Or rather the first of a few moments in time.
You will perhaps have noticed that this photograph is the one I chose for the main picture on my new home page. And over time I plan to deal with all the photographs I have chosen to permanently illustrate my website. Not the ephemeral ones in the posts, the ones that are always there.
So to begin at the beginning with this one. I chose it because it is one of the very few semi flattering pictures of myself that I have and moreover it is food related. The sunglasses help enormously. It was taken last year in Port Douglas, in the Yacht Club there. Its actually a fairly humble restaurant, with a pub kind of menu. I think I may even have chosen to eat fish and chips. But look at that million dollar view. So thank you David for taking it. I cannot claim responsibility at all.
The colour palette of this particular photograph is also particularly pleasing and, in fact, was responsible for the colour choices I have made throughout the website. They are almost the same as the earlier one, just slightly different.
The yacht club in Port Douglas, unsurprisingly is situated on the edge of the marina. No million dollar yachts in this particular picture but they are definitely there. It is therefore quite surprising in a way that the yacht club is such a humble place. A few tourists, a few locals having a drink and a chat and game of billiards (or is it snooker?) When I turned 70 we took the entire family to Port Douglas for a week and I have very happy memories of an evening we spent as a family at the yacht club. It's cheap. The children could play on the grass that led down to the river, where they made lots of new friends, as the sun set. And the food, though fairly plain, is also pretty good. Alas I took no photos of that particular event but here is one of them all on the beach. Well the children and the fathers. Mothers must have been elsewhere.
They were all small back then, and our last grandchild, now aged five, was not even thought of.
How extraordinarily lucky we are here in Australia to have places like Port Douglas to go to on holiday. The sun shines, the sea is blue and the beaches are sandy and huge. Just forget about the crocodiles and the stone fish and the jelly fish and it is perfect. And it's easy to forget those things because there are beautiful hotels, and homes to rent, and apartments too, with swimming pools. You don't actually have to swim in the sea, and indeed not many people do. It's really too dangerous. And let's not forget that the Daintree rainforest is nearby and there are oodles of places to eat.
But back to my original photograph. I think this is that blissful moment, just after you have ordered your food and when it still has the possibility of being great. The wine is open and you have had your first taste and it is good. The sun is going down, the tourist boats are returning from their trip up the river. All is well with the world.
Perhaps Port Douglas is not within the reach of the poor, from other parts of Australia, although there are plenty of cheerful backpackers, who work in the bars and restaurants and party hard. They don't have much money but manage to enjoy life without it. But then I guess they have no responsibility - like those four small children on the beach. It costs a fair amount to fly to Port Douglas, but if you have a car and lots of time you can drive there. And I'm guessing you can camp somewhere too.
My website is called Rosemary's Ramblings. And I am definitely not rambling in that picture. I am sitting back and relaxing in anticipation of a good meal, in the still entertaining company of my husband. You could say I have rambled to get there - it is a moment in my life that is out of the ordinary everyday. And that's when we take photographs isn't it? We don't take them every day. Maybe I should vow to take a few photographs every day and maybe that would highlight how extraordinary life actually is - every day. Today, for example, we had lunch here with our visiting son, partner and his two sons. It was a beautiful time. The sun shone, and we sat outside, enjoying the last gasp of summer that Melbourne is giving us this year.
As I say, the photograph captures a moment in time. Just a moment. But a moment that recalls a meal, a place, a holiday and other earlier holidays in the same place. That's the thing with moments. They are never just that moment in time.