Lilli turns One!

Lilli our lovely Labrador has had her first birthday.
This piccie was taken this past weekend at the oval where we take her to chase balls and run.

The harness is what she wears in the car to keep her safe if we have an accident.

She is an absolute delight to have around clever, loving, companionable.
Also idiosyncratic, very idiosyncratic!

Like most labs she loves water, loves digging, loves retrieving.
Unlike most labs (or most dogs for that matter), she is fairly indifferent about food. She often leaves her meals half eaten. Yet as you can see from her build she isn’t in any way over fed.

She loves people and dogs she knows, but is nervous, really nervous about strangers.

As for cats, they are quite simply terrifying!
Lilli almost never barks, so the other day when I heard her barking nervously I knew something had frightened her. She had come in out of the back yard and was cowering in the corner of the lounge room, as far from the open door as she could get.

I went to investigate, assuming a stranger had come into our back yard. Lilli kind of followed me standing carefully behind me and barking (still nervously) at the would be intruder.
The terror that had caused her flight?
Our back neighbour’s kitten had climbed up on to their roof!

Now some more piccies,
As I said Lilli loves fetching the ball!

But because of her thick black coat she quickly overheats, so when we go to the oval we take a water bowl with us.

Now one last piccie I just had to share because it is just so funny!

Catching a ball in mid-air is hard work, “Dang missed again!”

A dark mystery revealed

Very much to my surprise nobody even came close to guessing what this was.


That surprises me a little because I am sure at least one person has guessed this answer for something that was totally different.

Jenny admitted defeat, after all honesty is always the best policy, and you were right it was not a toad’s eyes.

Kitty, to be sure there are droplets of water in the picture, but that is not the answer.

Welcome back Anne, it is a life form but very Aussie and not alien. Although in old days the first specimens (pelts) were believed by British scientists to be some kind of hoax.

Carolyn it is neither a mug nor a frog, although this creature is arguably as much at home in water as a frog.

Linda, I can see that, and yes it is wet but it is living and breathing and not a cave formation.

Susan, this part is shiny and wet, but see the above.

Well here this little fellow is:

A platypus! (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)

Platypus (often called “duck-billed” platypus) are quite common in streams up and down the east coast of Oz and Tasmania. Despite that most Aussies have never seen one in the wild because they are very shy. I have spent many hours in the bush around prime habitat and have only ever seen them two or three times.

The only time most Aussies see them is on our 20 cent coin.
Before a few days ago I have never managed to photograph one. These shots are very grainy because I was shooting in near dark without a flash (a flash would have upset this poor little fellow and I would have got no more piccies) so the ISO on my camera was set at maximum.

These guys must be as flexible as cats, because here the little fellow is reaching up with a back leg to scratch a back itch!

Platypus are very unique, they have been described as “duck-billed, beaver-tailed and otter footed”. Together with echidnas they are one of only two egg-laying mammals in the world. They dig long burrows under the banks of streams where they lay their eggs, before raising their puggles (the name for a baby platypus or echidna) on milk like all other mammals. I’ve never seen a platypus puggle but I can attest that echidna ones are super cute!

One last piccie

What is it Wednesday?

Autumn seems more like winter at the moment.
It has gone from glorious, sunny and quite warm to cold wet and dismal.

The only consolation is the exotic trees are turning.

I had to stop and catch these colours on a country road this past weekend.

Now it is Wednesday so what on earth do you think this is? 

Mostly Spot On

First of all, thanks to all of you for your kind words.
Losing someone is very hard, but sympathy and kind thoughts do help.

Now back to WIIW.
The Mt Gambier’s Blue Lake is amazing, but last week’s WIIW is found in a much darker place.

Kitty, I have to give you part marks, for this

does indeed look very like one of these.

But alas no cigar again.

Linda G for all your hedging you were almost spot on (apart from the agitated fireflies!)

It is indeed a stalactite illuminated from below.

I wonder how the young guide would like being compared to a firefly?

These were taken in Princess Margaret Rose cave on our recent break. One last piccie to give a feel for the cave.

What is it Wednesday and Grief.

I did not put up my normal post yesterday.

Last weekend a dearly loved family member passed away after a short fight with cancer.
As a result I have been away interstate for the funeral and only returned last night.
I do not have the emotional strength tonight to talk about it any more tonight.

Now three things.
First, this image I posted last week.I hate to say it but the trick was the piccie is taken looking down, not up.

That gorgeous blue is not the sky it’s water!

Meet Mount Gambier’s famous Blue Lake.Deb and I were so close during our recent holiday we couldn’t miss having a look. Mount Gambier is a town just across the border in South Australia. It sits on the flank of two dormant volcanoes that have massive craters and this one contains this beautiful blue lake.
It really is that amazing blue from December to March each year, then in the winter months it reverts to a steel grey colour. If you want to know more you can look here

Second, here is this week’s What is it Wednesday piccie.
It’s a day late but What on Earth do you think this is? Now finally,

For Johnny: 1944 - 2012

More piccies + What is it Wednesday.

Last night I posted piccies of the Twelve Apostles at sunset.
In the interest of balance here are a couple of photos of the same coast at dawn.
The Apostles as the first light strikes them.(The stack right at the back is the one that featured in last night’s piccies)

The view from Broken Head about half an hour later.Now as it’s Wednesday, what on Earth do you think this is?

Holiday and a Kind of Milestone

You will have to forgive me but I am going to be posting piccies from our Holiday break for a while to come.
We left for the Western Coast of Victoria around lunch time and arrived late afternoon. Our first port of call was our accommodation to make sure we got checked in.
Then we headed out to make the most of the evening light.
This piccie is the 10,000th photo I have taken with my “new” camera.It is another angle of “The Arch” and was taken about ten minutes after the one I posted the other day.
The sun was dipping towards the horizon and you can see why photographers love evening light. The colours are just that much richer.

We leapt back in the car taking a quick detour along the coast to halt not far from the Twelve Apostles.
Staying clear of the usual tourist strip I cut across country arriving at the coastal cliffs just in time to catch the last of the sunset between one of the Apostles and the mainland.A final shot of the last moment before the sun sank.

Flying Bogie-Doubles

Well we are back from our break tonight. So it is time to provide an answer to last week’s What is it Wednesday.

Michael you were half right. But it was no ordinary bridge.

Kitty, good detecting Kitty there was no driver. But it was not on a ferry.

John has nailed it (methinks you have seen similar gear in operation)

Linda yes, “a truck” was not quite it.

Now here is the image, this was taken in Portland (Victoria) on Wednesday.
It is at the harbour where literally mountains of wood-chip are unloaded off these bogie-double semi-trailers.They have two pit-bridges in operation unloading chip so it can be transferred to bulk-carrier ships to go to be turned into paper (probably in Japan).

Thank you Sharon for the compliment.

Here is another sample from my holiday.This feature is called (rather unimaginatively) “The Arch”

It lies between The Twelve Apostles and Port Campbell where we stayed for three nights.

More to come…

What is it Wednesday?

Well for the past few days Deb and I have been travelleng along The Great Ocean Road west of Melbourne.
I have been in seventh heaven taking piccies like this.
These rock formations are on the coast at a place called Loch Ard Gorge.

Now because it is Wednesday I need to post this.

What on Earth do you think this is?