“They are not long, the days of wine and roses
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for awhile, then closes
Within a dream.”Ernest Dowson









“They are not long, the days of wine and roses
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for awhile, then closes
Within a dream.”Ernest Dowson
“Paradise was always over there, a day’s sail away. But it’s a funny thing, escapism. You can go far and wide and you can keep moving on and on through places and years, but you never escape your own life. I, finally, knew where my life belonged. Home.”
J. Maarten Troost
Dravuni Island – Kadavu Group of islands in Fiji
Cruising has its moments of fear and loathing … especially when you crave solitude and time to reflect on the reality of being at sea. There are also however moments of serendipity and enchantment if you rise before dawn and wander the upper decks when only the ship’s cleaners are about – and wait for the day to begin.
I live on the coast and see the sun rise over the ocean every day, but at sea the sky is endless – and the sun hangs in the dawn sky and paints with a golden brush.
Here, on the banks of the Macquarie River, in Dubbo NSW … Australian explorers John Oxley, George Evans and 14 men camped for 2 nights in June 1818 at the beginning of their great journey of exploration down the Macquarie River to find the “Inland Sea” thought to exist in western NSW.
Macquarie River, Dundullimal NSW
“Prize the natural spaces and shorelines most of all, because once they’re gone, with rare exceptions they’re gone forever. In our bones we need the natural curves of hills, the scent of chapparal, the whisper of pines, the possibility of wildness. We require these patches of nature for our mental health and our spiritual resilience.” Richard Louv
Orion Beach, Jervis Bay NSW
“Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea …drink the wild air.” Emerson
Huskisson, Jervis Bay NSW
Huskisson, Jervis Bay NSW
“Sitting on the dock of the bay … Watching the tide roll away” Steve Cropper / Otis Redding
The Wharf – Huskisson, Jervis Bay NSW
Collingwood Beach, Jervis Bay NSW
“The waves broke and spread their waters swiftly over the shore. One after another they massed themselves and fell; the spray tossed itself back with the energy of their fall. The waves were steeped deep-blue save for a pattern of diamond-pointed light on their backs which rippled as the backs of great horses ripple with muscles as they move. The waves fell; withdrew and fell again, like the thud of a great beast stamping.” Virginia Woolf
Jervis Bay NSW
“So fine was the morning except for a streak of wind here and there that the sea and sky looked all one fabric, as if sails were stuck high up in the sky, or the clouds had dropped down into the sea.” Virginia Woolf
Collingwood Beach, Jervis Bay NSW
“ What matters in the lives of most people are the small appointments of days, the details of which one wishes he could remember as he ages but cannot.
Tuggerah Lakes, NSW
Achievement does not make a life.
Doings that slide quickly past, almost unnoticed, compose the texture of days.”
Samuel F. Pickering
“She turned to the sunlight
Barfleur Beach, Jervis Bay NSW
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
“Winter is dead.”
A.A. Milne
“For it is up to you and me
Collingwood Beach, Jervis Bay NSW
to take solace
in nostalgia’s arms
and our ability
to create
the everlasting
from fleeting moments.” Sanober Khan
“In the dawn, armed with a burning patience, we shall enter the splendid Cities.” Arthur Rimbaud
Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra ACT