Where the Wild Things Were

Friday, 23 October 2026

Reflections in Aomoriya

In the north of Japan I stayed in a fun hotel with gorgeous grounds.

Even the rainy weather didn't dampen the beauty!

Further posts on this Hoshino Resort are:

Rainy day in Misawa (Aomoriya)

While no one wants rain on their holiday, I have to say it made the light quite stunning for a photographic exploration of the grounds of Hoshino's Aomoriya resort.

Linking with WeekendReflection.

Further posts on the resort are:

Reflections in Aomoriya

The Grounds of the Hoshino Aomoriya Resort

Monday, 19 October 2026

Sydney has opened the run of outdoor concerts and festivals with Anyma's Aeden in the Domain. A screen the size of a tennis court dwarfed the DJ and the lasers, fire, and smoke all worked with the images. It was spectacular.

Personally, I still prefer less effects and more energy in the crowd but I was glad I went.

Still hoping Ely Oaks gets announced soon (I see you over there in NZ on NYE!! We're just a hop over the ditch!)

Harbour Life and Hypersonic are on the same day!

Field Day has a corker of a line up!

Festival of Sydney announced it's dates, but for now I'll be away for a lot of it (That trip is up in the air so may have to be cancelled).

Taronga Zoo has dropped it's summer line up.

Sydney is gearing up for holiday season...(More talk on Festivals here)

My Insta clips are here and here and there are some great youtube clips here.

These pics below are from the supports, including Argy who I missed at Parookaville due to taxi problems...

#Allseasons linky runs from Thursday to Wednesday each week.

Link one post that shows something seasonal. Traditional weather wise, a seasonal nature marker or a seasonal celebration or event. Please link relevant posts only.

Make sure you link back to this #AllSeasons post.

Please comment on the post before yours and the host. Don't dump and run.

Sunday, 18 October 2026

Still of the night

Walking home from a massive concert in the Domain, I passed the fountain and suddenly the big noisy night in the middle of a crowd dissipated and suddenly I seemed alone in the still quiet of the night. Peaceful in the big city lights.

It was a moment. I wasn't really alone, there were floods of people heading the same way but the beauty of the light on the fountain just narrowed my focus.

May you find peace in unexpected moments.

Linking with #WordlessWednesday #WeeklyWonder #PictorialTuesday #WordlessWednesday & #WaterThursday

Friday, 16 October 2026

Reflection

While visiting Mushrooms, I played around with the shadow and reflection on the other MCA harbour sculpture.

It's so beautiful.

And while not relevant at all, I'm LOVING this ode to Outkast (at least, that's how I think of it!). Brilliant song!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Linking with #WeekendCoffeeShare #Skywatch, #Galleriahimmelsblick #WordlessWednesday #ThruMyLens #MondayMusicMovesYou #ShadowshotSunday #WeekendReflection and #SundayBest

More October Reading

A few gems...

I am on a Barnes roll with another of his lined up. This one is good but it's hard work, so it won't be for everyone. I really liked the ideas about what we know about people (and what we don't) and how everyone knows the same person 'differently'. Also about how a person is remembered. What truth is there in that? I found the jokes quite clever - especially the symmetry of the uncompleted paper.

However, there's a huge sort of essay in the middle with parallels but I'm not sure that's for everyone - it's very interesting but it is different to the narrative.

Anyway, I enjoyed it - but one for the fans, not one to start with.

I've read book one but I will admit it's been almost 10 days and I've yet to pick it up again. I did finally push myself to read the second book but that was only to talk about it here. I'll give it one more try and then leave it if it doesn't grab me. If it wasn't for the movie, I don't think I'd try to continue but I'll persist a bit more....so if you love it, tell me why! (as that may give me things to look for that perhaps I'm missing).

John Banville is extraordinarily talented, and I've only read Snow so beginning to work my way through his works. Having just been in Venice, I loved this. That said, it's not nice - the narrator is full of foibles and despicable at times...but it is so wonderfully written. Sheer poetry at times. "Did I have even the most distant inkling that already I was lost? No; we blunder blindly, eager as infants, into our worst miscalculations, our most calamitous errors". He is a superb writer, and this is a fun book (fun in the sense of a wicked narrator and wicked people abound). Loved it.

(Reviews for Banville's The Sea here and Snow here)

The last in my library's collection of the Herome K. Jerome Bloche comics. I think this one was probably the best of the 3. I really enjoyed it. Will try to track down more, or buy some if they aren't too expensive. You can read it on Hoopla (on an ipad would be better as I often had to make the frames bigger to take it in).

Reviews for the others in the series: The Recluse and Post-Mortem)

I loved Brian Wood's DMZ series - this is a dystopian future (or lets face it, the climate disaster that is soon upon us). Celebrity chef style. It's dark and broody in a world where there are rich trying to maintain the life they had and everyone else is just doing what they can....so far the hero seems very much an antihero, though that perception is beginning to shift as more and more unlikeable characters seem to be set against him succeeding....Enjoying this comic a lot. You can borrow on Hoopla. Though again the frames are often too small on my phone so maybe read on the Ipad so you aren't constantly messing about to make the frames bigger to take it all in.

Back to Christie, as a little palate cleanse, so to speak. It's 12 stories set in London on audible, read by different actors (Suchet reads the Poirot story and Christopher Lee reads A Witness for the Prosecution - long time followers might know I adore his voice and went through a phase of listening to any audio book he read. He does a lot of the Tommy and Tuppence stories if you want to track those down). Great way to dip in and out of Agatha Christie, without a big commitment. One of the tales has Mrs Oliver having close resemblance to Agatha Christie when explaining her craft. That was fun as I don't recall having come across her before. Great taster of all her different detectives and mystery styles.

(Other Christie Reviews: The Body in the Library, Passenger to Frankfurt, Death Comes As the End, Destination Unknown, The Adventures of the Christmas Pudding, The Actress & Taken at the Flood)