Byron Bay Community Markets

The next Byron Bay Community Market is on this Sunday 4th October and is a fabulous day out for all the family.

For anyone who has lived on the North Coast for a long time knows, that the 1st Sunday of the month heralds a glorious day trip to beautiful Byron Bay and the Byron Bay Community Markets. It’s certainly a ‘must have’ experience for visitors and globetrotters too.

The Byron Bay markets have evolved into a showcase for the many talents of the region. People flock from near and far to enjoy the festive atmosphere, fabulous food, entertainment and the many handmade and unique items for sale.

Byron Bay Markets are run by the Byron Community & Cultural Centre and is an important event on the social calendar, and a great boost for local charities. Two charities at each market benefit from the Charity of the Day fundraising.

For more information about the Byron Community & Cultural Centre, and Byron Bay Market click here

Does anyone remember the busker in the 80’s that wore a hessian bag and a shower cap? He couldn’t sing or do anything, but he certainly kept the crowds mesmerized by his ludicrous acts!

A new site with listings of Byron Bay Market stallholders will be launched soon, and I will keep you posted about when it comes on-line.

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Unity Festival in Murwillumbah

The Inaugural Unity Festival is a very exciting and important event for the community being held at The Branding Rail, Murwillumbah Showgrounds
on the 14th November.
The theme for the festival is Celebrating Diversity

Unity Festival Celebrating Diversity

The Unity Festival is an exciting family focused event that will showcase
the rich cultural diversity of the Tweed Shire. The Unity Festival will
raise cultural awareness, create opportunities for greater cultural interaction and be a fantastic day for all with fabulous music, dance, food, art and more.

 

Inaugural Unity Festival

A very committed group of hard workers have been busy organising the
event and welcome volunteers to help out on the day.
To view the Unity Festival website and their vision click here

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Dangerously Poetic Press Book Launch

Mark your calendars,
Dangerously Poetic Press are excited to be launching
their 9th book on October 9th (sounds auspicious)
and invite you to come and join the fun.

Well-known local musician, Mook, and the Hulahine dancers
will add to the fun. Copies of book will be available at the
special launch price of $22/ $20 for DP members.

All are invited to enjoy poetry, music, and dance with a celebratory
glass of bubbly and finger food by Luscious to cap it off.

Dangerously Poetic is an incorporated community group seeking to encourage, publish and promote quality poetry from the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia.

For more information about Dangerously Poetic Press, click here

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Cape Byron Steiner School Spring Fair

The Famous Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner School Spring Fair is on this Saturday 26th September from 10am to 3.30pm and there is a free shuttle bus to and from Byron Bay township.

I have fond memories of our time living in the Byron Shire in the early 90′s, and the Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner School Spring Fair was an annual gala event that everyone looked forward to as it’s a great day out for all the family.

Our oldest child was lucky to have attended the Periwinkle Steiner Pre-School and Susan Perrow was his teacher. Periwinkle Children’s Centre was founded by Susan Perrow and she worked tirelessly to establish a Steiner based pre-school in the Bryon area, and through her dedication and hard work, obtained a permanent site at Sunrise Beach, Byron Bay where the Periwinkle Children’s Centre was built and has flourished ever since.
For more information click here

The Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner School grew out of the need for parents to be able to continue with a Steiner education for their children, and began in 1988 with a Kindergarten class of 16 graduating from Periwinkle, which now has classes up to Year 12. To view their website for list of activities at the fair and more information click here

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How Blogging Can Help to Get a Job

From what I have read in the media, it seems people have been fired from jobs for posting content in their blog that has been deemed unacceptable to the company, and there have been cases where various social media eg, Facebook, MySpace etc, has been used by employers to catch their workers not being honest about their activities.

I love blogging as it’s fun and creative, so I was elated to find a blog post about how blogging can help you to get a job. It seems that these days a lot of companies want employees with web skills, and are coming to see that blogging is a powerful tool for informing people and bringing customers closer to the organization.

For 10 ways Blogging Can Help you Get a Job click here

When I find some tips on-line that I think will be helpful to anyone using a computer I will post them. Here’s A Quick Guide to Keyboard Shortcuts that contains the most useful ones, without going overboard. I hope you find it helpful.

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The Day of Dust

It was only yesterday I had noticed my car needed a wash, but my dirty car is in good company after a freak dust storm travelled from Australia’s Red Centre causing havoc across outback towns and Sydney, before sweeping over the East Coast.

Sydneysider’s woke to a red dawn which caused major disruptions to commuters, with choking dust affecting asthmatics and people with lung complaints. It’s also a tragedy for farmers with thousands of tonnes of top soil blown away. To view some amazing images of the red dust over Sydney visit the flickr blog

The morning started off like any other, and I was enjoying my friend’s exotic garden taking photos before the dust descended on the north coast, which turned the sky an eerie yellow.

From a sunny morning

to this eerie scene

By the late afternoon the dust had dispersed a bit, but there will be alot of people washing dust from everything for several days!

Afternoon Sun

Dust Choked Sunset

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Inaugural Caldera Artfest

Inaugural Caldera Artfest to promote Australia’s Green Cauldron

Soran

As I love art and natures beauty, the Caldera Artfest holds a place dear to my heart as it’s an arts-based festival promoting the biodiversity and natural environment values of the region known as Australia’s Green Cauldron.

The Caldera Artfest will be held during the October long weekend:
Friday 2nd – Monday 5th daily 9am – 5pm with gala exhibition opening 3.30 pm Saturday 3rd Oct including a guest appearance by Soran, the Wedge-tailed Eagle (pictured above) at The Tweed Shire Council Civic & Cultural Centre Auditorium, Tumbulgum Road, Murwillumbah.

Over eighty artists from North East NSW and South East Qld will showcase their work with a spectacular variety of styles, subject matter, and mediums – all interpreting and depicting the region’s unique flora, fauna, landscapes and environmental sustainability issues.

Films produced by established wildlife cinematographers will be screened and displays by a variety of organisations (National Parks & Wildlife Service, NRM unit of Tweed Shire Council, Landcare groups, etc.) dealing with managing the area’s natural resources, will complement the artwork on show.

For more information, click here Caldera Art Aug E-news

For Caldera Art Website, click here

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What is a Blog?

Most of you would already know what a blog is, but the response from people being newly introduced to blogs – namely my friends and family – has been, ‘What is a blog?’, ‘Where do you learn to do that?’, or ‘I’ve never known anyone that has had a blog before’.

They have been impressed that it looks professional, but it’s fairly easy when you know how to use the WordPress software. I was introduced to blogging in a very progressive Web Design Course at North Coast Institute of TAFE.

A blog is a person’s on-line journal that may contain content on any subject, or a range of subjects, and be used as an outlet to express yourself, share information and connect with others. Blogs are updated easily and more frequently than traditional websites, and viewers can add comments to the entries, called posts.

I like blogging as I am enjoying creating, sharing, and learning. I found an interesting post by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger fame, with advice about how to start blogging, where the journey has taken him, and how it’s all about learning. Click the link for Blogging to Learn

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The Swell Sculpture Festival

My family and I are so lucky to live in such a naturally beautiful region and have a large range of cultural and artistic events within our reach.

The Swell Sculpture Festival is a free open-air exhibition in Queensland at Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast, and has on display over 50 large sculptures built by artists from Australia and abroad held over 10 days.


I love going to the Swell Sculpture Festival as it is quite an amazing exhibition of creativity in all shapes and sizes. We went on Friday afternoon as we wanted to avoid the weekend crush where thousands of people converge on Currumbin to enjoy the sculptures, the festival atmosphere and the beautiful beach.


Apart from the strong wind blowing, we delighted in the relaxed atmosphere and were able to marvel at the bold and striking expressions of creativity on display along the foreshore, unencumbered by the swell of visitors that can obscure the ability to have a closer look.

These are just a few images of the many sculptures on display

For more information about the Swell Sculpture Festival, click here

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Big Scrub Rainforest Day

Australias Largest Annual Landcare Information and Entertainment Event

The Big Scrub Rainforest Day is a free event and aims to engage people of all ages with their local environment. The theme of this year is All about the Big Scrub and is being held at Bangalow this Sunday 20th September, 10am – 2pm.

There will be many interesting activities including presentations and workshops which will cover a wide range of topics from Big Scrub Bats to Living on the Land for Beginners.

Don’t miss the opportunity to see a great locally made international-award-winning film Rainforest the secret of life at the A&I Hall in Bangalow at 8pm on Saturday 19 September. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children and students, $7 for seniors and pensioners. All proceeds go to on-ground work rehabilitating Big Scrub Remnants.

The Big Scrub was the largest area of subtropical lowland rainforest and covered 75,000 hectares. For thousands of years the Aboriginal people made use of the abundance of food in the Big Scrub Rainforest. Unfortunately since European settlement the Big Scrub Rainforest has been reduced to less than 1% of its original size.

For more information on Big Scrub Rainforest click here

Strangler-fig

Picture compliments of Rainforest Rescue.
For more information about Rainforest Rescue Click here

Bangalow Village

For Bangalow Village Community Information  Click here

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