A very welcome storm

Today was one of the hottest days I have experienced in my 48 years of living in Australia. I had lunch with a friend at Mount White inland about 30 kms south of Terrigal.The exterior temperature as I drove home was 43ºC. By the time I reached Erina, inland from Terrigal, it was showing 43.5ºC.

Relief arrived very suddenly at 5.00 this afternoon. A massive storm/cold front moved up the coast. The temperture dropped very rapidly and it has been accompanied by a full thunder and lightning show and torrential rain.

Photo taken from the top balcony using my Q2 on panorama mode. A few minutes later and the storm hit.

Australia Day Dawn

Dawn over Terrigal Lagoon, 26th January, Australia Day.

 

Portugal Revisited

 I paid the balance of the invoice for our trip to  Portugal and Spain yesterday. I have great memories of the three driving holidays I enjoyed there in 2016, 2018 and 2019 so Rosie's suggestion that we visit this year was very well received. Sadly, at my age, renting a car in Europe is now virtually impossible and to be honest I feel that after a 5 year layoff my driving on the 'other' side skills may be too rusty.

June will soon be here and I dug into the Portugal photo folders and found these three photos to remind me of the previous trips. The top one was taken in 2016 in Alfama the old part of Lisbon. For me this is a wonderful evocative photo of a street community. Sadly I don't expect to find this scene again. Real estate values in Lisbon have rocketed and investors have moved in and gentrification has transformed the old parts of the city which is such a pity- but it is what it is.

I don't know where the second phone was taken-I did not make notes-but I do remember it was in a small fortified hilltop village in the south of Portugal. For me it's a wonderful rural scene.

The final photo was taken in the historic university city of Coimbra  The students long black gowns were apparently the inspiration for J K Rowling's inspiration for the Hogwarts House gowns in Harry Potter. She was an English teacher in Oporto at some point.

Sydney Harbour Panorama 2013

 An oldie I had overlooked in my photo library. Taken from Taronga Zoo on stormy day in September 2013 using my Leica X1 handheld-no tripod! I merged three separate images using Photoshop.

Photos from my early morning walk.

 Two iPhone photos taken at The Haven, Terrigal on my early morning walks. I still much prefer to take photos with a camera but the iPhone is the camera in my pocket and recently I've taken a camera with me on my walk for a few days and come home without a single photo.Then I gave it away and walked with just the phone and hey presto.... Murphy's Law in action.

I've tried to emulate the look of Ektachrome slide film in the post processing. All my own work.You be the judge of whether I have been succsful. That is if you are old enough to remember Ektachrome or even film.

Who's laughing now?

 

 

 

Yesterday evening shortly after I took this photo of this kookaburra it started laughing. If you have never heard a kookaburra laugh it sounds maniacal.

We hear them regularly, at any time of the day. but often very early in the morning. By early I mean 4.30am or even earlier.

Kookaburras are often found in pairs so you can have two of them laughing together from the same location.

Kookaburras eat almost solely vertebrates and invertebrates, ranging from venomous snakes and amphibians to small insects and earthworms.

They perch on a branch or fence and scan the ground for prey. This is what this one was doing and a few minutes later, after the laughing episode, it swooped and probably a small lizard met its end.

The photo was taken from my front deck with my Leica SL2 fitted with the Lumix S 70-200 F2.8 lens fitted with a Lumix 2X converter taking it to 400mm.

This superb set up weighs well over 3 kilos so carrying it around is no laughing matter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

skinks and small rodents

Avoca Beach

 The weather defaulted to normal on Friday after three days of wet and stormy conditions which, although not generally appreciated, did bring much needed rain.

Photo taken at 4.26pm yesterday from the Avoca Beach House Restaurant/Bar. It shows Avoca and N Avoca beaches.Terrigal is located over the hill in the middle distance.

Photo taken with my iPhone 13Pro using the panorama mode. The slight banding in the sky on the RH side is due to me not panning the phone at a constant speed for a short section.

The Watchers

 

 This wonderful scene spotted on the Terrigal Esplanade. The dogs were watching their owner have a swim. I'm not sure how much the little dog could actually see. From the photo it looks as if it is staring at the wall. Perhaps it was just copying its big friend.

 

Rainy Days

 After two weeks of glorious weather,and a very hot day on Monday,storms with driving rain and very strong wind gusts moved in over Monday night and we've experienced three very bleak days.

It's still warm and it's very humid but it's not holiday weather. Photo taken from the Haven, Terrigal looking south down the coast towards North Avoca and Avoca. The sea and Avoca Beach is just visible through the driving rain.

Photo taken with my iPhone.

Dawn 2025

                                    Dawn at Terrigal this morning, 1st January 2025, from our bedroom.