Simple gifts

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free 'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. Elder Joseph Brackett, 1848

Brenda has her own gift, which she uses to delight her readers. This week she has woven her magic around a photograph that you will remember with delight. Go have a peek!

Every-which-way-but-up : Harris Street

Behind me

Built on the side of an escarpment and straddling a dry gully, Paddington is a very old suburb (1840s) built by settlers still very much focussed on what they left behind in the UK (actually in the 1840s it was still named Great Britain).

To the left, then to the right

Weatherboard cottages are less popular now, due to exorbitant upkeep and horrendous insurance costs. but they do look cute! Many have given way to grander residences over the years.

In front of me

Master of all I survey westwards! It may not look like it from this shot, but Paddington is close to the CBD and is in the higher socio-economic bracket. The streets are dotted with designer dogs and Jimmy Chu's.

Beneath me

PMG stands for 'Post Master General' which was the name prior to the 1960s of the post and telephone/telegraph utility which is now known as Telstra.

Cites must reinvent themselves

Alas, this is no more.

Although the signs are still there, the family run Department Store they advertised went into liquidation in January 2006. It will not be long until the signs fade from our sight as well. But isn’t this the way of the world?

‘Gone to Gowings’ was as frequently uttered as was ‘Shoot through like a Bondi Tram’. The store was an essential aspect of the fabric of this city until there was a social seismic shift and ‘homespun’ went out of style.

Looking along George Street, the layers of the years is apparent in the architecture. Some city blocks which have the aura of yesteryear are into their 5th and 6th incarnation since 1842. Nothing stays forever. The current generation and the next, need to stamp their identity on their surroundings as much as their forebears did.

‘Tis a crying shame though.

A member of the Ruby Tuesday community.
A member of the My World Tuesday community.

Sunday afternoon on the street

The Bunker, Liverpool Street, is another Campos Coffee experience

Bar Coluzzi, Darlinghurst Rd, 50 years and as strong as ever

The old garage is a bottle shop below and elegant tea-rooms above.

No. 275 - Sedition

What could possibly be seditious about a men's hairdresser? Yet that is the name emblazoned on the red sign.

Aimless Wander - Darlinghurst

Shoe-horned between New South Head Road and Oxford street, it is difficult to know where East Sydney ends and Darlinghurst begins.


The bohemia of the 50s has made way for the squalor of the drug scene and the colour of the gay scene. Bohemia is perhaps an outdated term, being replaced by "alternate", a life-style which has migrated to Newtown.

The very haunts of Henry Lawson. Let's try the opening stanza of "Faces in the Streets".

They lie, the men who tell us for reasons of their own That want is here a stranger, and misery's unknown; For where the nearest suburb and the city proper meet My window-sill is level with the faces on the street - Drifting past, drifting past, To the beat of weary feet - While I sorrow for the owners of the faces in the street.