Back to a wet Sydney early morning. The bakery is not open yet, but the baker opens the door to let a cooling breeze in. They’ll put empty bread trays on the doorstep soon to let people know is too early for a loaf.

Easter, Passover, or just another weekend when you can get to listen to When The Levee Breaks. Hi Tim Ritchie here with an invite to join me and hear choice tunes Saturday, April 4, 6-8pm on 2SER. Click on the link for the playlist. wp.2ser.com/episodes/whe...

Clear as a bell looking across Rozelle Bay at dawn to the skyline of Sydney City. Word is showers, but it’s a lovely day so far.

It was a clear crisp morning as I arrived at Distillery Drive in Pyrmont. It got its name from a sugar refinery that was built here in the late 1800s, molasses made here was refined into rum and sent around Sydney via the harbour metres away. Now it’s the glamorous end of town.

While part of Gadigal lands, early colonials called this area Henrietta Town or Eastern Hill. It was officially named Darlinghurst in honour of Elizabeth Darling, the popular wife of Ralph Darling, Governor of NSW, 1825-1831. This particular look stems from the early 1900s.

The only known remains of the Macquarie-era (Governor) harbour works still in existence in Sydney Harbour is the Man O’War Steps at Farm Cove. I’m standing on the original platform, the floating jetty is not from 1810, watching beautiful autumnal dawn colours.

31 years ago, on December 3, the Glebe Island Bridge was opened, renamed the ANZAC Bridge three years later on Remembrance Day. I remember the tedium of the quant small swing bridge it replaced. A warmer start today, charming clouds, 128 cables greet the dawn.

Called Tumbalong for millennia (which translates to place to find seafood) it was named Cockle Bay by the colonial settlers because of the middens left by the Gadigal people. These days the sparkles don’t come from oyster shells. A lovely cool morning and a clear dawn, last swim?

Sydney had some wild weather last night (waiting for the post sleep report from wife and child for Opera on the Harbour), but it is still and serene now at the ANZAC Memorial and Pool of Reflection at HydePark. A blanket of cloud overhead, but benign.

It feels not only wet but cold this morning. So it wasn’t the rumble of the tram, but rather my poor attire choice giving me shivers. At the far end of Devonshire Street was an early 19C colonial burial ground, now the site of Sydney’s Central Station.

I found myself at the Balmain East Ferry Wharf at just the right time to get glow of a perfect autumn dawn.

It’s not the fear of bull sharks, not the chance of an unwelcome encounter with a Sydney Harbour Ferry, not even the cost of a private kayak tour…. but I’ve never paddled Woolloomooloo Bay at dawn. Not sure why.

Sydney’s Crown Street has one end in Woolloomooloo and the other in Surry Hills. It has many different modes along its length, this pocket is in Surry Hills has an old warehouse to the left and mixed businesses on the right. Sweet three story terraces.

Today is damp again, but yesterday was a great autumn day, I headed north west of Sydney City to Ku-ring-gi National Park and walked the Mueller Track. Worked up a sweat, then headed to Coogee Beach for what may be the last swim of the season.

After more showers overnight, no need to water the garden. It had an autumnal feel this morning as I took in the Sydney City skyline from the heel of Rozelle Bay.

Jim Chalmers: Make Gas Giants Pay! getup.to/pBgl9svMoC5q...

I love in when the residents of the older Sydney inner city suburbs reclaim the dunny lanes (night soil lanes) and turn them into gardens. This one is in Darlinghurst.

Rain overnight and a forecast for the same today, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a warm autumn day with only a hint of cloud. Three other things to note, the silhouettes of the Sydney Opera House, a harbour ferry heading to Rose Bay and a river cat about to dock.

Rain overnight and more forecast to come, but a slight reprieve at dawn for an Ibis and I. Non threatening clouds over the duck pond at Sydney’s Centennial Park.

Devonshire Street ends as it meets Bourke Street in Sydney’s Surry Hills. It is also the path for the L2 & L3 light rail lines. Early this morning, I’m perched under a tree in Wimbo Park in the rain as I wait for the rumble a tram. Simple pleasures. .

10 years ago Agatha Gothe-Snape, as part of the Biennale of Sydney, created “Here, An Echo”. Where sets of words inhabit the road and walls of Wemyss Lane in Surry Hills. Time has taken its toll on some, but the adds to the art.

Sydney’s Bronte Beach was named after Bronte House, built in 1845, and was named after Lord Nelson who was named the Duke of Bronte by the King of Sicily in 1799. Not the we are rooted to the old Empire. I much prefer to look at a perfect dawn and ocean pool.

Definite feel of autumn in the air at sunrise this morning. I use Sydney’s Rushcutters Bay to clock where the sun comes up as the seasons work their way through the year. In high summer it would be out of the shot to the right.

Arthur is a restaurant on the corner of Bourke and Nobb Streets in Sydney’s Surry Hills. On a damp early morning, I remember back in the day when I was a club DJ, there was a bakery up Nobb, and we would get a raisin loaf on the house at about 0430. The bakers thought us odd.

A pre dawn Sydney scene. Things to note; SOH; the bright white light on the bridge is a train heading to Milsons Point Station; the bright red light marks the centre of the Harbour Bridge; in the foreground shadows are some old flats at Blues Point.

There was a feeling of autumnal freshness early this morning. The Sydney coast was clear of the fog inland, and the Bondi Icebergs pool was like a sheet of glass. The day ahead is forecast to be hot, so I’m coming back this afternoon for a swim.

The dog leg of Esther Lane in Surry Hills is a favourite, but add the glistening asphalt from overnight rain and we have a perfect Sydney urban pre dawn scene.

The Argyle Cut in The Rocks, Sydney, was commenced in 1843 when convicts were given tools to chip away at the bedrock. Abandoned until city engineers were set at it with explosives in 1859. It was tunnelled to avoid a steep rocky pass connecting The Rocks and Millers Point.

On a wet early morning, this pretty plain block of flats on Crown in Sydney’s Surry Hills becomes a delight. Purple pre dawn glow in the cloud, glistening pathway, bright entry light and a blue hue from a shop across the road. The security gate and letter boxes complete the scene.

Q. It’s dark, so hard to see the detail, but try. How many tiles are there on the sails of the Sydney Opera House? A. 1,056,006

This Saturday evening, March 7, please join me (Tim Ritchie) from 6 to 8pm for two hours of musical delights on 2SER's When The Levee Breaks. I've plunged the depths of my library to reveal some aural titillation. Also streamed live and on demand. Playlist in the link, wp.2ser.com/episodes/whe...

While specific, widely recognized pre-colonial Indigenous place names for the Double Bay aren’t known, the surrounding area of Woollahra is associated with the Dharug word 'Wallara' or 'Willarra', meaning 'lookout’. After a steamy night, a warm day ahead, and a swim for me later.

Sutherland Lane in Chippendale is an all time favourite spot to evoke early 20th C Sydney. You can practically smell the rust of an old cut throat razor drifting up from behind the decaying wooden pallet.

I’ve taken this subject previously, but the joy is the result is different each time. A little bit of sunrise made its way through light clouds, the light danced on the inky waters of Sydney Harbour and the reflections of the iron works of the Harbour Bridge wiggled like snakes on golden sand.

Even on a cloudy Sydney dawn, the masts at Rushcutters Bay always point up (except their reflections point down, but you get my drift {nautical pun}).

Known as Banarung for millennia, Sydney’s Rose Bay was named in 1788 by Captain John Hunter after The Right Honourable George Rose, a British politician (1744-1718). On a warm grey morning, Banarung put on a brief rose hued smile.

Another damp dawn finds me at one of my favourite lanes, Boronia Lane in Sydney’s Redfern. It is one stem in a bunch of flower and plant names in the area, this is in homage to Portuguese born gardener, Joao Baptista who built a nursery and market garden nearby in the mid 1800s.

Sydney was very wet last night, so I didn’t wander far from home this morning. Surry Hills’ Wimbo Park has been many things since colonisation, including the city’s stoneyard from mid WWI to the early 1980s. Now it hosts kids, walkers, dogs…. and the light rail.

There was a little light rain about overnight, and the chance of much more today, but the best thing this early morning as I surveyed the Double Bay ferry stop was a lovely cool breeze coming across Sydney Harbour.

Many Sydneysiders may not know that the park under the northern end of the Harbour Bridge is named Olympic Park. Especially when you see how modest it is, but it was the place to catch the sunrise this morning. Sticky again at dawn, warm today and maybe a shower or two later.

When built in 1947, this ocean pool was named Mermaid’s Pool (there were some mermaid bronze statues on rocks nearby, but the ocean kept claiming them). It doesn’t seem to have a name anymore, shallow for kids wading, it’s at the northern end of Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

Sydney had a hot and sticky sleep last night, so I set out early to capture an abandoned King Street in Newtown. This famous pub was established in 1865, renamed as The Hotel Marlborough in 1901 and got a deco refurb in 1940, rare to see it this devoid of humanity.

In an unnamed lane between Crown and Wiltshire Streets in Sydney’s Surry Hills is permanent public art installation called Village Voices. It was created and is curated by art activist @AstraHoward. She gets locals to create a set of words that is constantly refreshed.

Another dawn, another park & pond. Sydney Park is a great use what was a landfill site some decades previous. Now it is bike, kid and dog friendly, several ponds, rolling hills and a little methane leakage (not hazardous). This morning it is still and sticky, a warm on ahead.

The Duck Pond in Sydney’s Centennial Park is about 4km from the centre of the city as the flying fox flies. On a warm grey day, there was a peak of colour as a dawn delight decorated the sky.

A grey early Sydney morning is bleak for most, but not the cat of Nickson Lane. Surry Hills is resplendent in the sneaky grey night time dwellers, and cat knows this, bides its time, and has fun and a feed.

I bang on about early mornings in my city of Sydney, so I’ll leave it just to this pic of the harbour to do the talking.

It must reflect on the way my mind works, but ahead of a warm Sydney day, an empty Coogee Beach, recently raked clear of yesterday’s footsteps by the sand tractor, seems peaceful and hopeful. What a way to start the day.

The sun’s out now, but it was raining earlier as Sydney’s CBD & Eastern Suburbs Light Rail sped down Devonshire Street in Surry Hills through Wimbo Park on its journey towards sunrise.

Photography comes from the Greek light & draw. So when I’m greeted by wet and shiny asphalt, a gloomy dawn sky, harsh reflected street lights and urban solitude, I’m in a good place. Some will find this dull and pointless, I don’t. This place is Dalley Lane in Sydney’s Redfern.