Walking it off. (With a joyous post script!)

I've been absent from Gather for some weeks now so I wanted to pop my head in and say hello.

Hello.

Those of you with a better memory than mine will recall that the last time I ventured onto the publishing page it was to report the glorious success of my first week living with a new mood-enhancing life style. (I'm on a diet people.. I just choose to not call it that.) Now I'm into week six and whereas Elle McPherson and I still have no more in common than our country of birth and two X chromosomes, I am continuing to lose weight. A total of 8.7 kg (about 19 pounds) of my lovely wobbliness is now gone. I'm also still off the turps and more days than not I wander out for a gentle walk around this charming town. So, yay me!

As these walks are the only thing happening for me these days I felt they warranted a Gather Photo Essay. So, pop on a hat, strap on your walking boots, grab a bottle of water and lets head out for a stroll shall we?

This is Klingner Road on which I live.

It leads directly, three blocks that way, to the ocean. We'll be passing some of South East Queensland's most mediocre suburban residential architecture along the way and as a favour to you all I didn't photograph any of it.

Instead, as I reached the second block from home, I thought I'd share with you the arse end of Dale'sHigh School.

This is what they call the Western Campus and as you can see it is largely made up of old cow paddocks. Closer to the main road there are buildings dedicated to the creative arts, sports and I think the technology classes are held over this side too.

We've crossed Oxley Avenue now and have therefore reached the Eastern Campus, or the 'old bit' as the locals call it. Let's take a look at today's important message from the principal.

Ah, literacy and numeracy testing for the grade niners this week, hey? "Prepare Now." What do you reckon, that instead of suggesting the kids cram for a week, they try preparing the kids throughout the nine years leading up to the testing? Would that be a better idea do you think? But, hey, they were out there playing soccer at ten o'clock in the morning. That's gotta be educational.

Grrr, that just makes me grumpy, so back to the walk.

What a pretty wee street this side of the school is on. Lovely old gums line the path and I'm sure that's a hint of blue I spy up ahead.

This lovely ghost gum in the school grounds is rather grand don't you think?

Yes, we must be nearing the coast because I can see the rows of ancient norfolk pines soaring into the sky just beyond a construction site. These two things are the surest signs that we are close to land with high property values.

Shhhh, walk quietly here. This parcel of priceless waterfront land is the local cop shop. If you avert your eyes and keep walking perhaps nobody will recognise you and those old warrants will remain unserved.

Here we are at the seaside! You can tell we are at the seaside because a twenty story apartment block will soon be blocking the view.

No, you can't stop and rest here. We've only just started our walk, so no sitting about the place just yet.

We simply skip down these stairs and we'll be on the beach path ready to stride along some more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I liked these images of nature's grandeur juxtaposed against the questionable majesty of technology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now this is thoughtful. I've been out of the house for fifteen minutes so of course I need to take a slash again. This diuretic high protein diet can be a little inconvenient.

Anyway, at least I have somewhere private and appropriate to go, unlike the poor doggies. Hey! I know a good way to keep dogs from crapping on the beach. Leave the freaking bastard animals at home! (This last comment brought to you by the South East Queensland Doggie Appreciators - NOT! Inc.)

 

 

 

 

Alrighty, we've had our wee and we're ready to stroll seriously now. Shall we go this way toward the Redcliffe Jetty?

Or that way further north?

Let's go north and I'll show you something very pretty. Apart from these lovely shade trees that is.

Just along here beyond this small rise is a beautiful old beach house called Roof Trees. It's been there since the 1920's and is an enormous wonderfully quirky place. It's not what you'd call elegant but it has character and charm and..

 Hold on a minute..

Er..

 

 

 

 

Now, this can't be good...

 

 

 

 

Roof Trees was in fact demolished about three years ago. I just pretended that I was surprised. It was a dramatic literary device and I apologise for deceiving you.  But, when it was pulled down I was very surprised, and extremely sad. I had always dreamed that when I won the lotto I'd buy Roof Trees and live in the lovely old place, sprucing it up a bit perhaps, but basically leaving it be as a reminder of a simpler time when grand notions came of nothing more than wood, glass and magic.

This is what one sees looking south from the path in front of Roof Trees.

 

 

 

 

This is what one sees to the north.

 

 

 

 

And to the east. It's rather blue isn't it? And wavy. And nice.

I honestly felt I could get used to seeing this every day from my funny u-shaped verandah, at the top of the impressive wooden staircases, beach towels slung about the place and my hammock swaying in the breeze.. sigh.

 

 

Let's crawl up the stairway to the road and have a look about the place. Yep, definitely no house here anymore.

There's some of the remaining tall trees at the back of the property.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some more of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Another reason why this property is perfect for me.  A No Stinky Dogs sign on the nature strip!   I realise it specifically says no two-legged scottish terriers but I choose to believe they mean stinky dogs in general... 

 

 

 

Ok, enough dreaming. One last look from the rear of the property and we're off to do something practical about these negative feelings. 

 

 Yes, the lotto. Four million won't really be enough to buy the land and rebuild Roof Trees AND give lots of money away to family and friends, but it's a start. Drink some of your water now while the lotto agent is processing my winning coupon. It may be late autumn but the weather is gloriously warm and we must rehydrate along the way if we are to maintain our healthy glow. Now we can call the outbound segment of our walk over and scuttle off home.  But we should pick up the pace a bit as we've been goofing off taking all these piccies.  Picture snapping won't help the metabolism you know.

 

The only alarming thing being taking these stairs again in the 'up' direction. Crikey, they're steep!

 

 

Nearly home now. I'm just at the end of this block.

 

 

 

The bougainvillea over the fence welcome me inside with a pretty wave.

Where under the ceiling fan is a comfy lying down spot for a recovery nap.

To dream of a simpler time and tall trees above a seaside roof ...

 

 

 

 

Joyous Post Script:

What an unexpected  treat!

Ok, back when Roof Trees was demolished I looked up the web to see if anybody anywhere had noticed or cared or in fact if there were anything on the internet about it at all. At the time there was nothing, but look what happens if you do last minute research!

 Mr Thom Blake, historian and incredibly lovely chap, wrote about Roof Trees on his site soon after it was gone. This evening I spoke with him and he kindly gave me permission to reproduce his photographs here on Gather. I had a little weep when I saw these. It truly was even more lovely than I remembered. Thank you Thom, this has made my day! (And gives me a lot of re-drafting to do on the replacement Roof Trees designs I've been working on...)