"Season Creep"

And I thought it referred to the expanding length of both cricket and football seasons! Look here for the 'official' definition.

Hiatus

Wow. It's been a month and a half since I last had a brief spurt of posting here. That is really slack of me and I apologise to those loyal few who might have come calling in the meantime.

I think I can say the hiatus has been a result of two main factors:

1. We got a newish computer. That now has the internet connection. Our older computer has all the photo software and photo libraries on it. That will take time to transfer across - which I haven't done. Thus, not a one stop thing to do to get a post up.

2. I had to spend hours a day more out of the home on work related activity. Something had to give. Sadly, this blog was that 'something'.

There's a cool article about the trials of blogging here. Reading that inspired me to write this.

I think we're getting the computer and work issues sorted out, so I should be up and active again soon.

Silvereyes

Above: There's a wee gang of wee silvereyes that's been swooping through our front trees when they think no ones looking. Below: Occasionally they stop for long enough to get a photo.

Below: If you can see one, if you look carefully you'll find another.

Cottager Backyard

Above: Backdoor area of cottage. Below: New garden beds begin to take off. Judging by evidence elsewhere, it has taken a bit of persistence on behalf of the owners of the property to get things established. It will be good to see what the end result is in a year or two.

Fountain of Love

Easily the dominant feature of the backyard enclosure of the cottage we stayed at in Clare was this fountain/statue. It's continual burble was gentle music through the night.

Roadside Views

These roadside photos were taken on the road between the small townships of Seven Hills and Mintaro, at the Southern end of the Clare Valley. Above: archetypical roadside panorama of south eastern australia after a long hot summer. Below: similar, rich agricultural country (sheep/wheat mainly).

For a video (nearly 50 Mb, so be careful if you're on dialup), click here.

Roadside Dustdevil

This photo was taken from swiftly moving car, between Gawler and Roseworthy. We had been seeing a pillar of dust from several kilometres away, itself moving across the landscape at a speed in the tens of kilomtres. It was whipping up quite a wind within itself, and looked like a dust devil. This high zoom photo is of its base. Not very spectacular looking, but you get an idea of its scale. I have seen these tornado like winds pick up objects weighing over 50 kgs and hurl them a hundred metres, out of the blue on an otherwise calm day.

Happy Easter!

Above: Rose and church from Billy Goat Lookout, about a kilometre's walk from the cottage where we spent a weekend in Clare in March. Below: White Rabbit in Mintaro Maze - scene of an infamous Annual Easter Egg Hunt.

I'll be posting a few photos from our trip in the near future. Until then, have a safe and happy easter!

Cat and Contraption

Above: Mishka enjoys a contemplative view from his 'contraption'. Below: This remarkable architecture was built by our friend Paul when Mish had outgrown his kitten sized scratch pole. Since he's had it, Mish has tended to be a well more well adjusted adolescent cat (he's about 7 months old). Note that His Haughtiness has registered my presence and is doing his best to ignore me.

Mishka relishes the fact that there is a bit of the house which is purr-ly his. In fact, he's quite territorial about it. He often uses it as an ambush point against people or bugs walking by. Below: Concerned.

Hornets

These are my last photos of the air displays from the Clipsal 500 as viewed from our balcony. The RAAF F18 did its thing just before the races started, was bloody noisy and bloody quick. I didn't catch a photo of it at all the first day, which is a pity as it did a stalling climb which left it stationary in midair only several hundred metres from us! In the photo above it is rocketing by, I was panning the camera pretty quick. Below, it pulls away.

Just before the final race, a pair of F18s did a power climb as their 'salute'. Awsome. For a video (in which you can't actually see much because of digital degredation and the speed of the little planes combined), click here (might take a while for dialup).

Combat Maneuvers

The RAAF 'Roulettes' put on an aerobatic display at the opening of the Clipsal 500 carfest recently held in Adelaide. This was one of my favorite photos (once doctored for maximum impact). The dark line across the photo is a power line on our street.

Roulettes in formation

Here's a few more photos of the RAAF Roulettes, flying in formation.

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Want to see video of them? Click here (will take awhile if you have dialup).

PC3 Orion 'Nimrod'

On both of the main racedays of the recent Clipsal 500 motor race held in Adelaide, the aerial opening of events was heralded by a flyby of an RAAF Orion (coastal surveillance) plane. Above, it has just completed the flyby. Below, it arrives through the fog and mist to the North of our kitchen window. Note, it's landing gear is still down!

(Photo fairly heavily modified)

I took a brief video of it flying by the balcony. You can see it if you click here (note, it may take awhile if you still rely on dialup).

Holden Blimp

Adelaide recently played host to the Clipsall 500 motor race, when the whole city puts up with traffic delays and alienation of public land for several months for the sake of four days of carfest. Part of the festivities involved flying a blimp around for the week prior, advertising one of the competing local car makes (General Motors Holden). By the way, Holdens came first and second!

But I'm biased...

Blimp at Night

Floating over Adelaide's suburban landscape, the blimp looked at times alien.

UFOs trail Blimp

Although it was eerie at night, the Blimp looked quite stately floating over the suburban landscape. That is, unless you look closely at the small dark objects not far above the horizon in the left of the above photo. For the life of me, I don't know what they are. Which makes them UFOs on this blog. What do you think?

(UFOs detail)

Local Footy Game - Trial Match

The big men fly at the centre bounce of the local level footy game I went to a week ago.

The agility of some of these big men is quite amazing. Here, one of the local Para Hills hardmen dodges his way though a bunch of Croydon Hawks to get to the footy.

Here, a Hawk takes a 'mark' (catch). Play stops for him to have a free kick after he marks the ball.

This tackle shows what happens if the opposition gets to you. In this instance, the (red) Para hills player is 'handballing' the ball as he is tackled. You can't throw the ball in footy, forwards or backwards. You actually have to either kick the ball, or strike it with a clenched fist. Obviously, footy can be an aggressive game.

After the game.

The West (?) Croydon Hawks gather together after their recent trial game at Para Hills. Looking at them in the photo, doesn't look like they won. But hell, it was only a trial game, and they were playing a team from a higher division. They certainly gave their all.

Wonder how they went at Wakerie (in the Riverland, maybe 2 hours drive North of Adelaide) the following week?

Change of seasons

The seasons are changing here. Being classic aussie, I don't necessarily refer to the weather, but the change from cricket to footy. Couple weekends ago, for example, I went to watch a local footy game (see photos above). In the same sporting complex, however, there were also two games of cricket going. Equinoxical indeed.

What's most interesting in retrospect is that upon closer examination of the photos I took I realised that it had been women's cricket, not the male version of the game I had just assumed it had been. Good onya sheilas, and more fool me!

I'm Back!

A couple of weekends ago we went to the town of Clare in South Australia's midnorth. On one of several walks, I scaled Neagles Rock on the outskirts of the town. This was the view down the valley to the South. I'll be back to my regular posting habits now, I hope.

Apology

I am sorry that I haven't put up photos in the past fortnight with my usual regularity. In fact, with no pictures at all going up it is the slackest period I've had in over half a year. Why is this? Got a bit to do with the fact that we are undergoing the full summer heat - which means lots of time spent doing nothing by the pool, or being friendly with people who (with great welcome) come around to jump in the pool. And when that's all done, there's not a lot of time left for doing all those things which usually fill up the hours (if you didn't know, keeping a blog at a high state of activity over a sustained period is quite an undertaking). Anyway, It's not that I've forgotten about it or decided to leave it be, it's really something like a blog holiday.

Maybe I'll do what some of my favorite photo bloggers do - take a photos of a lot more subjects than you immediately use, and post up the (quality) excess on the days which you don't otherwise post.

Will return fully photographically refreshed in the very near(ish) future...

Orchid

For the first time, we've had some success with an orchid! This happy little Dendrobium Orchid lives under our front pergola out of direct sun (it hit 42'C today). The shot below is a macro.

Comet McNaught - Jan 29 - Final PIctures

I somehow think these will be my last photos of Comet McNaught. They were taken a couple days before the full moon, and the sky has since been too bright to clearly see it. I could make it out with naked eye on Jan 30, but not since. I suspect that when the moon dies off enough to allow the luminesence of the comet to show, it will have dulled to such a degree due its travelling away from the sun that it will remain invisble. Or, it's tail at least. We'll see...

Hamley Bridge Hotel Gig

Hamley Bridge Hotel. As the town's rail history gets serious around 1860, I'd guess the hotel dates from then. Looks kind of naked without a balcony though.

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The pub was the venue for 'The Negotiators Duo", featuring singer and guitarist from my band. Here, they start rocking it up...

They made the most intense stage act I've seen for these types of duos...

Obvulessly enjoying themselves!

Hamley Bridge Hotel Gig II

Above,Hamming it up with the audience. Below, losing perspective in the wash of sound ...

Reflective moment ...

Front bar audience circa closing time...

Comet McNaught - Jan 27

These photos of Comet McNaught were taken on Saturday January 27 from the disused railway station in the town of Hamley Bridge. The obscuring effect of the light of the waxing moon (more than half full) was more than made up for by the absence of big city light polution. Apparently the comet was stunning at its zenith there.