Celebrating Positives (offset of the Gripes Thread)

[Jerry_Atrick]

A mate from Melbourne was in London so I took my Daughter to London with me. As she want to be another of what the world desperately needs - a lawyer - we went to the Royal Courts of Justice, which are near the Aussie High Commission.  There were no afternoon sessions, so we were allowed to wander the courts and the reception area which is majestic. We then stopped for a spot of late lunch which was nice; then off to Dirty Dicks on Bishopsgate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Dick). Mate and I were on the pints; daughter had a couple of half-pints. 

 

We finished up around 10 - headed back to the Dukes Head. On the train on the way back, bumped into a work colleague, and had a great chat on the train. At the pub in time to say Hi to the landlord (we were there earlier to check in, but he was visiting his wife in hospital). Only two hitches for the day - one I lost my phone - no big deal (I normally have a back pack but as it was in my pocket, I had taken it out to sit down and obviously left it there). The second is, at around 11:30, daughter and I decided it would be a good idea to grab a pizza... Ugghhh Next morning it was as heavy in the stomach as it was in the box.. 

 

All in all, a really great night - catching up with a good mate and a great intro into the London after-work life for daughter - though no doubt DDs is a little lower brow than she will visit (DDs is outside Liverpool St. Station, which is where a lot of investment banking is based). Also, DDs had the music turned up, and daughter remarked it was strange that the first club like venue she went to was with her father.. 

 

 

 

[octave]

We went for a walk up Flinders Peak a couple of days ago. My positives from this were the fact that I did not have a myocardial infarction from the climb and that the first signs of spring were showing.

 

 

[spacesailor]

Is this a " false summer " .

Have the frost of winter , ended without a whimper. 

spacesailor

[pmccarthy]

Frost tomorrow

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

A touch of Frost?

[onetrack]

Some of the wildflowers have been out for 2-3 weeks in my neck of the woods. The Northern Wheatbelt region of W.A. is in for a bumper wildflower season, a wet Winter produces a bumper crop of wildflowers. The last time we went on a Wildflower road trip to the Northern Wheatbelt was 2018, it was a spectacular year for them, that year.

 

https://www.australiasgoldenoutback.com/itineraries/wildflower-way

 

 

[old man emu]

As I look out through the window beside my desk the overwhelming colour is green in all its various shades coming from the grass, the clover and the trees on the opposite side of the highway. But there is one vibrant splash of colour. There is a small wattle tree growing in isolation. At the moment it is in flower with a profusion of bright yellow flowers. It is framed on either side by a single gum tree about 10 metres away on each side, and a background of the trees on the other side of the road.

 

Not only does the wattle in bloom make a pretty picture, but it is a symbol of hope, heralding the approach of Spring and an end to the season of chilly weather.

[red750]

22 minutes ago, old man emu said:

Not only does the wattle in bloom make a pretty picture

Take a picture for those of us who can't be there to enjoy it.

[onetrack]

Unfortunately (and adding a negative to the thread), the Sydney Golden Wattle was transplanted to W.A. as a decorative garden plant, but it escaped into the wild, and has now become an invasive species here, with major concerns that it's overwhelming local wildflower species, and increasing the bushfire risk.

 

Many of these wattle species will burst into explosive flames when green, such is their volatile eucalyptus oil content.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-19/wa-wages-war-on-invasive-sydney-golden-wattle/102749548

 

Edited August 13 by onetrack

[old man emu]

2 hours ago, red750 said:

Take a picture for those of us who can't be there to enjoy it.

[willedoo]

Looks like a bit of brigalow in the photo.

[old man emu]

5 hours ago, willedoo said:

Looks like a bit of brigalow in the photo.

I'll take your word for it. Identification of trees is not one of my strong suits.

[spacesailor]

Birds are not mine .

A black headed, with a long black beake , looks like a

" noisy minerbird/miner bird " .

Eating my oranges.  Has a ' melodic ' voice .

( no yellow eye ). 

spacesailor

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, spacesailor said:

Birds are not mine .

A black headed, with a long black beake , looks like a

" noisy minerbird/miner bird " .

Eating my oranges.  Has a ' melodic ' voice .

( no yellow eye ). 

spacesailor

Sounds like a Noisy Friarbird. They have a bump on top of their beak. There's a couple of permanents living at my place who love to look at themselves in my car's side mirrors.

[willedoo]

5 hours ago, old man emu said:

I'll take your word for it. Identification of trees is not one of my strong suits.

It's a bit hard to tell from the photo; I was just going by the dark trunks. Brigalow is an Acacia so they have a wattle leaf and not a central leaf vein like the eucalypts.

[red750]

Noisy Friarbird

 

[red750]

Brigalow

 

[willedoo]

More Brigalow:

 

 

[willedoo]

Where I was born is predominately brigalow country. It was a challenge to clear for the soldier settlers as the ballot blocks were uncleared. One consolation is that it often grows in good soil and it seems to like black soil plains type country. In the early scrub pulling days, pulling brigalow just created much more brigalow; the suckers come back like hairs on a cat's back. They eventually came up with the idea of a cutter bar attached to the rippers to cut the roots off below ground level.

[spacesailor]

Not a ' friar ' bird , as it has straight black beak .

Slightly larger than common Miner bird , that has a yellow beak & eye .

This one has black head, beak, & eye .

spacesailor

 

[onetrack]

A black-faced cuckoo-shrike? Quite a common bird throughout most of Australia, but quite shy. However, their beak is slightly curved, not straight.

 

https://australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/black-faced-cuckoo-shrike/

 

 

[old man emu]

A celebration!

My kitchen bench consists of a long length and a short one, making the whole lot L-shaped. The benchtop over the short length is supposed to be secured to the long length with three clamps. They are hard to describe, so just accept that they exist.

 

Way back when, I put those clamps somewhere safe so I would not lose them. And once I had the bench in place, I need them. Do you think I could find them? I looked everywhere because I knew that I had not thrown them out. I was getting frustrated because I didn't know where to get replacements. Today I was diving into a box that I hadn't checked before, looking for a bit of electrical cable, when lo and behold! there they were!  

 

Now I've got to become a contortionist to fit them because the place they go can only be accessed from inside the cupboards. But at least I'll have the benchtop secured.

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

Now I've got to become a contortionist to fit them because the place they go can only be accessed from inside the cupboards.

Just don't eat any honey while you're in there.

[Litespeed]

Today was beautiful sunshine, blue skies and calm water.

 

 

 

The fish were jumping and Dolphins cruising the passage.

 

Some young kids caught a 2 ft baby Bullshark - returned to water, on the dock. I hope they gave it a kiss, so it remembers not to eat them in puberty.

 

 

 

Sat at my friend's cafe- water views, and read a book with a group of Lorikeets 2 ft away.

 

 

 

Did my enforced exercise of rowing the 12ft tinny 500 m each way to dock. Only possible if timed with the tides.

 

 

 

The shitty Parsun 9.8 outboard is DOA. New carb and coils, prop, starter unit, service.

Or replace with a  15-30hp on a newer tinny?  A fishing platform and bimmini would be nice.

 

The tinnytanic had a hole open up from a previous owners excursion at speed into rocks. 

A trip to the local Aerospace hardware provided salt grade Kneadit expoxy and fixed in 20 minutes. 

The old Savage is unsinkable with 4 floatation seats built in, each day I thought shit it must have rained heavy last night. Then have to bail for ever. 

 

Amazing how easy it is to row after scrapping the growth off and fixing a huge leak.

 

 

 

 

Until it's repaired or replaced, I am at  natures whim getting ashore.

 

On a day like today it's magic.

 

 

 

Tuesday night however, was a rocking 10knot current with the tide running, fortunately the way I wanted to go. The bugger is like landing a glider, you either be precise and land the ship as you fly past or your fucked and over

shoot.

 

No second chance.

 

 

 

[willedoo]

Crikey, how do you compete with that. I was about to post how great it was to find half a drum of steel offcuts I thought I'd lost, but after reading Litespeed's story, I'll just go back and hide in my shed.