The Newest Little Russell

I’m a bit excited tonight.

Because we have a puppy!

We haven’t had a dog since our beloved Molly the Labrador died in 2008.

Anyway our girls E, Io and Lu picked up a gorgeous black Labrador puppy from her breeders while I was at work today.

Here she is little Lilli.I’ve only taken a few piccies tonight because I didn’t want to phase her with a flash and truth be known I was too busy playing with her.

I also got this piccie just after we fed her. Her little eyes are asking the typical Lab question of ‘Is that all I get?’

In Which Al goes batty (again)

A few months ago I posted about a flying fox (fruit bat) colony on the outskirts of Melbourne.
I posted some piccies of very cute flying foxesThen I went back after dark and attempted to get some piccies of the bats leaving on their nightly fruit and nectar foraging missions.

Alas my old camera was not up to the task and the best I got was this.Those funny squiggles are bats flying past a long exposure.

Tonight, I went back again and waited until the sun setAnd the moon came out
And tried again
Now my new camera is light-years ahead of the older model. But it seems I am just asking too much of a stills camera because these are the best I got.At least they are now fuzzy bats rather than squiggles ;-)Having said that I am not at all disappointed.

Because I had fun and…

While I waited for the sun to set some of the other wild life in the area kept me entertained.

This Crested Pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes) landed right near my feet.
He/she looked at me and turned around and had another look and must have decided I wasn’t a tree and flew off in a panic!

Then this pair of rainbow lorikeets became very interested in this hollow branch.
One looked Then the other looked And the first looked again.
I guess but don’t know that they are scoping for hollows in which to nest (most Oz parrots nest in tree hollows).

Then in the last light I heard a mournful cry. Looking up I saw a flock of Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus funereus) flying high overhead, presumably looking for a roosting spot for the night. These birds are beautiful black cockies with yellow cheek patches and a flashing yellow tail. I’ve seen them many, many times but never managed to photograph them.

That is me for the night. Good night!

A Two Part Post

No I don’t mean to say that I am going to present this post in two episodes.
Instead I am going to tackle two sides of the way I am feeling at the moment.

First I am going to be a whiny, snivelly Al.
As you know I had a wonderful holiday last week (by the way in Oz lingo holiday = vacation, not just the special days in the calendar).
Many of you will also know I have been hunting for a new job. I think I am seriously approaching burnout after (too) many years in coalface crisis services like my current job managing programs for homeless people.
Normally I come back to work after a break recharged and ready to go again.

This time I am just as tired as when I went away. I am ready for a change.

So why two parts?

As part of my Al managing Al’s mind strategy I am now going to share some thoughts about what helps keep me sane. Because I am not so far gone that I can’t recognise I am truly blessed as well.

First I went away last week with the love of my life Deb.
It was (as far as I recall) our second child free break in over 25 years of marriage. Just the two of us was wonderful and a real reminder of just how special this wonderful woman is to me. I hasten to add that I don’t exactly need reminding because my Deb is always amazing!

Second despite the fact that they are frequently demanding sods, our three beautiful girls are mostly a pleasure to have around.

Then I have distractions and hobbies which I pursue with a passion.

My writing is the best part of my working day. Commuting by train as I have been now for several months means I get a stress buster on the way to work and on the way home! And as a bonus my WIP continues to look more like a novel.

Then (as you know) I spend a lot of time out and about chasing photo opportunities.

So dear friends I hope you forgive my whingeing. Things are mostly okay with Al.

I haven’t had anything like enough time to sort my piccies from Tasmania, but I will include just a few.
As I am a bit boring I will include two of subjects I have already shared.

First another shot of the pademelon I posted last week. Isn’t she cute the way she holds the leaf she is eating in her little paws?The Russell Falls from another angle.And finally some tiny translucent bracket fungi - they are about the size of a 20 cent coin (roughly the size of an American Quarter or a British 10p, and exactly the same size as a Kiwi 20c)

Home Safe

Our Tassie vacation came to an end on Friday night.
We were back home in Melbourne in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Our last couple of days in Tassie were as packed as the first few.
Like our trip there in January I’ve come home with far too many piccies to share.
I will probably do a few posts on the trip over the next couple of weeks.

I am a little weary still from our trip and I am hitting the sack early tonight to be ready for work in the morning. So I thought I would share just a few piccies of our last couple of days there.

In Thursday we drove down through the Huon Valley. When we got to the Huon River it was amazingly still. The river’s surface was like a mirror and I was lucky enough to capture some beautiful images of reflections.

I’ve turned one of these upside down.Can you tell which way is up?
That afternoon we caught the car ferry over to Bruny Island. This piccie shows “The Neck” which joins the north of the island to the south.
I captured this sunset from Bruny Island, the strip of water reflecting the sunset colours is the D'Entrecasteaux Channel which separates the island from the Tasmanian mainland. The mountains in the distance are those north of Recherche bay which featured in my post last week..

On Friday we headed to the Tasman Peninsula.

Heaps of Banksia species were flowering in the bush.On the north side of the peninsula are the remains of the convict era coal mines. I love archaeology and ruins so I took hundreds of piccies.
These two are part of the remains of the convict barracks.

The Cold Light of Dawn

Yesterday we drove from Hobart where we have been based over to Tasmania's east coast.

Our destination: the Freycinet National Park. On the way I noticed this semi-ruined boathouse and knew I had to have a closer look.It was very photogenic, and in the background the mountains of the Freycinet NP.

We took our time stopping for lunch along the way and finally reached the park just before dark.I caught a few photos, but unfortunately the weather turned nasty and we had to run for shelter. We drove to Swansea about an hour away where we checked into a chalet overnight.

This morning I was up before dawn. I drove back to Freycinet, hoping to catch the rock faces of the cliffs in the dawn light.

The difference between OK landscape shots and brilliant ones is the light. The best landscape pictures are captured in the warm light of dawn or sunset.

But it was not to be. In the ten minutes after I took this piccie of the clouds beginning to pink up more cloud had rolled in and it began to rain!I caught some shots anyway, but they were taken in a cold grey light not morning warmth.

A Taster

Our past couple of days have been full to the brim.
I'm a little weary this evening, not exactly what you want from a vacation. But it is a good kind of weary. We've walked a lot and covered a lot of ground.

Yesterday we headed to the South East of Tasmania.

Just a quick couple of piccies (by the way these are well worth clicking on to get an expanded view).

Recherche Bay at around sunset.And the Lune River half an hour before.Can you tell which way is up?

Today we headed up into the South West Wilderness area.
The world heritage area is a mix of temperate rainforest and alpine wilderness.

I caught this cutie in the rainforest in the Mount Field National Park. She is a Tasmanian Pademelon (Thylogale billardierii). Pademelons are a cat sized relative of Kangaroos and Wallabies. These guys were widespread on the mainland before European settlement. Unfortunately in the old days some “gentlemen” decided it would be nice to have foxes to hunt and released European red foxes in mainland Oz.

Oz + foxes = extinct pademelons

There are none of these delightful creatures left on the mainland. Fortunately there are no foxes in Tassie.

The last pics are the Russell Falls (isn't that a good name)and High in the South Western mountains... Lake Pedder, just before sunset and in driving rain.

Al Ventures South

As I said earlier in the week I am on leave for a whole week!
This pause for a recharge is what I really need.

Anyway as my title says we have ventured south for our holiday.
If you venture south from Victoria there are only two places to go.

Antarctica

And a bit closer to home Tasmania.

Now my Queensland friends think I am mad going further south at this time of year (remember Downunder the further south you go the colder it gets, we do things upside down here). But we enjoyed Tasmania so much in January we thought we'd have another look.

So getting up at 6:30 to catch an early flight we were here in Tassie by early morning.

We wondered around Hobart for a while enjoying a gorgeous autumn day.Then we decided given it was such glorious day we would head up Mount Wellington which towers 1,271 metres (4,170 feet) over Hobart

Hobart literally sits on the eastern flank of Mount Wellington by the Derwent river.

Anyway, we drove up the windy road that climbs the mountain side. I paused part way up to get this shot of mountains away to the north.Once we got to the peak we went for a bit of a walk along one of the many hiking trails.

Naturally I took dozens of piccies, but as uploading using my mobile phone as a modem is a bit slow I will share just two.

A view of a formation called the 'Organ Pipes' with a glimpse of Hobart's southern suburb Kingstown far below.And a close up of some of the 'Organ Pipes'.
A word about the piccies I will post while I am away. I am sorting and processing them on my netbook. That is really handy in terms of being able to store them off camera (I take far too many piccies to rely on memory cards) but the screen is too small and the resolution is too low to really pick the best. So an apology if any of my piccies are not up to their usual standard.