First dawn

October 2021

The 11th was the date when NSW stopped having a 5km travel limit, so I left home before sunrise and drove to The Gap to watch the first far-from-home dawn.

Of course, it was damp and cloudy and dark, no dawn to be seen. There’s more variety in the transforms on the photos than I usually do, because the light was so average.

It was great.

Gap bluff Pool at the foot of Gap Bluff Watsons Bay on a rainy dawn day, first day out of lockdown Stairs up to Gap lookout Gap Bluff and North Head

First Sydney lockdown

March & April 2020

I was looking through my phone photo detritus from the time of the original closures (which were not as strict as the July to October 2021 ones, during which I mostly stuck to photographing sunsets rather than sign-of-the-times images).

Early on, this kind of sign was unusual enough that I photographed it especially:

Adore Pharmacy Rozelle entry warning, March 2020

I never figured out if the placement of a hand hygiene sign next to a cheap will preparation sign was deliberate, and if so, intended to be funny, shocking, or just attention-getting:

Hand sanitising warning, April 2020

Speaking of bleak, we played one game of Pandemic but it got awfully real with outbreaks in East Asia and Russia:

Playing Pandemic in lockdown Playing Pandemic in lockdown

Our local Flight Centre was lookng forward to welcoming us back for several months. It closed permanently nearly a year ago now:

Flight Centre Rozelle during lockdown: it never re-opened

I’ve never been to a ANZAC Day dawn ceremony in my life, but I did happen to be awake at dawn, so went and stood in my yard as was the style at the time.

Private dawn ceremony, Anzac Day Anzac Day 2020: no gatherings, just signs

Someone somewhere was audibly playing The Last Post.

"Smile" chalk drawing, lockdown chalk art

All photos.

Milk Beach, last days

July/August 2021

Starting 5pm Friday July 9, we could only travel within 10km of your home for exercise/recreation in Sydney. I’m not generally a fan of bright-siding these restrictions (“my workaholic husband has ditched the corporate rat race, any chance we could stick with widespread house arrest, it’s been just great for his blood pressure?”) but it does inspire a certain amount of scouring one’s vicinity for places to be. The ocean beaches are all slightly more than 10km as the crow flies from me, but some of the harbour beaches such as Milk Beach remained accessible.

I walked with a friend there during daytime and after that decided that a family excursion at sunset was called for:

Sydney city, late afternoon, from Milk Beach Last light off Sydney City, from Milk Beach Sydney City silhouette after sunset, from Milk Beach

The other reason to frantically find family excursions, as I told my family gloomily, was in case the rules got stricter, which indeed they did, a 5km radius from August 16. So the evening of August 15 we traipsed out once more to farewell Milk Beach for the time being, not, seemingly, the only ones:

Watching the sunset at Milk Beach Last light, Milk Beach

All photos.