The other cat

 We are a two cat household. The second cat is Smudge. Like Marvel she is  a rescue cat. She is black with white patches and paws.

Sadly poor Marvel is not well and I fear we will lose her soon which will be very sad as she is a beautiful cat and she has been a great friend over the past three years. 

Then the question will be "do we replace her or revert to a one cat household?" Time will tell. Meanwhile every day with Marvel is a bonus.

Photo taken on the Lumix S5 with the 70-200mm f2.8 lens. Focussing on a black cat is challenging.The trick is to focus on the whiskers. RAW file converted to monochrome with Silver EFX Pro 2.

Path to the beach

 Path to the beach at 2.20 pm on a beautiful Christmas Day yesterday. The beach is deserted-everyone enjoying their lunch or a post lunch snooze maybe. Photo taken on my iphone as we were on our way home from our Christmas lunch.

Christmas Eve

My Christmas photo-beautiful Marvel taking in the sunshine in the garden this morning. She is doing well although she really dislikes taking her twice daily meds which are so important for her.

Seasons Greetings to the blogs followers. 

Photo taken with my Leica X Vario-the ideal cat camera.

The storm

 A storm in Terrigal taken some years ago on my Leica X1 and undiscovered until today. It would not be possible to take this shot today as the undercliff board walk goes over these rocks.  I should not compain as I walk on it nearly everyday and it is convenient but it did change the seascape.

Black and white portrait

 Portrait of Marvel in black and white. Taken with the Lumix S5 with Panasonic 70-200mm f2.8 lens and post processed in Lightroom.

Cygnet Bay

 Mangroves at beautiful Cygnet Bay, Kimberley, Western Australia. Leica Q2 photo 1/2000th at f5.6 ISO 100.

The climber

 Another photo of my favourite subject, Marvel. Despite her heart condition she is still climbing the olive tree in the garden.

The photo was taken through the glass of the kitchen window using my favourite cat camera, the Leica X- Vario. 1/125th sec at f5.6 ISO 4000.

Terrigal at night

 Terrigal at dusk photographed from my balcony last week. It looks like an xmas tree centre photo but in fact the council put the lights on the pine tree a few years ago for xmas and then left them there and they are switched on every evening, all year round.

The large lit building is the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Photo taken with my Leica Q2-1/30th sec at f1.7 ISO 1600.

Paul McCartney at 81

We were fortunate to see Paul McCartney perform for 3 hours, without a break, at the stadium in Newcastle last week. It was hot evening and it was a great evening in front of a 35,000 crowd.

Photo taken with my iPhone during the performance of 'live and let die' complete with fireworks.

The Big Boab

The big boab tree in the El Questro Wilderness Park, Kimberley, WA.

 

Shelly Beach

 Beautiful afternoon for a walk. A glimpse of Shelly Beach from the Coastal Track -Bateau Bay to Shelly Beach section in the Wyrrabalong National Park.

So sad.

My beautiful Marvel, photographed today. She is not well. She has a serious heart condition and her prognosis is very poor. She is so young and such a lovely friend. So sad.
 

Sunset at Cable Beach, Broome.

 A spectacular sunset it almost guaranteed most days at Cable Beach, Broome, Western Australia. 

Cable Beach was so named as it was the location where the telegraph cable laid between Broome and Java, Indonesia in 1889 came ashore.

The photo was taken from the aptly named Sunset Bar and Grill in the Cable Beach Club.

Pentecost River crossing

 Pentecost River crossing at dusk, El Questro, Durack, WA. Serious 4WD country. Poseur 4WD's need not apply.

Sunset on the Chamberlain Gorge

 Sunset on the Chamberlain Gorge, El Questro Wilderness Park, Durack,Western Australia. 

The colours at sunset in the Kimberley are wonderful and at their best ain the 30 minutes after the sun has gone below the horizon as in this photo

Photo taken from the Homestead with my Leica Q2 handheld 1/30th second at F1.7 ISO2000.

Kimberley Interlude

 I'm back from a wonderful trip to the Kimberley in the far north of Western Australia. Suffice to say it is an amazing place-particularly for photographers. The colours are spectacular and it so empty and unspoilt. I will pull togetgher a set of photos to post but until then here's a sunset shot of the Durack Tree, a very large boab tree, in the El Questro Wilderness Park.

A walk in Wyrrabalong National Park

 Another beautiful day yesterday. In the afternoon I took a walk on the Coast Track from Forresters Beach through the Wyrrabalong National Park- just a 15 minute drive from home.. The Flannel Flowers are starting to bloom. They are two to three weeks early due to the warm winter.

Beautiful ocean glimpses through the gum trees.

Flannel flowers in the heathland

The info board at the start of this section of the Coast Track describes the section as moderate grade.

Happy Father's Day

 Father's Day, 3rd September. The Boardwalk at Terrigal was crowded with walkers at 8.15 am at the start of what promises to be another beautiful spring day.

Obidos, Portugal.

One from the archive which I overlooked back in 2019. I first saw this ginger cat resting on the roof of this car when I visited Obidos in western Portugal in 2016. Fast forward three years I was in Obidos again and here was the cat still resting on the roof of the same car.

For sale

 From the archives. Car for sale on a backroad in rural Pennsylvania. Spotted on a 2011 road trip.

Smudge-up close

 Smudge, the"other"cat- up close.

 

Local Osprey

 From Wikipedia  The osprey (Pandion haliaetus), /ˈɒspri, -preɪ/,^[2] also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than 60 cm (24 in) in length and 180 cm (71 in) across the wings. It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts. 

Eight months ago a pair of Osprey built a nest on the top of a crane on a building site in the centre of Terrigal. Fortunately work on the site has been halted ever since as the builder is in administration so the crane has not been working.  

From our lofty perch on our balcony we have been able to watch the nest through binoculars. At first it was the parents bringing fish back to the nest for the young. Now the young are out fishing for themselves.

Earlier this week I was surprised to find one of the young ones watching out to sea from a ledge on the cliff above the Boardwalk. I only had my iPhone with me but I managed to grab these two poor photos before the Osprey sighted a fish and took off. If only I had had my camera with the long lens.

Somewhere over the rainbow...

 Spectacular rainbow during storm early afternoon today as seen from my balcony.

From Kiama

 Went to Kiama last weekend. Photo taken on my early morning walk from the B&B looking west towards the escarpment.

Avoca Lagoon

Avoca Lagoon, Avoca, NSW.  Afternoon 10th July.

 

First glimpse

First glimpse of the sun.Terrigal Esplanade yesterday.

 

Lunchtime.

Marvel at the window. It must be lunchtime!

 

Schafberg railway, Schafberg, Austria. Engine at the summit waiting to take a train down the mountain. Memories of a glorious day.
 

Austrian panorama

 A photo of St Gilgen near Salzburg, Austria, taken on a wonderful road trip way back in 2014. We were on our way to the Schafberg mountain railway. The photo was taken at 8.30am on a beautiful morning using my Leica X1, still one of the best cameras I have ever used or owned. Wonderful memories.

Sunrise, Painters Lane, Terrigal.

Sunrise photographed looking down Painters Lane,Terrigal, NSW, yesterday 21st June.  Cold nights under cloudless skies followed by very spectacular sunrises and sunny, cloudless days. Typical June weather.

The Bride

The Bride. Sibiu, Romania.

 

Doll in a window

Another memory of wonderful Romania. Doll in a window. Sibiu, Romania.

 

Romanian memory

Evening in rural Romania. Memories of a wonderful road trip-2018

 

Stormy Morning

Stormy morning, Terrigal Haven, Terrigal, NSW, Australia

 

Face at the window

Face at the window. Terrigal, 3rd June 2023.

Terrigal sunrise, last day of May

 Sunrise on my early morning walk today, last day of May. Winter officially starts tomorrow but it feels as if it is already here.

Fish and Chip Co, Terrigal Beach.

Sunrise reflections in Fish and Chip Co, Terrigal at 7.02am. A beautiful sunrise but cold with a biting wind.

Three Vietnamese girls

 No new photo today but an oldie from way back in 2000. Three Vietnamese girls cycling home from school, or more likely work, late afternoon in Hoi An, Vietnam.

Sobering to think that these girls are close to middle age now and Hoi An has changed totally and sadly not for the better.

The photo was taken on Fuji Velvia slide film with a Canon EOS camera fitted with an f2.8 70-200mm lens.  I was riding in the back of a ute- pick up truck-which did duty as a taxi.

A girl, her dog and a tree.

Unusually quiet at 9.10am on the Esplanade at Terrigal Beach today, 22nd May. Not surprising given the cold temperature and the biting wind.

iPhone SE photo.

On the beach

 Mother's Day, 14th May at N Avoca Beach. A typical winter's day -sunny but with a cold wind. A few families walking the beach and a few surfers trying to surf the small surf.

A new door

 

As part of the extensive renovations we've changed the back door. Here's the carpenter working on the new door on a very cold morning last Monday.

Room with a view

Went down to Sydney yesterday to see the Steve McCurry photo exhibition at the Wharf on Sydney Harbour. On the way out I saw this man enjoying the view through one of the windows of the Wharf shed.

It was taken with my Leica X1 which gives wonderful accurate colour rendition on the JPEG files but on this one I had to use the DNG file to get the detail out of the dark area in the foreground and the window had tinted glass which messed with the colour.

Smudge

 

Miss Smudge, the other cat in our happy household, enjoying the early morning winter sunshine atop the barbecue. Meanwhile Marvel was indoors catching up on her beauty sleep after an all nighter on the tiles.

A short walk on the Coastal Track

 A short walk on the Coastal Track north from Putty Beach on the Central Coast of NSW last week yielded a few photos. It was a windy and gloomy day but I will try and make it out to the same location on a really stormy day as I can see some excellent photo opportunities. For the photos below.I was using the Lumix S5 with the 16-35mm Lumix Pro lens.