Dunn's Swamp

In the tree arching over the water an azure kingfisher was fishing... seemed untroubled by a couple of rambler/picnickers. We also saw a fantastic display by a musk duck, apparently rare in this region except for Dunn's Swamp. Has to be seen to be believed. Sadly didn't have a strong enough camera to capture the action..

Cruising from Moscow in the direction of St Petersburg

Jetlag helped me get up earlier than usual. The river scenes first thing in the morning are very pretty. Not quite sure what I'm snapping here though!

Russia May 2011

No idea what this building in the early mist was, but it bears the scaffolding of restoration.

After Fire

This area was badly burned several years ago. This tree was very striking in its black and grey whorls dressed up in green by a young neighbour.

South Coast dreaming

Heath stream near Jervis Bay

This spot on the edge of forest and heath always has plenty of bird activity, especially late winter and spring. The honeyeaters were dashing about in courtship on a mild day. Plenty of plants flowering too.

Canada - Lake view July 2010

Around the corner from here in the deeper water, we saw loons who are marvellous to behold. A few days earlier people saw a bear swim across the lake so I kept a watchful eye!

Parramatta Station

On the way to the Sydney Writers Festival....

Lake Parramatta again - May 2010

Lake Parramatta - Last day of July, 09

It's winter, but tell that to the honeyeaters who think it's spring. I guess that's a very unscientific statement. Okay, they were feeding, chasing and telling everyone THIS IS OUR PATCH - piss off. At NWG Inc we are in Haiku producing mode - and so I decided to get busy with the images on the bush tracks but I failed to capture the honeyeaters' vim:

Walking around the lake/ hear the honeyeaters sing/ do not linger here...

so I wrote a sleepy one

Branch over water/ two little cormorants doze/ full of live breakfast...

Fairy Toadstools - April 09

Bruce took this photo (at my insistence:) near the Cassins hangout up the Blue Mountains. I thought they were artistic flights of fancy - but no - they're real. Not trying to cook one though.

Home Beauty - South Coast

The cattle are just beginning to notice us, but can't tell the difference between gawkers and farmers with hay. We were kind of glad there was a fence because within seconds of the first picture being taken the herd was trotting quite quickly in our direction...
Feeling guilty we drove off.

Okay, so I'm no photographer! But this beautifully marked little beastie captivated me. At a Ballina roadstop on the way home from Brisbane - same one where Bruce took a picture of an ibis at take-off in 2005.

My Mum (right) and my aunt Gwen on horseback up in the timber country Murrindindi, Victoria. They are both gone now, but soon many of us are visiting their remaining siblings (the youngest Jacksons born to Evelyn and Harry) James and Margaret, both living in Qld. Should be a merry old time. Thanks to Gwen's son, my cousin Peter for this photo.

Lake Parramatta on a grey day

This place deserves a better photographer then me - Fida Haq for instance - but I'll return for another go.

Snowy Mountains

No botanist, I can't identify anything in this intriguing tangle of low grasses on the site of an old gold-mining town (Kiandra) in the Snowy Mountains. Rolling, deserted, grassy hills, great places for skylarks and pipits. Deep set stream running nearby.

Jacaranda Carpet in Parramatta

Every stage of these trees is beautiful. When they start to lose their purple crowns they decorate the street and lawns below.

Tide's out at Huskisson

Pity you can't actually see the tiny crabs that race around the feet of the mangroves at low tide!

Shoalhaven River NSW

Cliff on the Shoalhaven River upstream from the Nowra bridge. Very peaceful. Didn't bother to fish. Watched the fish jumping instead.

Sawn Rocks Mt Kaputar National Park June 07

Sawn Rocks. These stone pipes look very like a towering pipe organ and the valley it's cathedral. Lots of angophoras posing as eucalypts along track from the car park - an easy walk. [3km North of Narribri, turn off North East towards Sawn Rocks in Mt Kaputar NP 34km out.]