A Walk to the Park

Kyle went for a walk to his local park. It was a destination. It was the place he was going and nothing interesting was going to happen until he got there. And so he put his head down and was walking and walking - to the park, to the park - and then ... he spotted a tiny thing. And another one. All of a sudden, the streets around him were full of tiny, interesting drawings and paintings. All of a sudden, his head was up and there was so much to see and he kept his eyes open all the way there and all through the park and all the way back again. And by the time he got home, he had collected so many tiny things, it was hard for him to narrow them down to just ten. But then he did. And here they are ...

Happy Man

Mr Fox 

Red Leaf

Floating Triangles

Willie Wagtail 

Wish Maker

Rockmelon Dance

Tiny Bouquet

Magpie Feather

Mr and Mrs Slater

Glowing Sunlight

Backyard Things, by Frané

Today, illustrator Frané Lessac shares ten secret things from her very own backyard. These might be a little tricky to see if you're out walking, unless you're tall enough to peer over her fence. But they are surprising somethings nonetheless, as eclectic and quirky as Frané herself, and we would definitely add them to our list if we spotted them in the wild.

Backyard Buddha

Cockatoo in the old gum tree

Balinese Godzilla

Mother Nature as an autumn leaf

Mosaic daisy

Ned Kelly: "Rust is life"

You can never have too many Neds...

Abalone shell meets goldfields bottles

Camel skull

Spotted: A Tasmanian Tiger

In classic Sesame Street-fashion, when I look at these, I feel like singing, "One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just isn't the same."


Do you know why? Which do you think is the odd one out? If you look back at Meg's tiny things in the first post, that might give you a clue. All of hers are similar in a particular way. Almost all of Frané's share the same characteristic. But there is one that's different.


I wonder if you can guess which one it is?

The Very First Tiny Things

The story that became Ten Tiny Things grew from Meg's walks around her neighbourhood in Hamilton Hill, just south of Fremantle. Something she loves about walking is noticing all the little things lurking here and there that might otherwise have gone unseen. When her daughter was small, they used to make a game of this, which they cunningly entitled, "Things We Would Never Have Seen If We Had Been Driving". To win, you had to be first to notice ten interesting things that fell into that category.


To kick off this blog, which we hope will soon fill with wonderful things from many corners of the country, and perhaps even beyond, here are some of the things from the streets around Meg's house. These are some of the exact things from which the game grew, from which the book grew. There would be no story without them.Thank you, neighbourhood people, for taking the time to add quirky, lovely, tiny things to the world.

"Chickens live here. They have teeth."

Duck-themed power pole

Ninja rubber ducks

Smiling branch-man

An owl in the footpath

A hidden house ...

Rainbow footpath border

Now you might be thinking that we're cheating a bit. You might be thinking that some of these things could be seen if you were driving. But listen: we never said couldn't have seen. We said wouldn't have seen. You could have seen some of these if you'd been looking for them, if you'd been peering out the window straining for a glimpse. But would you have noticed them accidentally? No. You wouldn't. We didn't. Not until we started walking.


We recommend it. Slow down. Walk places. Watch the secret spaces all around you for random flashes of loveliness. See if you can spot ten tiny things. Or even just one.


And take photos, if you can, then send them to us here [the address is in our profile, on the right]. We'd love to see what's hiding in your neighbourhood.