Zupano Cafe and a walk with the hiking gang

So lovely to catch up with everyone. I had the most delicious lamb shoulder for lunch. Then we went for a glorious walk to and through the Botanical Gardens. A fantastic day out with good friends.

Dinner at The Spice Room with Elna, Hanlie and Maria

Elna's sister, Hanlie, who lives in Cape Town, is visiting Sydney, so it was great to meet her and have a wonderful dinner at the same time at The Spice Room, an Indian restaurant in Circular Quay. Lots of wonderful conversation and the food was delicious.  I even had a Margarita!

Everleigh Locomotive Works in Redfern

Elna and I spent some time exploring the old Eveleigh Locomotive Workshops at South Eveleigh, one of Sydney’s great surviving industrial spaces. Once part of the enormous Eveleigh Railway Workshops, where locomotives were built, maintained and repaired from the late 19th century, the precinct still retains its wonderful old brick buildings, huge machinery, railway infrastructure and raw industrial character. 

It was an amazing place to spend a few hours creatively. We started at The Grounds Coffee Factory. Elna then settled down to paint while I wandered off with my camera, photographing the old buildings, machinery, textures and details. I loved the combination of industrial history and modern life—the sense that so much of the original character has been preserved rather than polished away. It’s exactly the sort of place I love photographing: atmospheric, full of history and with interesting compositions everywhere you look.

Elna's beautiful art