I have stopped adding to these photos because I did not feel I was following of the spirit of the exercise. I was treating it a bit like a photo diary. I am hoping I can add some photos here from the 4 months that meet the requirements, at least in my mind. Excuses. I have been lazy and just been doing stuff I wanted to do
August 2019
Snow events such as this are rare indeed in our neck of the woods. We were so excited because it stayed on the ground for a few hours. This was on August 11 on the day we went to the first Pub Warble.
September
The flowers were eager to get their growing done.
Ornamental pear blossom
Correa
Blackwood
Grevillea
October.
Mandatory sky pics taken a trip on the Bay, of which I paid for.
November
More flowers – first Roses. It has been a good year for the roses here in Victoria.
Bastille Day! A bit late for adding my June entry? Feels like yesterday to me so why not.
One thing I really enjoy about Winter is cold sunny days with the Sun low in the sky at Midday.
We had a little laundry flood. Some of the water seeped under the walls and under the floating timber floor. Cupping. Insurance job; should be fixed soon.
I partook in my last sampling/monitoring adventure of Port Phillip Bay. Was a nice Winter’s day. Notice the young ones on their phones. Out in the big wide world and they’re on their phones.
An good friend’s 60th birthday celebration at a pier restaurant in Geelong. After a while I realised that this was very much a girl’s day, so I spent most of the occasion talking to my old mate Mick (I’m Michael to most) and taking photos over the water. A lovely afternoon. Happy Birthday Pat!
And finally, a week before I retired, a curry day was held. I wanted everybody to be able to talk to each other and to come and go as they please. Below is a picture of my two of my best mates at EPA. Anne and Eamonn. I will be forever indebted to both of them and I already miss them. The three of us started working in the PS in 1980. It’s been a great career. I made a heap of friends; there is too many to mention. More photos below.
Left to right. Me, Anne, Eamonn.
Christina and Jim
Me and me 2 boaty boys, Chris (Hesky) and Chris.
Me, Anne, Syed, Ivo, and Carol
I’m sorry for the photos of people I missed. My real leaving day was July 5, so I may bore you then with more. Added for Su’s Changing Seasons
Boy has it changed. It’s raining and cold (for us). Days are short (for us) It is a great time of year for daytime photography. I have not been doing much but the phone is always near. I’ll add some for Su’s changing seasons.
I look forward to dedicating more to time to being regular on this forum.
A few years back, possibly 2010, Jo and I and the dogs went for an adventurous walk on the top of Mount Macedon. It was late Autumn and I could sense some rain coming. The walk was relatively short and we figured we would make it. Mount Macedon is 1000 metres above sea level and is lovely place to visit all year round. There are some hidden dangers in the Australian bush.
About 100 metres into the walk I started feeling a little uneasy about the weather. The air had an iciness about it and with rain in late May it could be quite unpleasant if unprepared. I decided to retreat, with my dog Billie, and push back to the car. Jo wanted to push on. I told her, and little Rogan, I would meet them about 2 km down the track, where another larger forest track intersected the walk. That way she did not need to retrace her steps.
I drove on to the the carpark nearest the intersecting point and with Billie, headed 100 m or so down the forest track to rendezvous with Jo and Rogie. They had not arrived yet so I waited a about 10 minutes and there they were. The weather had indeed worsened so we all scurried back to the car.
Upon arriving at the car we noticed that all of us had quite a number of little leeches on our clothing. I had encountered this many times bushwalking and just systematically flicked them all off. Jo, who also knew how to deal with leeches, was wearing tracksuit pants and she had so many she decided to just remove them. There was no-one around and she was wearing underwear. The dogs had heaps of them too so we flicked all of them off and jumped in the car.
Safe in the car with Jo driving, we headed back down to home. The road was empty of traffic. A short distance down the road Jo was feeling a little uncomfortable, around the eye. She stopped, did not pull over, and screamed at me to check her eye. “Can you see anything? There’s salt in the glove-box. Quick!” “Ar yes there is; I’m getting the salt now” I said. Just at that moment, as Jo was applying the salt, a police car pulled to the right of us. Jo’s window was down and we both explained the situation, but not Jo’s attire – it seemed irrelevant.
Thankfully they understood immediately, pulled up in front of us and handed me a bottle of water on the passenger side “Keep it” they said. Jo was able to stop the leech from crawling under her eyelid.
Staying in the car this time
Added for The Changing Seasons December 2018 Thanks Su
Just because I don’t come here often does not mean I going to abandon blogging. It is a pretty special place here and I hope to hang on by a thread for a while yet. Been a crazy couple of months with Mum moving into a nursing home, industrial fire clean-ups and the continuation of the move into our lovely new house. It’s funny being in the ‘burbs again. Like, I’m not big on Halloween; it’s not really an Aussie thing. Yet. But boy did we get swamped by kids wanting lollies. We had been preparing for yearly Melbourne Cup weekend away from it at the Maldon Folk music festival. Jo bought a nice selection of sweets for the campers. Oh no. Spooky looking children in expensive ‘the scream’ masks moving from side to side wanting lollies from the new neighbours. And what is it with the pumpkins? Our pumpkins are good in May!! oh well. The whole event seemed harmless enough. Then there’s Thanksgiving. We don’t do it. But the following day there was all this crap about Black Friday. Grrrrr. To be honest, it didn’t really affect me that much. But surely you have to give thanks before you thanks give? Thanks Su
In the last two months I have been busy with moving and visiting my mother in several hospitals. Mum is 95 and has undergone bowel surgery and is currently in a rehab hospital. She probably won’t be able to go home.
In late August. early September Melbourne endured a horrible industrial fire. I have added a couple of pics.
We have moved to our new house but are still managing the old property as we hope it to be subdivided into two blocks. This is a very involved process requiring all kinds of local government scrutiny. I do not agree with rampant, unchecked development so I am in full agreement with this process.
Our new house is comfortable and is situated on 1600m2 in 10 year old estate. A considerably more manageable piece of land. We are loving it so far; it has a few flaws but what house hasn’t? Our older dog doesn’t like much but the young dog loves it.
Spring has arrived here. We are experiencing warm days and cold nights. Like Su in New Zealand, we have been warned of a horror Summer ahead of us. So I am enjoying these beautiful days. And I am yet to cop hay fever!
Today is the day of the Australian Rules football grand final. Two avian teams are playing – the Magpies vs the Eagles. I follow neither. I am supposed to have some allegiance to the Victorian team, the ‘pies’, but I can’t bring myself to that place. I will be barracking for the Eagles (from Perth)
Ok, it’s July 31. I’ve had enough of this Winter thing now. I know we still have another three months of it to go down here in Victoria.
I have been playing a lot of music lately so my photos have suffered. And I am itching to get out on the water again. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I’m off to Gippsland again.
Also, Jo and I have been slowly emptying rooms here. After living here for 20 years, we are yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’ll get there. Here’s some pics from July. Added for Su’s Changing Seasons which can be found here.
June 30 already! It is been a different month for us with me changing to working 0.7, and preparing to move off the farm to a suburban block. I have added the usual bunch of cloudy watery pics with a couple of ring-ins taken by others.
Driving in the country in Australia, especially at night, and more so in Winter, is a challenge due to our lovely furry friends jumping in front of us without warning. This photograph is doctored but is a timely reminder for all of us to slow down a bit and keep our eyes peeled.
Last week Jo and went to see a special viewing of movie called Brothers’ Nest. Shane Jacobson attended the screening with an introduction and post movie Q&A session. I enjoyed the movie very much. It could be classified as a black comedy. For Australians it is nothing like Kenny. It’s distribution may be limited to Australia. Jo and I are in this photo but we cannot be resolved.
Thanks again Su for running changing seasons. See her blog here.
Late again. May started warm and ended quite cold. The fire is chugging along quite nicely and days are short. And at the end of May I got the dreaded Manflu.
It has been a month of car breakdowns. I have a bad habit of holding on to cars for too long and yes, they breakdown spectacularly. I’m out of pocket over 2 K and this car is running nicely one minute then all of a sudden, no transmission. On the freeway, thankfully out of the burbs. I just managed to get the car off the road, rang roadside assist and waited in the cold on the other side of the armco railing for a tow, because every monster truck that went by would wobble the car. That’s cars.
What a great day I had with the sampling team on Port Phillip Bay. The Bay was lumpy but we managed to finish all 6 sites, replicates and blanks. And we did all of this in 9 hrs.
Later in May our team headed down to Lake Wellington, the westernmost lake of the Gippsland Lakes, to investigate more sampling sites and to be involved in a media event. Lake Wellington is a large shallow brackish lake. It is partially surrounded by farmland and an RAAF air base. The LaTrobe River empties into it. I had initially requested to be not interviewed but I gave in and accepted it in the end. I was zero prepared. My colleague did not skip a beat but I bumbled my way through my bit. Thankfully, the editing skills of the journalist made me sound like a professional.
Now I’m 60 I’m grabbing every opportunity I have to make my life more interesting. I have not always done this; I don’t regret it because you can’t turn back time. There are also many very valid reasons why I have lived my life as I have to date; not a topic for these pages as I would bore you to tears.
I’ll add some photos below for Su’s changing seasons .
Looking west from Mt Macedon
Looking south-west from Macedon
Melbourne through the haze from Mt Macedon
Me sampling at Lake Reeve taken by Chris Garland
Lake Reeve at Loch Sport taken by Chris Garland
Sampling at Lake Wellington taken by ABC journalist
Mick's Cogs 