I should be so lucky

 The lockdown continues.Week 10, nearly week 11. Even the damn lockdown is pretty easy to take on a morning like today. Winter is fading away and even with a 7.30 start I was in just a polo shirt-no sweater-it was warm but not hot. Ideal walking conditions.We walked to Avoca Surf Club and back-7.4kms. Just glorious.

Photo shows Avoca Beach at 10.00am today. iPhone photo.

Big sea day

 A deep low off the coast of NSW produced strong winds and heavy rain earlier in the week but now the sky is blue again but the sea is big. The conditions are too rough and the sea too choppy for surfers. Photo taken this morning at N Avoca just over the hill from home with my Leica Q2.

The miner

 

I photographer this opal miner a scrub pub west of Lightning Ridge in NSW whilst on my road trip in May of this year. The original photo was in colour but I decided to convert it to monochrome to enter in the major local Capture magazine Mono competition. I was pleased to be shortlisted and to achieve a Highly Commended award.

Lockdown, endless lockdown

 The main street of Terrigal, NSW, Church Street, on Sunday morning. Not a parked car, no traffic and no people. A town locked down, a region locked down and now a whole state locked down. 

The Delta variant of Covid-19 marches on despite greater and greater restrictions on the population. The police ask for additional powers and are given them and more. Mask wearing is now compulsory across the state except when exercising. I am sure that the level of compliance with this directive out in the bush is zero. Every day at 11.00am there is a press conference when the latest grim news is presented. The daily ritual is rating so well that commercial channels may soon be bidding for exclusive rights to televise it.

Stuck in the house alone unable to go out apart from exercise and essential shopping is very tedious after 8 weeks. Marvel the new cat is proving to be an absolute treasure. Three weeks ago there was a minor relaxation of the rules-probably against the wishes of the police -to allow people living alone to create a 'social bubble' with a nominated bubble buddy who can visit. So I now have my bubble buddy and that has made things a lot better.

There seems little hope of this ending soon.The economy is suffering and the only source of real pleasure is that the Scott Morrison, the totally incompetent Prime Minister, is being thrashed in the opinion polls as he is directly responsible for this state of affairs due to making a complete hash of the vaccine roll out. Now, at last, the vaccination rate is rapidly climbing but the damage has been done. At last Morrison is being widely recognised for being the smirking, shirking, incompetent facsimile of a leader that he is. 

Meanwhile some don't have a care in the world.......

Herons

Another beautiful winter's day here. Nothing else to do outside due to the lockdown but walk so I drove over to nearby Kincumber and walked on the track beside Brisbane Water for a 6km round trip. I took a camera and came back with just the one photo of a gaggle. or maybe it's a flock, of herons at the edge of the mangroves.

There are worse places to be locked down and I was counting my good fortune when I saw 5 carers pushing 5 severely disabled children in wheelchairs along the path for an outing in the sun. It made me both sad and even more grateful for my good fortune.

I also reflected on the young carers. Poorly paid with emotionally taxing work. How did we design a system where incompetent fools-mainly overweight white males- are highly paid members of parliament and dedicated, committed care workers are paid a pittance?

The Blue Tree Project

 Whilst on my three week road trip back in May I saw a few trees and dead trees painted a bright blue on lonely stretches of road deep in Queensland such as the one above. I now know what they are.

Groan-not another cat photo!

 

With greater Sydney including the Central Coast-now on the fifth week of an seemingly endless lockdown and with no possiblities of travelling outside the immediate local area the photo oportunities are very limited so today's photo is another one of new friend, Marvel, who has really settled in very well.

Frustration is rapidly growing at the rising number of Delta variant c-19 cases here in NSW despite ever harsher lockdown mesasures. The rate of vaccinations is slowly creeping up but Australia is still 37th of the 38 OECD countries in terms of % of population having received two vaccine doses. We have crept off last postion-just. The vaccination stroll out is due to industrial scale incomptence by the federal government and our smirking, shirking prime minister. Fortunately despite his many attempts to shift the blame for the fiasco onto others his incomptence and lack of leadership is being widely recognised. There can be no doubt the man is totally incompetent.