On a beautiful morning

 I was up very early this morning. I did not beat the kookaburras but I was not far behind. I also did no beat what seemed like half the population of Terrigal who were also up and walking.

A very hot day was forecast and so it has turned out, 

I took my Q3 43 with me to keep my eye in and hoping to get some silhoutte shots in monochrome. I set the jpeg setting to monochrome using one of the  Leica Photos presets however after reviewing the photos I realised that days like today in Australia are just not suited to being rendered in monochrome. So here's today's Terrigal Diary in glorious Leica colour.

 

Let's go surfing-part one.

 Earlier in the week I was having a coffee with son,Toby, in a surf shop/cafe here in Terrigal.  As we were waiting for our coffees I leafed through some surfing magazines on the table and was prompted to later look up the surf photos I have taken in the twelve years I have lived here. 

Professional surf photography has turned into an extreme sport. Surf photographers go out in massive waves riding pillion on jetskis or even swim in the surf to get those inside the barrel wave shots. Some use drones flying just a metre or so above surfers as I saw last year at a professional surf competition at nearby Avoca Beach where I also saw a photographer on the beach using a Canon DSLR with a mammoth lens which probably cost more than a small car. I can't match that but here and in a future post are some of my modest efforts.   

      

Suddenly it's high summer

 If you are in lockdown in the northern hemisphere and the weather is bleak it's probably best if you don't read on.

The last few days the weather here on the east coast of Australia has been superb. Warm-27ºC- but not too hot with no wind and cloudless skies. And we're not in lockdown. In fact for quite a few days no new covid-19 cases have been found in Australia. We have not eliminated the virus but we have done extraordinarily well.

Tomorrow the forecast is for some really hot weather-34ºC -here in Terrigal. At this time last year bushfires were raging. So far there have been none but after a lot of rain over winter there is a lot of fuel again if hot weather dries everything out.

I feel so sorry for my poor wife confined to a hospital bed in this glorious weather. At least she can rest comfortably that I am keeping the house and garden in good order. This morning I was out weeding the front garden at 7.00am before it was too warm.

This afternoon I took a walk with my camera.  Terrigal has always been a popular beach destination but in the past three years it has become very popular and not just at weekends. The quiet retirement town has gone crazy and last weekend's opening of the North Connex motorway/tunnel has made it even easier for residents of Sydney's northwest and west to travel to Terrigal. The beach today was like it would be at Xmas. With international travel still not possible Xmas in Terrigal is going to be chaotic. Fortunately we live within easy walking distance of the beach.

Some photos from today's walk.

My garden in good shape

 

Terrigal Lagoon

Terrigal Lagoon 2

Terrigal Beach

You can put up as many warning signs as you want but boys and girls will still jump off the bridge into the lagoon.

Forget Bali and Fiji.......

 

 

It's a long weekend in the school holidays. The weather is glorious. Clear blue skies and warm but not hot.

In normal times Terrigal would be very busy this weekend. But these are not normal times. Most interstate borders are closed and Australia's international borders are closed. So the hundreds of thousands of New South Wales citizens who usually fly to Bali, Fiji, Phuket or Hawaii for the school holidays are staying at home and the result is an absolute boom for NSW coastal towns such as Terrigal. 

I have never seen anything like the number of people on the beaches at Terrigal and Wamberal this weekend. The traffic in the town is awful and the cafes and shops are full to capacity- the main Terrigal beach looks like Rio. A vacant parking space is harder to find than rocking horse droppings. It is a visitor bonanza. The local traders will be lobbying the state and federal governments to keep the borders closed.

I went with one of my granddaughters to Wambersal Lagoon mid-morning so that she could go body boarding. Usually even at the height of summer there would be a dozen cars in the small car park there and a smattering of people-the sandbank in the photo would be empty. Today there were cars lining the road to the lagoon and the sandbank was packed with people. 

Photo taken with my iPhone. I would have preferred to have taken it with a camera but Leicas and beaches do not mix so it had to be the iPhone again. I have actually slightly dialled back the clarity on the photo in Lightroom as I thought it looked oversharp and harsh.

On a morning walk

 The last few months have been difficult, very difficult. First the lockdown and travel restrictions due to the pandemic and then secondly Val's health. Instead of two exciting overseas trips we have had none. Indeed we would have been sailing on a small riverboat up into darkest Mynmar this very week if events had not intervened.

This forced confinement to base has not been easy but at least I am in Terrigal and even in the depths of winter my early morning cliff top walk at The Haven has been enjoyable . Now it's even better as spring has really sprung. The temperature has gone up and the gardens are suddenly bursting with colour.

Due to all the gloom my enthusiasm for taking photographs has waned, despite my having bought a  new camera in early July, as there have been many, more serious things to deal with . Today I decided that it was well past time to give it an outing and I took it with me on my early morning walk. I came across a flock, or is it a gaggle, of pelicans in their usual hangout at the end of the boat ramp at The Haven waiting for an early morning fisherman to return and descale and gut their fish.

This guy, or girl, stood still just long enough for me to take one frame. It is a sizeable crop but if I had edged another cm forward it would have been off I'm sure.

A really big boy

Nash, a seriously big boy seen at Island Time Cafe, Terrigal this morning. Nash is two years old and fully grown which is just as well . The black and white girls did tell me his breed but I did not catch it. He seemed very docile and friendly.
Friend Wayne and I were able to sit down in the cafe and enjoy our coffee this morning for the first time in seven weeks. Only ten patrons allowed to be sitting with social distancing but it almost felt normal.

The driftwood horse

One of the consequences of the summer bushfires is that large quantities of burnt timber has been washed down rivers and streams and into the sea and it is now washing ashore on beaches all up the east coast as driftwood.
With so many people in lockdown and exercising on the beaches creative hands have turned to building driftwood sculptures and "shacks"on many beaches. Here in Terrigal there is a wonderful driftwood horse on the edge of the lagoon. The builders obviously decided that it should be a horse from the famous Australian Light Horse Rregiment as it has some poppies attached and a "Lest we forget" board put there for the recent Anzac Day.

A happier time

A photo from summer 2013. The beach at the Haven, Terrigal featuring granddaughters Poppy, Ellie and Scarlett. A happier time. No bushfire smoke. No Covid-19.

A scorcher

Terrigal Lagoon,NSW,yesterday at 6.00 am. The start of a scorching day. In Terrigal the temperature reached 41ºC (106 ºF). I had the misfortune to be in the Sydney CBD in the day. It was like being in a furnace.
Late afternoon a cool change swept through bringing strong winds and heavy rain overnight.This morning at 11.00 am the temperature was 18ºC.

Happy new year to all TRR readers

A happy new year to all readers of the blog wherever you are in the world.If you are in rain sodden Britain or storm battered US or anywhere where the weather is challenging I hope my photo of Terrigal Beach yesterday afternoon -New Year's Eve- makes you smile and not too jealous.
2015 was a difficult year for so many -totally devastating for too many.Let's all hope that 2016 brings better times to those who desperately need them.

Seasons Greetings

Terrigal Beach,NSW,Australia 19th Dec 2015

Seasons greetings to all followers of The Rolling Road wherever you are.
Here,downunder,it's the middle of summer-so it's the summer holidays,Christmas and the New Year all rolled into one long break. So the blog is taking time out but will be back soon.

Another beautiful day

A beautiful day coming up.Terrigal Surf Life Saving Club team preparing to take a row - Terrigal Beach at 6.00am today-Saturday 19th December.It does not get much better than this.Leica X1 photo.

Walking the dogs

Walking the dogs on Terrigal beachfront at 6.20 this morning.Another glorious day coming up.

Early morning swim

Early morning swimmers at Terrigal at 6.30 this morning.Another very hot day.Yesterday it hit 37ºC here.The same is forecast today.The change  to summer time yesterday means that I am now getting up in the dark at 5.30 and so the light is better for photography when I take my early morning walk.For a few weeks anyway.

Summer is coming

If you are reading this from the N hemisphere I know you think that we are wimps complaining about our winter but all that heat has thinned our blood. We feel the cold even if you would not call it cold. Anyway winter is starting to retreat. Summer is some way off but we can see the signs.The nights are still cold but the days are warming up.
Dawn breaking at Terrigal,NSW,this morning 30th August. Leica X1 photo.

Oh what a beautiful morning

After two weeks of awful weather including the Big Storm and torrential rain last weekend we deserve a break and today looks as if it is really going to deliver.A promised top temperature of 27ºC and sun will start drying everything out.Photo taken at Terrigal Beach 6.15am Tuesday. Leica X1 photo.

The Big Storm

Here in NSW we have just experienced a big storm- on the Central Coast it has been described as the storm of the century.It started on Monday morning and by the evening the wind was howling and the rain was lashing down but it then got progressively worse through Tuesday and into the night.It was very frightening.As the house has a steel roof and is clad in steel sheeting heavy rain driving sideways into it sounds like gravel being thrown at it at a very high velocity.The noise was horrific.I feared that the next blast of wind would rip off the roof or bring a gumtree down.Our cats were terrified.
The damage over the region has been enormous.Roofs blown off houses, trees down everywhere with many falling onto houses and cars.Houses swept away in floods.
In Terrigal most boats were cleared from the local harbour,the Haven,in advance but one large boat was left and it ended up on the beach 3kms away badly damaged.A large branch fell on my roof and many fell on my garden doing serious damage.It's frustrating to spend 6 years growing a beautiful tree and then have it smashed in seconds by a giant gumtree branch.There is still a big branch balanced on the roof now.
As well as the flooding -over 200mm of rain in 24 hours on the Central Coast- the biggest disruption has been to electric power supply.Over 250,000 homes and businesses lost power.We lost ours from Tuesday midday until late this afternoon-Friday.It was not a good experience.Food in fridges ruined.No hot water.Cooking by the light of little LED torches.And the mobile phone networks were all down as well for 3 days.
I went out Tuesday morning to try and get some photos but I literally could not stand in the wind and sand was blasting off the beaches-not good for my camera or me.The roads were very dangerous with big branches falling down,garbage bins and garden furniture flying around  and live power lines lying on the road so I headed home very quickly.After that it was more about worrying about the storm and whether a big branch would hit our roof or whether the windows would get blown in-a very distinct possiblity as they are very big sheets of glass.
So these are the only two pictures I took.The first is looking south towards Avoca and the second is sea foam being blown up the pathway from the beach at North Avoca.
As a postscript I have just read that the biggest wave ever recorded off the NSW coast was on Tuesday and it was 14.9 metres in height.I am not sure how you measure a wave but that is big.Certainly some of the waves we could see on Tuesday afternoon from our house were enormous.

Gone fishing

Catching the light ...but not a fish.At least not whilst I was watching.Dawn fisherman on Terrigal Beach ,NSW, Australia.A more tranquil scene and a much better beach than Waikiki-see previous post.Leica XVario photo.

5 photos in 20 minutes

I'm out on my daily exercise walk at or even before 6.00am almost every day of the year.It's a routine I have had for many years and which I try and maintain even when I am travelling.I don't do lying in.I often, but not always, take my camera-invairably the Leica X1 because it is compact and light and has a fixed lens and a very easy to use viewfinder.It's a great "street" camera. I carry it in my hand with the strap wrapped around my hand so that I don't look or feel like a dorky tourist.
I am very fortunate to live in a beautiful place and the weather is usually kind to me on my walk. Over the years I have taken many worthwhile photos on my walks -at home and away.This morning was exceptional.I grabbed 5 worthwhile shots in just 20 minutes.The camera metadata confirms the timing.I actually took 8 photos in total but 3 were different angles on the 5 subjects.
The first,inevitable,cat shot was taken just up my street.The pick of the crop for me has to be the lady with her dog.People ask me how do you get a shot like that.It's easy. I saw this happy lady and her seriously big dog strolling along the esplanade and I just asked her outright-"please can I take your photo." She was delighted to pose.If you don't ask you won't get the chance.
Here they are -5 photos taken between 5.58am and  6.17 am today 10th January in Terrigal.

Smile time

After the appalling barbarity of this week I thought that a couple of amusing photos would not go amiss.
Firstly a couple of lorikeets at a table at the Surf Cafe at Terrigal early this morning.They have learnt that sugar comes on the black packets left on the tables and they certainly like some sugar.Diabetics in the making.As you can see they take the packet out of the holder with their beaks then put it on the table and then hold the packet with one claw and tear it open with their beaks.This is a big crop from a Leica X1 photo as I could not risk frightening them off if I got any closer.Whilst it is an amusing scene they are actually a real nuisance at local cafes as they are really brazen and not easily deterred.

Secondly garden gnomes for the risque garden.His and her flasher gnomes.Certainly not your common or garden garden gnomes.Seen on a roadside stall in the Czech Republic.Canon G7 photo.