5 in 5 - May 2018 - Melanie

Melanie is my friend who lives in Australia and she loves photography.  Every month since the start of this challenge Melanie has taken part in this monthly meme and as she doesn't have her own blog I post here. I love that we have found a way for her to take part, so over to you Melanie:

"Here is my effort for an April 5 in 5.  The photos got taken on April 5^th but only now am I sitting down to look at them and pick out my five for my 5 in 5 submission.  On April 5th I had a visit to the McLaren Vale wine area which is just half an hour down the road from us.  The McLaren Vale area has over 70 cellar doors and over 160 vineyards. Just before Christmas a new icon for the region opened its doors.  It is known as ‘The D’Arenberg Cube’ and can be seen for miles around. It is more than just a cellar door even before entering the cube the outdoor speakers present one with sounds produced by a weather station and maybe the sounds represent the emotions of the vines.  There are five floors to the Cube  Inside there are museum artefacts, a sensory room with 44 different smells to inhale, a video to watch, an art collection to look at, an interesting mirrored stairwell and of course a tasting of the wines.  The glass  tasting room on the top floor has outside balconies with amazing panoramic views.  One can see the sea in the distance and get an idea of the extent of the vines. The toilets with their fake foliage are also worth a visit especially the men’s where the  urinals cause you to smile.  You can read more about how the cube came about at the following link: https://www.darenberg.com.au/the-experience/darenberg-cube-experience  The photos I took on the outside before entering.  There are two photos of outside sculptures.  The one on the left hand side is known as ‘Floating Figure’, made from 5mm Corten steel.   The photo next to Floating Figure is the Cube as viewed form the car park area then the second sculpture included is known as ‘Banksia’ it is  also made from Corten Steel.  It did indeed look like a banksia.  There are actually 30 outdoor sculptures around the grounds.  My top photo on the right is of vines near the Cube and the bottom right photos is a section of the entrance.

This visit to the cube was not my first.  I first visited shortly after it opened then in January we have friends from the UK visiting so we took them and this month I went with our daughter who was on a flying visit form England.  She arrived on Easter Monday and left on the Friday so visiting the Cube was squeezed in on the Thursday.  Certainly an experience worth doing and since opening its doors it has become one of the most popular with an estimated 1,00 people a day visiting over the summer months.    Thought I’d include a photo I took while checking out the men’s toilet on an earlier visit :-

Well I will say bye for now and hope you enjoy the outside views of D’Arenberg cellar door".

Thank you Melanie for sending this post!  It looks an amazing place to visit and I can see why this new venture is so popular. The men's toilets are certainly novel and if these are an example of what else you might see, a fun day is in store!

There is still time to add your own 5in5 photos this month so if you would like to find out how to join in, please go to this months post for details.  

And more about this monthly photo challenge started can be found   here.  Thank you for visiting and to everyone who contributes, it wouldn't be the same without you! 

5 in 5 - March 2018 - Melanie

Melanie is my friend who lives in Australia and she loves photography.  Every month since the start of this challenge Melanie has taken part in this monthly meme and as she doesn't have her own blog I post here. I love that we have found a way for her to take part, so over to you Melanie:

Once again in the city of Adelaide March Madness has arrived when there is heaps happening.  The Fringe Festival, the Arts Festival and writers week to name a few.  For the length of the Fringe there are eight areas which include several buildings which are illuminated with laser projections.  The projections on a building change continuously over the course of several minutes.  This colour transformation has happened for a few years now but this year it is known as ‘The Parade of Light’.  I walked the length of the parade and have chosen for my 5 in 5 photos I took at the first building I came to which was the Adelaide Institute Building.  This is part of the State Library now and over the course of its life has had many uses.  It was built in 1860 and was the city’s first cultural centre.  It is the oldest building on North Terrace where the Parade of Light was.   The changing light projections on this building depicted the Aboriginal Kaurna family clan customs. The Kaurna are the original people of Adelaide and the Adelaide plains.  Before 1836 this area was an open grassy plain with patches of trees and shrubs.

How wonderful to have so much going on close to home, I would love to be part of this March Madness! This has become an annual event here too, with Melanie sharing photos and what she has done. Thank you for this, it is always something I look forward to and every year is so different. 

If this has inspired you to pick up your camera and join in please go to this months post for details about how to link in. 

And to find out more about this monthly photo challenge, you can find out how it started here.

Thank you for popping by and I hope to see you back here soon.

5 in 5 - February 2018 - Melanie

Melanie is my friend who lives in Australia and she loves photography.  Every month since the start of this challenge Melanie has taken part in this monthly meme and as she doesn't have her own blog I post here. I love that we have found a way for her to take part, so over to you Melanie:

"Hope you like my February 5 in 5.  I am a bit late sending it off to Sandie thank goodness for the saying ‘better late than never’.  I was annoyed with myself when I let December slip by without sorting out a 5 in 5 for that month and am determined not to let a month slip by again.

As the beginning of February arrives so does the annual sculpture exhibition.  Sculptures are

displayed around the Brighton Jetty beach area, on the Bindarra Reserve opposite the Jetty and

inside the Brighton Surf Life Saving Club.  There are indoor and outdoor exhibits. This year there were

more than 170 exhibits so it was not an easy task to choose just five for my February 5 in 5. 

However it was an easy task to take five photos in 5 minutes.  Of course when I took my photos I

completely forgot to make a note of the number and name of each exhibit.  Only one of the photos

included in my 5 in 5 and that is ‘Big Flower’ which is in the centre of my collage.  The materials for

this were Corten steel and hardwood plinth.  The artist was Anna Small.  Maybe next year I will make

better notes.  When the winners were announced the Outdoor winner was Foci by Karl Meyer and

this just happens to be the sculpture in the background of my RHS bottom photo.  He material for

this was Stainless Steel, 2 pack paint.  There is not just one winner but a winner for each of the

several categories. Each year our local council, Holdfast Bay buys one of the sculptures which then

has a permanent place along the coastline in our council area".

I always think how wonderful to have this annual exhibition on your doorstep, as Melanie does, and I look forward to seeing the new sculptures every year.  The waterfront makes a perfect setting, and on this chilly day I can just imagine the warm sun - thank you for sharing Melanie and I am pleased to know that we can look forward to more photos from Australia over the coming months.

If this has inspired you to pick up your camera and join in please go to this months post for details about how to link in. 

And to find out more about this monthly photo challenge, you can find out how it started here.

Thank you for popping by and I hope to see you back here soon. 

5 in 5 - January 2018 - Melanie

Melanie is my friend who lives in Australia and she loves photography.  Every month since the start of this challenge Melanie has taken part in this monthly meme and as she doesn't have her own blog I post here. I love that we have found a way for her to take part, so over to you Melanie:

'A rather belated Happy New Year but I wanted to include it as I get together my first 5 in 5 for 2018.   For the first time I missed out sending a 5 in 5 for December 2017.  December came and went far too quickly and I barely had time to blink.  January is going the same way but I do not intend to miss another month and just hope that this mail reaches Sandie before her deadline.  So where was my photo taken?  It was not the planned one but I was in Jubilee Park in a small town called Meningie (South Australia) and a flock of cockatoos where having great fun in the sky above and on the large gum trees in that area.  It was very noisy.  It was approaching the end of the day and it seems that the natural behaviour of cockatoos in the evening before they go to sleep is to participate in a screaming session.  I felt sorry for the people living nearby but to my ears it sounded incredible and to see so many together was amazing.  My camera didn’t stop clicking for a good deal longer than 5 minutes but I have chosen five photos taken during a five minute period.  It is good my photos always have a time included in their detail.  I hope you enjoy the photos I have chosen.  It was great to have a subject present itself for 5 in 5 and maybe something will jump out at me for February.'

Melanie mentioned that December was one of the few months that she has missed this monthly neme. In fact, from my recollection, this is the one and only time Melanie has not joined in this monthly challenge since it began back in July 2013. That is amazing! But also:  

Has it really been going that long? 

That means in a few months time we will be celebrating 5 years! It feels a sense of achievement - and time to do something special!  So, I will be thinking of ideas between now and then and if you have any suggestions please do let me know!

Hopefully, Melanie  will be back with another post next month, and it makes me happy that others join me in this challenge.  Some of you have become regulars and I look forward to your monthly shares and news - it would be a lonely place without you! And it's never too late to start, whether you post regularly or otherwise.  So: 

If this has inspired you to pick up your camera and join in please go to this months post for details about how to link in.

And to find out more about this monthly photo challenge, you can find out how it started here.

Thank you for popping by and I hope to see you back here soon. 

5 in 5 - November 2017 - Melanie

Melanie is my friend who lives in Australia and she loves photography.  Every month since the start of this challenge Melanie has taken part in this monthly meme and as she doesn't have her own blog I post here.

I love that we have found a way for her to take part.

And I was excited this month when Melanie visited UK. She has friends and family here, and as always she had a busy schedule and lots packed in.  But we managed to squeeze in a meeting one afternoon, and it was wonderful to meet her daughter after so many years. Our children grew up together, and now she is a mother herself, so I also got to meet Melanie's two grandsons who I hear so much about.  We enjoyed a lovely walk along the estuary promonade, and of course I took my camera!

 

But this is Melanie's post. So, I'm handing over to you, Melanie:

I have selected for my November 5 in 5 photos taken when I was visiting Paris.  It was an Eiffel Tower in the rain day.  Just got back home on Monday 20^th after being on the go for four weeks.  Now I need time for my head to catch up with my body and hopefully return to a normal state though with Christmas on the horizon it may not be too easy.  Hope to catch you next month with a 5 in 5 for December.

As always, thank you Melanie! It was lovely to meet up and I hope you soon find your energy. 

................

Thanks for popping by and I look forward to another post from Melanie next month. 

If this has inspired you to pick up your camera and join in please go to the original post where you will also find out how to link in.

And to find out more about this monthly photo challenge, and how this started, please go to this post. 

5 in 5 - October 2017 - Melanie

Melanie is my friend who lives in Australia and she loves photography.  Every month since the start of this challenge Melanie has taken part in this monthly meme and as she doesn't have her own blog I post here. I love that we have found a way for her to take part. Over to you Melanie:

A 5 in 5 photo this month is of photos taken down by the River Murray in Goolwa.  Goolwa is at the mouth of the River.  The river spans three states starting its life in New South Wales it goes through Victoria before flowing into South Australia.  As you may tell from the photos the River is popular with pelicans. The pelican is a favourite bird of mine and I always take lots of photos of them when I see them..  I took a walk along the Goolwa wharf after breakfast and the pelicans I saw were having a lazy morning with many of them sitting on small the small jetties preening themselves or sleeping.  Only two of them were swimming and I haven’t included those two in my collage.   The middle photo of my collage shows one of the small jetties with the river bank covered in gazanias.  The gazania is a South African plant and many places in South Australia remove them since they are not native.  Not so in Goolwa though where the banks of the river are covered with them and the nearby railway line has them growing alongside the tracks.  They look so beautiful and come in many different colours.  I took another photo not within my five minute time slot which gives a good example of their colours so thought I would include that as well. Hope you enjoy seeing my 5 in 5 and the colours of the gazania.

As always, thank you Melanie! I love hearing about the different places that you visit.

I am really excited this month as Melanie is planning a brief trip to UK to visit family and I hope to see her, if time allows. She has a tight schedule and will be travelling, so fingers crossed our paths will meet!

Thanks for popping by and I look forward to another post from Melanie next month. 

If this has inspired you to pick up your camera and join in please go to the original post where you will also find out how to link in.

And to find out more about this monthly photo challenge, and how this started, please go to this post.