A WIIW hazard and Piccie of the Day

There were only two guesses for WIIW last week.
 
 Old Kitty guessed: "A rip in the fabric of the space time continuum? LOL! Oh I am kidding!!
Tarmac tear? Although that's not confined to rural areas! LOL"

While Linda G guessed:"Is it a drought-related crack in the ground?"

Well neither is close, unfortunately the hazard was of a more personal nature.

This was my boot after I hit my foot with an axe!

I have been splitting wood for over forty years and have never done something so dopey before.

Luckily I had decent boots on and the blow hit between my big toe and second toe, so I ended up with a cut about an inch long. By a week later it was all healed up.

Now a little nicer subject, a rainforest flower I photographed today (make sure you click on it to enlarge it).

What is it Wednesday?

Well  I have had a long day today so I will keep this short.
I had to leave at the crack of dawn to drive down to Kempsey (2 and 1/2 hours so not quite a nip) I had a full day training session for work. SO after five hours in the car and eight at work I will have an early one tonight.

So what on Earth do you think this might be?

A clue: it has something to do with a rural related hazard...

A Winter's Tale

Well this morning I was scraping ice off the windscreen before I could start for work because of the heavy frost .

That is what you expect in winter if you live in the mountains.

That said we do benefit from our move north (which Downunder means closer to the Equator).

Yesterday we nipped (only two hours drive) down to visit our eldest E at Yamba where she has recently moved.

We sat here over looking the Clarence River to have lunch.

Not bad for a winter day?
 

Interestingly some of the water that flows past here originates in the very spring we get our domestic water at the cottage. Our little stream is almost as small as it gets, conversely the Clarence gives the local area the title "Big  River Country".

On the other side of Yamba lies the Pacific Ocean,  it hardly looks wintry does it?

One Guess, One Winner.

Well there was only one guess for this week's WIIW

I thought it was easier than recently and said so.

Linda G disagreed with the statement: "Easier? You must be kidding!"

Well Linda I have to say it was easy because your throwaway guess: "Looks like a demented termite's path over a piece of petrified wood to me. *grin*"

Is so close to the truth I have to give you 100%

Not petrified wood, it is tree bark. Not a termite, but a moth larvae.

Meet a Scribbly Gum, this common Eucalyptus is so named because the boring caterpillars leave these amazing marks on their bark. This is one where they have been particularly busy!

An easier WIIW?

When I saw this I just knew I had to get a piccie for this week's WIIW.

I think this will be an easier one than some...

What on Earth do you think this mad scribble might be?

Beauty and the Beast?

As you know I only work three days a week these days.

Well because I have to attend a couple of meetings later in the week I am not working today.

Which is good because it gives me a chance to take it easy.

In search of a warmer day I headed down out of the mountains to Coffs Harbour.

Down on the coast it was a typical winter day at 20⁰ C (68⁰F). I just love a sub-tropical climate :-) 

I had a short stroll through the North Coast Regional Botanical Garden which mostly features Oz natives.

One of the few piccies I took was of this Abutilon flower (a native related to Hibiscus I'm not sure of the species).
 
Not a great piccie, but as I was shooting it I was distracted  bye the stare of an inhabitant of the shrub.

In spite of her aggressive stare I couldn't resist getting a closer shot...

Cradle Mountain

I am feeling much better tonight so I thought I would post a piccie of the day I shot a couple of years ago.

This is a view of Cradle Mountain viewed across Dove Lake in Tasmania's Central Highlands.

One of the colder parts of Oz bush-walkers (hikers) there are warned to be prepared for snow even in summer.

Snow at Christmas in Oz who would credit it? :-)

Internet Woes and Man Flu

Just a very quck post.

I have been absent from the blog for the past few days due to

a) our internet playing up again !!!!!!

b) I have been battling a nasty cold and have not been motivated to do anything much. (Deb insists it is just a case of "man-flu" and that I am just malingering.)

Anyway a quick piccie of the day  to finish...
A rehash of one I used a while ago. A Melbourne skyline .

Clunes Anglican Church

Just a piccie of the day

Al Scores!

Well we are back home after a very tiring couple of days.

As I said the other day we were helping our eldest E move from Queensland.

Well she was moving from Kingaroy QLD to Yamba NSW. As I said Kingaroy is about 7 hours from here (590 km or 370 miles). Yamba which is on the way is about two hours from here.

E didn't get a quote less than $2,500 for professional removalists. Which is highway robbery.

Enter the bunnies parents to save the day. 

So the plan was to drive up the day before yesterday, load up our trailer with E's worldly possessions and drive back to Yamba yesteday, unload and then come home.

Of course things started badly, loading took longer than we expected. Then the traffic gods intervened - in a bad way

Part of the trip back is the Goldcoast Motorway, between Brisbane and the Goldcoast. It is probably the only 8 lane superhighway that runs any kind of distance in Oz. Normally it flows reasonably well.

Deb and I set off from Kingaroy towing our laden trailer, while E and her sisters stayed back to finish the last of the cleaning. They planned to catch up on the five hour drive because we would be travelling slower because of the trailer.

As Deb and I hit the outskirts of Brisbane rush-hour began. The traffic was mad but with 8 lanes it didn't slow too much.

For the girls following behind it was a whole different story. About an hour behind us by that stage they hit the motorway as it was closed down for roadworks. Eight lanes down to two. It took them three hours to go 10 miles!

Meanwhile Deb and I had reached Yamba to unload at a house we didn't have keys to!

End of story, we stayed the night in Yamba at a motel and unloaded this morning.

So we staggered home this evening nearly 24 hours late...

Finally, on a different note back to WIIW.

Al wins this time, while people were in the right kingdom with guesses of roots and seaweed none were close enough to earn major points.

I posted a piccie of a nice Banksia bloom a few days ago.

Following flowers come seeds, and this is what Banksia seed capsules look like.
Hard and woody, many will not open until after a bush fire. Don't they look weird?

Away

Deb and I are away for a day or two.
Our daughter E has a new job. After graduating last year she has been working as a speech pathologist for Education Queensland.
She will now be working as a practician at a private clinic. That means she'll be moving from Queensland to New South Wales.
So Deb and I have come up to help move.
A bonus for us is she will be living only two hours away. At the moment she's seven hours drive from us.

Now back to this weeks WIIW, with only two guesses so far Old Kitty is closest.
So any other ideas what this might be?

WIIW: Al tries tricky again

Well it is Wednesday, so it is time for "What is it Wednesday"

I am hopeful with this one, I guess Al will take the points...

So without further ado: What on Earth do you think this is?

Fleeting Beauty

Just a piccie of the day.
I ""caught" this beauty a few weeks ago.

Flowers in Winter

On Friday, on our way home from Point Lookout, we took a detour up into the Cathedral Rock National Park.

It was wet, bitterly cold and threatening snow, so we didn't dare do the three hour walk up to Cathedral Rock itself. But a few things caught my eye.

Some of the granite boulders are worth a shot

The colour and texture of this fallen gum leaf, with red galls, against the granite and multicolour lichen.
Of course most Oz trees are evergreen Eucalyptus species so we expect green leaves in winter.

Finally, another fact of the Oz bush is while many flowers come out in spring, something is flowering pretty much all year, even in sub-alpine areas like Cathedral Rock.
So I was not surprised to see exquisite Banksia flowers.