Our World Tuesday - Lorne

Lorne is a coastal town about 2 ½ hours west of Melbourne – it can be reached by driving along The Great Ocean Road.  This is a wonderful, if rather car sickness educing, road that was build in the 1930’s to provide work during the great depression.  I think its purpose was to provide work for people, rather than “stimulus” for the economy, which leads me to believe that at least somebody in government at that time still understood that people lie at the heart of any country, rather than banks or interest rates.  (Although I have the privilege of being able to say that from a rather more secure position than some, so I may be being over critical). 

Now, before some people log off, suspecting they have stumbled across the blog of some flag waving revolutionary I need to get back to Lorne!    

Lorne lies in the centre of a bay, with a long sandy beach with consistent surf, flanked by two rocky arms.  Its prime holiday real estate, which means it’s crowded as all hell in the summer.  Winter is much better, but you can feel the schizophrenia of place that has a very high and a very low season in the year.  This weekend was a public holiday, so for once the place was somewhere between being overcrowded and being deserted.   

We walked on the beach, explored the rocks, eat unseasonal ice cream, sea fresh fish and chips and in the forest behind the coast we watched platypus swim and dive with a silver wake.

On a different note there is also something that looks like one of the world’s great spelling mistakes – but its not!

You can find more pictures from around the world at Our World Tuesday.

You can find the latest post on other blog by clicking the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of the page.

Enjoy the pictures.

Macro Monday - Water drops

Water drops on leaves make a fairly irresistible combination.  The flat and the spherical next to each other at the same time.  In this case the leaves are nasturtiums (I think!) and the water is morning rain.

The only disadvantage of these pictures was that I found the leaves in a small garden bed in the main street of Lorne.  So, there was a mad man with a camera, on his knees, sticking his head into a plant, as coffee drinking long weekenders walk past.  When I stood up I notice that there was a distinct empty space around me!  Ah well!

You can see more macro shots from around the world at MarcoMonday.

You can find the latest post on my other blog by clicking the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of the screen.

Enjoy the close ups. 

SkyWatch Friday - Camberwell

After a couple of hours attempting to wrestle an unwilling spreadsheet into submission, I admitted defeat and decided to take a quick walk around the block to clear my head.  On the off chance that I would be ambushed by a coffee I decided to take my wallet with me.  My wallet lives in my bag, so the camera the lives in the bag came along as well.

I thought that the sky was just an unremarkable kind of cloudy grey, but once I started to notice how it was being reflected in the windows of the office building across the road I changed my mind.

I think a combination of the light being reflected and the tinting on the windows took an ordinary sky and made it rather special.

You can find more skies at SkyWatch Friday.

You can find the latest post to my other blog by clicking the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of the screen.

Enjoy the birds

World Bird Wednesday - Emu

The first time you see one you cannot help but be struck how big Emus are.  The largest females stand almost 2 m tall.  They are flightless but can run really, really quickly.  There used to be sub-species of these birds on many of the larger Australian Islands – but they have gone the way of the Dodo.

The photographs of the single birds were taken in the Grampians National Park, the group shot at Wilsons Prom and the close up at Healsville Sanctuary.

One of the things that interest me about these birds is the window they give into the past.  It was not all that long ago that huge birds like this were common in New Zealand – the Moa.  When you see the substantial “drum sticks” on Emus you can understand why people ate the Moa into extinction.  But when you see a flock of Emus charging through the landscape you can help but wonder what a landscape dominated by similar birds would be like.

You can find more birds at the eminently sensibly named World Bird Wednesday.

You can find the latest post to my other blog by clicking the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of the screen.

Enjoy the birds.

Our World Tuesday - Rain

I had planned to walk home from work tonight and maybe get some nice evening shots – yellow lights and warm images, that sort of thing.

But the weather is foul!  I can’t pretend it’s even vaguely autumnal – today it’s winter.

This was a quick grab shot with my phone.  For all that it was raining less when I took this shot it was still rather grim outside!  However, I noticed that the puddle seemed to be making a tree shape.  And the tree shape was reflecting a tree!

Under the circumstances I am not going to complain about this image!

You can find more images from around the world – and probably better weather – at Our World Tuesday.

You can find the latest post to my other blog by clicking the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of the screen.

Enjoy the pictures.

Macro Monday - Fallen Leaves.

The damp of autumn can bring many pleasures – and one of them is the sheen of colour the coats things on damp afternoons.  I was about to sweep the leaves from the paths around the house when I noticed that the colours of the stones in the concrete made a nice counterpoint to the silver birch leaves.

Never needed much of an excuse to put down the garden tools I did and picked up my camera instead!   

You can find more macro shots at Macro Monday.

You can find the latest post to my other blog by clicking on the Paying Ready Attention image on the RHS of the page.

Enjoy the close ups.