The Mystery is Solved

Well we had a few guesses at what the mystery industrial fixture was.
The three themes were: A Brewery Tower; A Smokestack and a Grain Silo.
At first glance it appears like an old smokestack, and to be honest I had passed it for years barely looking at it and assuming it was a smokestack from some old demolished factory. If I thought about it, it was usually along the lines of: “isn’t the sunset shining beautifully on those lovely old bricks”.
Then a while ago I looked a bit closer and noticed (which I guess those of you who said brewery tower also noticed) that there are windows at several layers all the way up.
A smokestack with windows? That didn’t make sense.
Then I noticed something which increased my puzzlement . Right on top of what I had thought was a smokestack is a chimney. A chimney on a smokestack? Surely that really doesn’t make any kind of sense
So I hit the internet and quickly solved the puzzle. This rather tall piece of gear is a shot tower.
I have actually posted pictures of another old shot tower in Melbourne here.Interestingly, this larger tower was built by the same company that built the tower that eventually became a fixture in a modern CBD shopping centre. Now a quick apology, Sharon asked in her comment back then what was a shot tower? Somehow I missed that comment and never posted an answer, so sorry Sharon.

In answer to your question a shot tower was where shot for muzzle loading guns and shot-guns was made in the old days. If you drop molten lead through a sieve and let it fall far enough it forms into near perfect spheres. If it is allowed to continue falling far enough it solidifies as it cools. So a shot tower had many floors at different levels so shot of varying sizes could be made. The chimney at the top was to carry away the smoke from the stove that was used to melt the lead. Lead has such a low melting point that it will melt on an ordinary kitchen stove.
So there you go that is the mystery solved.

A Mystery Solved.

The riddle of the mystery object has been solved!

However, in true Uncle Harry style I am going to inflict yet more photos on you all before I reveal our detectives.

If you want me to stop you’ll have to cease telling me you like my piccies!

Well here we go again, following our brief stop at Port Fairy we pushed a further 80km (50 miles) along the coast to Portland.
Just beyond Portland (another 20km) lie Cape Nelson and Cape Bridgewater.

As this was a lightning trip we shot across to both.

At Cape Nelson we stopped for a late morning tea and I (strange as it sounds) took some piccies.

My piccies there focussed on the rather magnificent lighthouse.I liked the shapes and shadows of the doorway and the walls around it.This piccie gives an indication of how the lighthouse perches near the edge of a cliff.
Past Cape Nelson lies Cape Bridgewater.
There are some interesting features there called “The Petrified Forest”.They are in fact an oddity known as “Solution Tubes” which form in prehistoric, vegetation covered sand dunes. When the vegetation is removed the old dunes erode away leaving the tubes.

Behind the "Petrified Forest" you’ve probably spotted a man-made feature on Cape Bridgewater.A wind farm.
Many people hate these. I actually quite like them.
Yes they stand out, but I think they have a kind of majesty.
Also they are a symbol that we are finally beginning to look at alternatives to an economy based on finite fossil fuels, with all the problems they come with.
I also like the fact that one of our most ancient machines is being modified as part of a solution.

Finally we drove down to the Bridgewater Lakes and parked ourselves on a jetty overlooking this lake. For a late lunch.
This piccie shows our setup. Our folding chairs have done many thousands of kilometres with us. The large soft bag is a cooler bag, the small one my camera bag. The red bag is one of Deb’s knitting bags. Her knitting goes almost everywhere with us. Knitting is probably her favourite pastime and it is something for her to do when her loony husband is “Getting just one more photo of that…”Oh, and you might also notice my mystery object on the table.

Which brings me to an announcement

Rayna of Coffee Rings Everywhere nailed it with her guess: “Is that something you use to warm water? You could pack the chimney with hot embers or something?”

Cheers all round! Take a bow Rayna
Rayna you are exactly right, except for the type of fuel.
This item is called an “Ecobilly”
To use it you loosely fill the chimney part (underneath) with eucalyptus leaves. You turn it upright on a piece of bare ground and fill the top chamber with water.
Put on the lid and apply a match.Eucalyptus leaves have such a high oil content that they burn with an intense heat (as unfortunately attested by our bushfires). The heat coupled with the fire being contained in the cone means it will usually boil in 3 minutes.
All from a tiny fire that leaves a small pile of ash.
And here an unflattering pic of me tending said object.Jaydee deserves an honourable mention for her guess: “I was going to guess a coffee maker of some sort - but it's doubtful. It's probably more of a case of me needing another cup.”
You just boil plain water in the billy, but hey you certainly could make coffee with that water (although we usually make the bush staple - tea).

Next: Aboriginal rock shelters

Why Superb “Blue” Wrens?

I have had a terrible time working out what to post about tonight.

First I thought I’d talk about my holiday. Which was fantastic and from which I returned with far too many piccies to post here.

Then I thought I’d talk about work and the trials and tribulations of working in an inner city homeless program. As well as the usual dramas that occur when working with extremely marginalised people, I am currently plagued by the end of quarter reporting that we have to complete.
But I don’t want people to think I’m just a whining Aussie so I probably won’t come back to this.

Then I thought I’d talk about my WIP and some problems I am having with working out how much to include about the rape of one of my female characters.
This problem was something I have run into before, but my solution has been to ignore it and write another section of the book. However, I can’t avoid it forever and a couple of recent posts on Michele Emrath’s blog Southern City Mysteries has brought the issue back to mind.
But while I do want to post about this problematic theme at some point, I don’t think tonight is the night.

Instead of sorting out what to post about, I did my usual weekend trick of going for a drive. So the afternoon has well and truly vanished and I am once again posting later than is comfortable (at least for someone who is as much of a morning person as I am).
And to add to my posting problems I have come home with another 100 piccies to sort through…

So rather than talking about any of the above I have elected to post some piccies of a cute little bird.

The other day I posted a pic of a pair of Superb Blue Fairy Wrens.
Except they weren’t very blue.

As I said, that piccie was taken about four weeks ago. Well this is what the males look like now (I snapped these while I was on holiday).
What do you think Superb?
And blue?The difference is he is now in his breeding plumage which he will wear until next summer.


So to end this rather odd post I am going to include two piccies I took on my holiday.

First the Uniting Church at Terang. This church was bathed in such stunning light when we drove past it on the way to Warrnambool I just had to stop and capture it.

Also a guessing game. I am afraid I don’t have any prize to offer other than the glory of guessing right.
Can any of you guess what this odd looking object is?
Two clues: my hand which is holding it gives the scale; and it is something we took away on holiday with us.

Please forgive the poor quality of the pic, its about what you get when you hold a camera in one hand and take a photo of something in the other hand (without looking through the viewfinder).

A Heartfelt Thanks

A quick one tonight. A while ago I posted about a visiting editor from the UK having a look at my manuscript. Then I posted about her having really liked it. In the tail end of the second post there was a sentence about my other half Deb’s colleague hanging onto the MS so she could read it now her editor daughter had finished with it.
Well she read it.
She liked it.
… and she copyedited it for me.

Now the MS has been copyedited before, but we all know that if you go over a work again you will find more errors.
Now I have only had a chance to glance at what she has done, but It looks like Cheryl has gone over the MS with a fine tooth comb not only looking for punctuation etc, but also suggesting grammatical and structural improvements.
All this on her own initiative and entirely voluntarily.

In a lovely letter she has included with my returned manuscript, she absolutely minimises the amount of effort she has put into my work. She describes her hard work as “fun”.
As an ex-English teacher and literature enthusiast she may have found the job fun, but Cheryl, like my Deb, is an overworked senior-executive. Her generosity in taking the time to do this for me cannot be overstated. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you Cheryl.

Now to anyone who reads my blog I must apologise (in advance) if I don’t post quite as frequently in the near future. Because I expect over the next little while, I will be a bit busy going over my MS and making the most of Cheryl’s kindness.

Now to keep you busy, a photoCan anyone guess what this is?
Aussies, I know you’ll probably know, don’t spoil the fun!