Another Fig Tree

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Another Fig Tree

One day, I met a friend of mine for lunch and we settled on meeting at the Cloisters in St George’s Terrace at the top of Mill Street. We stopped alongside the big Port Jackson Fig Tree at the entrance, to chat about how it was saved when the huge building behind it, Mt. Newman House, was constructed in the 1970’s.

The architects were Howlett & Bailey, my husband Robbie (better known as Growly Granddad to our readers) worked for Jeff Howlett as a construction supervisor on other projects and I remember Jeff telling us about how the tree was saved.

Designed in 1858, the Cloisters was built by convicts to be a school for the sons of well-to-do colonial settlers in Perth.  There were not enough sons to make the school a long term success, although some of its famous students included John Forrest. It has been used as a school for girls, a training school for priests and a hostel for students at UWA.  Its designer, Richard Roach Jewell has left a huge legacy of iconic buildings in Perth, besides the Cloisters.  He was Chief Architect of the Town Hall, designed the Wesley Church and the beautiful Deanery next to St. George’s Cathedral.  [Read more…] about Another Fig Tree

What Kind Of Blogger Are You?

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What Kind Of Blogger Are You?

Blogging, (writing in an online website log), springs from a range of motives.  Yours may be to share information; to build your business profile as an expert in your field; to provide advice and support or simply to feel happy. People blog to feel connected and to express things in a way they cannot do, in spoken form.

Publishing a blog allows us to reach out to people we know and those we don’t, with ideas, views, comments and our reactions to circumstances and events.  In reaching out, we invite contact by way of comments from those who read our writing. In  Nana’s Blog we tend to write about things that are quirky and a bit off the beaten track – without having to be too serious or as in depth as we are when we write our premium stories. It’s pretty important to be able to engage parents and grandparents with the stories we write for free, to engage them as potential future subscribers for Stories My Nana Tells.

For Love or Money?

Blogging has also become a recognised way of earning money, by writing product reviews and articles for which the blogger is paid or given product for payment in kind. Money is also earned by either income generated by advertising, like Google Adwords on the blogger’s site or the owner being paid to place banner advertisements on their blog.

Since that kind of blogging is done purely for money, having a good network is critical to being able [Read more…] about What Kind Of Blogger Are You?

Octopus’s Garden

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“I’d like to be under the sea in an octopus’s garden in the shade.
We would shout and swim about the coral that lies beneath the waves.”

Ringo Starr wrote this song for The Beatles in 1969. He says “I wrote Octopus’s Garden in Sardinia. Peter Sellers had lent us his yacht and we went out for the day… I stayed out on deck with [the captain] and we talked about octopuses. He told me that they hang out in their caves and they go around the seabed finding shiny stones and tin cans and bottles to put in front of their cave like a garden.”

This inspired him to write the song which was featured in the Beatle’s movie “Yellow Submarine”.

Octopuses really are amazing creatures. They are very intelligent and live in cave-like dens in the rocks. They often close up the front of the cave with rocks and shells, leaving only a small entry hole through which they virtually ooze, coming and going from their homes. When they catch their prey, especially crabs, they return to their dens to dine.  Their garden is the collection of bones, spines, and shells left over from previous meals along with any shiny things [Read more…] about Octopus’s Garden

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