2009 September | Dryad Musings

Messages on the Bends

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

There is only one main road in and out of Avalon – the Barrenjoey Road – and the section of it going from Newport to Av is known as “The Bends”, or the Bilgola Bends to be precise, as it twists and turns along the cliff overlooking Bilgola Beach. (You can take a small detour down into Bilgola which bypasses the bends but this has a lot of speed bumps and up and downy bits. You can also navigate the back roads following the Pittwater coast but this takes ages and is only good for a scenic pleasure drive).

There is only one or maybe two entrances to houses along the bends and few places to pull over, but more importantly it has a lot of traffic going in and out of a morning and afternoon. This is why it is very popular for message boards. I’ve never actually seen anyone putting the message boards up but come my morning drive to work there are always one or two boards fixed to the hire wire posts with messages ranging from happy birthday wishes and good luck wishes to welcomings home. “Happy 1 year sexy man” is a particular one that sticks in my head. I’ve tried taking pictures but it’s just too difficult as there’s always cars behind and they come out all blurry.

Anyway, there have been a few strange messages in the past, the last one being “Kelza… You’re… Freaking me out!” over three boards, but none as controversial as the message we all saw yesterday morning:

“Jennifer… Will You Marry Me?… Just Kidding… I’m breaking Up With You… You Have 6 Days To Move Out!”

My first instinct was to think it an unbelievably harsh and cruel message to display publicly and my sympathy was with “Jennifer”, but as Mat pointed out, we don’t know what “Jennifer” did to provoke such an action. One thing’s for sure, it will have provided entertainment for many people on their way to work yesterday morning, maybe some of whom will know the story behind it. Not surprisingly, the boards were short lived and by the time I came home from work they had been removed. I only hope the people envolved manage to work through their problems and the pain that they must be feeling right now doesn’t last too long.

30.09.2009 Personal 5 Comments

New Header Image

Monday, September 28th, 2009

I’ve finally got around to changing my header image to a suitable photo that I took myself.

Old original header

New Avebury Beeches header

I took the photo for the new header back in May this year whilst we were on our holiday home in the UK. I spent a lovely day at Avebury stone circle with two of my close friends and came across this stand of beech trees on a hill just outside the main circle on the way to West Kennet Avenue. The foremost tree looks as though it is a wishing tree from the brightly coloured ribbons that have been tied to various branches.

I may have a further play with the format of this image as I think it could perhaps do with being a little thinner. I suspect it will impede on the first post even more now for anyone that is still using IE7. For now though it will suffice and I’m happier with the more personal feel it adds to my blog.

28.09.2009 Personal, Photography, Techie Stuff 2 Comments

Dust Storm

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

I woke up at what I thought was a very early hour this morning and lay awake for what seemed like ages before the alarm went off. When I asked Mat the time I was surprised to find out it was so late, 6.15am, as I could barely here any birds and it was still pretty dark; normally the birds are ~~singing~~ screaming away by 5.15 and it’s starting to get light.

It all became apparent when I went and had a look out of the window and discovered a freaky looking orange fog covering everything. See these pictures I took an hour ago:

Picture taken of the dust storm in our front yard

Dust storm makes Pittwater and Scotland Island invisible

Dust storm obscures everything bar the nearest trees

As I stepped out onto the balcony to have a closer look and feel the strong wind blow the cobwebs away Kat came up and explained it was a dust storm. Apparently it has all blown up from the south overnight as it was reported to be in Canberra earlier. As I’m sat here typing this the orange has got a little brighter and the next line of trees is just visible but it’s basically still very thick and every so often if I sniff I can taste the dust in my mouth from earlier. It really is very freaky!

It’s going to be interesting driving to work. I hope the traffic isn’t too slow. Hmm, maybe I should leave a little earlier than usual…

23.09.2009 Personal, Pictures No Comments

And They Say Everything’s Big in America

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

When it comes to a lot of trees and plants, compared to the UK, some species are a lot bigger in Australia. It was my intention when I first came here to write many posts on examples of this but as usual there is that little issue of time!

My next intention is to do some posts on the local flora as and when it comes into season, and with Spring in the air, now seems a good time to start. I’m going to back date a little though and go back to June this year, the equivalent of northern hemisphere Yuletide, when I took the following photos.

You people in the UK will all have had experience of the good old christmas plant, the Poinsettia; sold in supermarkets all over the holiday period, bought en masse to add to the festive decor and then sadly dying along with the christmas tree (with the exception of some committed green fingered people who manage to nurture them into the new year – I think my mum managed this).

Well here in Australia meet the Poinsettia Tree:

They seem to come in the traditional red and also all white or a mix of both. I took these photos one Saturday morning in Avalon when Mat and I were going for an early morning jolly in the Sierra. There seemed to be lots of them in this area, near Clareville, and I think they have only recently gone over as I’m sure I saw some just about still in flower a month ago.

17.09.2009 Australian Flora & Fauna, Personal, Pictures No Comments

Whale Beach Hangover Cure

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Saturday night saw a few people round at our place for a barbie and drinks in the true Aussie fashion, now that the warmer weather is well on it’s way. There ended up being more Pommies than Aussies though, as there was Henry & Ruth, Kirstie (Wayland unfortunately was away so couldn’t make it) and the new Scouser at Plateau, Phil, and his girlfriend Terri. Nick, Kat and her brother Aaron were doing their bit for the Aussie side backed up by Daveo and his family. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures as it was a bit dark and I was feeling lazy.

We had a big fire when it started to cool off and everyone enjoyed themselves, though there were more than a few sore heads in the morning. Mat did his breakfast chef bit and cooked up a fab fry up the next day. Then we tried drumming up some interest for a walk on Whale Beach to blow out the cobwebs. Phil & Terri came with us as they were keen to see more of the local area and I took the following pictures:

They aren’t great as the camera was looking towards the sun but you can see the lovely blue sky and the water was actually not too cold. Terri compared it to Abersoch in North Wales but having had experience of swimming in the sea at Abersoch on Easter weekend with no wetsuit about five years ago, coming out looking like a lobster (from the cold, not the sun) and not being able to feel any part of my body I say it was definitely a lot warmer. After all, I went proper swimming two weeks ago and it was really quite pleasant once I got over the initial shock.

It was great to meet Phil and Terri and I suspect we might end up spending more time with them in the future. I found it very refreshing to hear the northern accent again after Tom and Chris as they have been gone a year now. Even though I’m a southern softie I miss home and I love the variety of pommie accents

09.09.2009 Personal, Pictures No Comments

Crimson Rosellas at Sunnyfield

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Yesterday I had to park up in the back carpark at work again, and again I was rewarded.

As I was walking back to my car past one of the residential gardens I spotted the unmistakeable red gleam of a crimson rosella in one of the trees. These are by no means a rare member of the parrot family but I have had less than five snatched glimpses of them in my time spent here in the Sydney area so far. This said, I immediately got out my camera as he/she seemed in no hurry to fly off.

As usual the rosella did not want to play ball and kept turning its head as I took the shot but I thought I would post the photos anyway as it was a highlight of my day. As I got closer I noticed there was actually two of them in the tree and by the look of it one of them must have been a younger one. The second snap shows the first one feeding the other. As I said, not great pictures, but it gives you an idea of how startlingly bright and colourful they are