A Toast to the Coast at Mindarie Marina

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than tasting good food, beer & wine at the idyllic Mindarie Marina.

We were there last weekend for the annual “Toast to the Coast” Festival and the weather was gorgeous, though sadly a little to hot for some judging by the turnout. There were plenty of people just not the crazy numbers that turned up for the Chilli Festival held here a few weeks before.

That was fine by us, smaller queues and crowds, two things that we are definitely not fond of🙂

Toast to the Coast, Mindarie Marina, Perth

We are lucky enough to have lived in Mindarie for over 20 years and it would be so easy to take views like this for granted, and it’s probably fair to say we may have done just that in the past. But no more, we live in a paradise that many people can only dream of and we make every effort to fully appreciate what we have and how lucky we are to live in a place like Perth.

We’re also very appreciative of the fact we can walk to our local brewery (the Indi) in less than 5 mins🙂

Retro Rewind at Yanchep National Park

This is our Photo Tour of the Retro Rewind free event put on by the City of Wanneroo last weekend.

When we arrived the car parks, overflow car parks, unused ovals and road verges we’re getting near to full indicating that this event was already a big success.

Normally we avoid crowds and head for the peace and calm of the middle of nowhere but sometimes you just have to get out there and be social.

Vintage Firebird, Yanchep National Park, Perth

I couldn’t help snap a shot of this gorgeous red Firebird as we walked through one of the car parks looking for somewhere relatively peaceful to have our late lunch.

John Forrest Waterfall & Walk Trail

A few weeks ago we were back at John Forrest National Park to see if the waterfall was as lively as Lesmurdie Falls had been and to enjoy a day out in one of Perth’s most beautiful and oldest National Parks.

Water Ribbon, John Forrest National Park, Western Australia

First, A Little History

Forest Path, John Forrest National Park, Western Australia

John Forrest National Park was the first area to be given National Park status in Western Australia in 1900 though it was originally named Greenmount National Park until it was renamed in later years to honor Lord John Forrest, the first Premier of Western Australia.

During the Great Depression sustenance worker’s built gardens, picnic shelters & even swimming areas which can still be seen around the visitor area. Sadly most of the bridges built across Jane Brook are in need of repair and not currently usable.

There also used to be a railway line to the Park which was part of the original route of the Eastern Railway that now runs from Freo to Northam. In the early 1900’s visitors regularly traveled out to the Park from Perth by rail for a day out in the forest. Sadly this is no longer possible as the rail link was rebuilt through the Avon Valley but you can now walk much of the abandoned railway line by following the 59km Railway Reserves Heritage Trail which passes through the Park.

Before heading out on any of the trails it’s worth having a look around the picnic area and seeing the landscaping that was done, it is a unique piece of history and an interesting place to explore with some amazing photo opportunities.

The Trails

A Trip to Perth’s Most Amazing Waterfall – Lesmurdie Falls

Having experienced a few Queensland waterfalls recently we decided to check out some waterfalls nearby to Perth. Whilst Perth isn’t known for it’s spectacular waterfalls we still have a few that stand out and are great spots to visit and photograph.

Lesmurdie Falls, Lesmurdie Falls National Park, Western Australia

Strangely Maggie & I have never visited Lesmurdie Falls, but it’s been on the short list for a while now and definitely qualifies as our tallest waterfall in the Perth area (correct me if I’m wrong).

As you can see from the above image the falls are in full flow this time of year and a very spectacular sight!

There are 4 signs at the entrance to the picnic area at the Falls Road car park which I highly recommend reading as they provide some very interesting information on the local flora and fauna, the nearby walk trails and the geological history of the region.

Mundy Regional Park

Walk Trails

The Darling Scarp

The Darling Fault

From the picnic area we first headed east along the “Cascade Trail” and immediately noticed the sound of rushing water along Lesmurdie Brook although it was not yet visible at this point being hidden among the reeds. This part of the trail is quite narrow, rocky and a bit damp underfoot but nothing that couldn’t be handled with an average pair of walking shoes. The rocks can be slippery though so watch out for kids doing what kids do or they’ll be doing it on their backsides🙂

MAD About Quokkas

Rotto Paradise, Little Parakeet Bay, Rottnest Island

When we first came to Perth one of the things we did was visit Rottnest Island and, as fairly young & fit couple we hired bikes to ride around the Island. On one of our short breaks to eat a bag of twisties a Quokka jumped out of the bushes and rather boldly approached me, he appeared to want my twisties! Not wanting to hurt the creature and not sure of his motivations we jumped on our bikes and rode off, at this point we did not know the nature of Quokkas or their larrikin nature.

Nosey Quokka

Years later, older and wiser, we returned to Rottnest and, walking towards the lighthouse, we saw a Quokka in the road. We had no food this time but Dave was armed with his camera and wanted a great shot of the Quokka. Being the nature lovers that we are taking a picture of a Quokka on a man-made surface would not do, so being the MAD person that I am I walked towards the bushes and bent down to talk to the Quokka (because he was going to understand exactly what I was saying!).

Anyway much to my surprise this lovely Quokka slowly hopped over to me and put his paws on my knee, how adorable!! After enjoying a few minutes admiring my new friend I carefully stood up and walked away, which gave Dave his chance of a natural shot of this gorgeous marsupial.

Cute Quokka

and there he was, gone …

Speedy Quokka

Quokka Mug Shot

We love Quokkas so much we have now immortalised another cute pair on our new range of gift ware, here is the mug shot we took of them🙂

This is my favourite mug for my coffee each morning and you can own one too, simply click here and you can order your very own cute Quokka mug.

Not only can you have your own Quokka mug, you can have these cute little creatures on the a range of products featuring our new “MAD About Western Australia” (more to come on this soon) brand:

• iPhone Case (without MAD About WA branding)
• Galaxy Phone Case (without MAD About WA branding)
• T-Shirt (without MAD About WA branding)
• Mug
• Travel Mug

NOTE: Quokkas are a vulnerable species meaning they are a high priority for conservation management. It is a privilege to be able to interact with them in any way on Rottnest Island. They have very few predators there, hence are very friendly and unafraid and are happy to approach you. Please do not abuse them or feed them, remember they are wild animals. I for one hope to be able to enjoy this interaction for many years to come and that is only possible if we all respect the Quokkas and help to preserve them.

Interesting Facts
Rottnest was named ‘Rattennest’, literally rats’ nest in the late 1600’s as an explorer observed the Quokkas and described them as “a kind of rat as big as a cat” (Willem de Vlamingh).
The Aboriginals called them a range of names such as ‘Ban-gup’, ‘Bungeup’, ‘Quak –a’ (Gould 1863, Shortridge 1909), ‘kwoka’ and ‘bangop’ (Abbott 2001).
Their species name is Setonix barchyurus. ‘Setonix’ is derived from the Latin ‘seta’ meaning bristle and the Greek ‘onyx’ meaning claw. Barchyurus is derived from the Greek ‘brachys’ for short and ‘oura’ for tail.
Can you believe these adorable creatures were declared to be vermin in 1933!!

Quokka Fine Art Prints

Maggie Catley

Exciting New Photographic Products

New Photo Products from Dave Catley’s Fine Art Photography

We have just received our first set of samples for a new range of products we will be selling so I thought I’d take a quick snap with my iPhone and share it with everyone.

The possibilities are endless but to start with we’ll be selling:

• T-Shirts
• Scarves
• Mugs
• iPhone Cases
• Galaxy Phone Cases
• Metallic Prints

The samples we’ve seen look amazing, especially the 140cm square scarf (Maggies favourite) showing a rainforest scene from our recent trip to Queensland.

We’ve selected Redbubble for our initial set of products due to their reputation for great quality & service but we will be continuously searching for new suppliers & products as we go.

All products are currently available for sale from our Redbubble Store at a reduced price while we get up and running, plus if you’re quick you can use the Redbubble coupon code “CHEERS2U” to get a further 25% discount.

The images shown in the products above show a sunset over Quinns Beach & a rainforest scene from Mount Tamborine in the Gold Coast.

Please note that although these are our images they are sold directly by Redbubble & any issues with these products will be dealt with by Redbubble’s amazing support team.

Adobe Extension Builder 3 & Photoshop CC 2015

I have just updated to Photoshop CC 2015 and, as seems to happen with most major Photoshop updates, my custom built extension panel stopped working.

Custom Photoshop 2015 Panel

It’s not a particularly complicated panel but it has links to a few commands / actions that I use regularly & I hate not having them available. You never know, one day I may even get around to extending it’s functionality.

Luckily this time it’s not as serious as having to convert all of the scripts from ActionScript to HTML5 (don’t even get me started on that!).

in fact it was simply a matter of updating the target versions in the  tag of the manifest.xml file, re-compiling the code and adding it back in with Adobe Extension Manager CC.

Here’s what the old Tag looked like:

<HostList>
<Host Name=”PHSP” Version=”[15.0,15.9]” />
<Host Name=”PHXS” Version=”[15.0,15.9]” />
</HostList>

and here’s how it looks now

<HostList>
<Host Name=”PHSP” Version=”[15.0,16.9]” />
<Host Name=”PHXS” Version=”[15.0,16.9]” />
</HostList>

So by simply updating the upper range of the versions from 15.9 to 16.9 I was able to reinstall my custom panel by running Adobe’s Extension Manager from the “Manage Extensions” option in the “Help” menu.

Now, if only ON1 would get their Perfect Photo Suite 9.5 panel working in Photoshop CC 2015 everything would be back to normal 🙂

Update 23/06/2015:

As Lee Haneman mentioned below, another alternative is to remove the upper version restriction in the <HostList> and it should remain valid for all future versions (not allowing for any further changes made to Photoshop by Adobe of course🙂 ).

Your tag would now look like this:

<HostList>
<Host Name=”PHSP” Version=”[14.0]” />
<Host Name=”PHXS” Version=”[14.0]” />
</HostList>

Update 22/06/2015:

• Apparently Adobe have announced that Adobe Extension Manager CC will no longer be updated or maintained but it does still work in Photoshop 2015 and is still available for download.  Download Page for Adobe Extension Manager CC (Windows & Mac).
• You can also manage extensions from the command line so I assume, at least in the short-term, it will still be possible for developers (such as ON1) to automatically install add-on panels, in fact a command line only version is also available for Windows & Mac.
• If you are interested in ON1’s progress on this front the check out their blog post Adobe® CC 2015 & ON1 – What You Need to Know.

If this all sounds like a load of geek talk then totally ignore the above and focus on the beautiful sunset from Quinns Rocks below …

Golden Wave, Quinns Rocks, Western Australia