm's favorite breakfast anchor paid the art a visit.

While there was no giant goon bag as the talk of the city this year, the event didn't go by with no snafus. First, someone must have underestimated the tides of the Indian Ocean and a couple of statues were "in" the sea instead of "by the sea". Secondly, in the video, you'll see kids boncing on the "water dreaming" balls. THis is what it looked like when I got there.

But the rest of the art inspired conversations (what is that supposed to be) and thousands of photos. It ranged from the abstract to the more natural with a little of everything in between.

 

 I found these weird faced babies a little strange. 

How would you like the job of polishing those tooshies?

 My highlights this year were the "roo shooter" and "ashes to ashes" and a piece of the sea.

When it's easy to get caught up in cleaning & shopping, traffic & road rage, and the week ahead, a few beautiful things on the beach help us all to slow down on Sunday and be amazed and a little confused.

The Small Town Life

Just a half a mile from the the railroad tracks...(you can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant)

Or you end up at the town of Pingelly.

For Wheatbelt Western Australia it's a big town. A TWO pub town.

With every thing you need.

The busiest spot in town was the combined antique store and local cafe where I met the MOST INTERESTING customer who was so excited to find the perfect dress, even if she couldn't get the poor old shopkeeper to get it to zip up.

With a piece of the best caramel square slice (think thick cakey pastry crust filled with sweet caramel) and a flat white from the cafe, I sat outside and watched the utes towing sheep drive by from Woolorama.

 And if the pubs, cafes, and second hand shops aren't enought for you (what kind of person are you?!), you can stroll through the war memorial to take some pictures for the local Photo Club

But this is only one small town, with so many more to see...

Two Sides of a Coin

This past weekend was bookended by two concerts, both under the Southern Cross on Orion's Belt, both packed with WA's finest rubbing elbows, both were stellar performances, and both were free (it pays to know important people in high places ;)).

The weekend started off with Opera in the Park (which you might remember from last year). A lovely summer evening (well I guess technically autumn) in the park, Perth's glowing skyline as the backdrop, good friends and scrumptious nibbles complete with dried figs and Vietnamese pork rolls made with Thai chicken, oh, and an opera.

This year was Barber of Seville. The second half of the story left something to be desired. No one died, there were no physical fights, and the Barber didn't actually DO anything. It was classic opera, brilliant trills, lulling melodies, and what can I say, everything sounds better in Italian.

And this was the second concert...

The weekend closed with an American rock flair: Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters.  While I'm not the biggest hard rock fan, some of their big hits were regulars on Q105 growing up in the 860. Remember this one?

 And they are performers. The drummer could have been mistaken for Animal, the muppet.

And for those of you who think Dave Grohl is a hard core rocker or that Perth is too far away, he had to move the Perth show that he could fly back to the states immediately after the Adelaide show to be home for a Father-Daughter dance and then immediately fly back to Perth. I can hear you "Awwwww's" from here.

The music may have been a bit different, but both concerts drew out thousands of adoring fans...

 ...and had dapper leading men.

The Flavors of WA

March 1st.

The first day of autumn.

What a better way to celebrate than a day at the beach.

And what better way to end a perfect "summer" day than with some delicious flavored milk. Yes, milk. Australians, particularly Western Australians love their flavored milk. But then again, my Grandma Droz always said there was nothing like a cold glass of milk to cool you down on a hot day. I perfer some icy lemonade and ice cream, but that's just my opinion.

I started this blog a year ago, when Browne's Dairy had a Flavors of WA campaign. Where their flavors were given local character like Quokka Chocolate and the Freo Doctor.

 Their new campaign is that's so WA. Check it out. Yes, I've had flavored milk before. Chocolate milk was a favorite at Ledyard Center School, strawberry milk was a regular in the elementary schools in South Carolina, and YooHoo's decorate the shelves. But those are nothing compared to the cartons consumed by Western Australians. So it's about time I put those flavors of WA head to head.

 

 

In the interest of my stomach, I left out the chocolate flavors. I've had plenty of chocolate milk in my dairy career. And I've tried the Chocmint, and it wasn't anything too special. Here were the contenders.

Strawberry

Banana

Caramel

Spearmint

Iced Coffee

Percolated Coffee (because that's different than iced coffee flavored milk...?)

Turns out there is a difference between iced coffee and percolated coffee milk. Iced coffee wins hands down. But these weren't the only coffee flavors. There's espresso, mocha, and double espresso.

 

I'm still not sure what to make of the spearmint, despite it being recommended by Kyla, my true blue Perthite. I expect a thick, mint milkshake, but it's much milder and not so sweet.

 As most artificially flavored things, I could pass on the banana.

Caramel and strawberry were sweet and delicious as expected.

I'm looking forward to flavoring my Weetbix this week with leftover milk. And maybe on the next 40 degree day (that's Celsius), I may join the Chill milk bandwagon...

Happy Autumn!