Sunshine Coast Daily Photo

Wednesday, 31 March 2010

Thistle

Occasionally when walking around cow paddocks, one comes across a Scotch Thistle. Definitely not an endemic species, and one can't help but wonder what relationship the seeds of the thistle have to the digestive system of a cow, but there's definitely a correlation.

Autumn

We don't really have autumn, but we do have leaves falling at regular intervals throughout the year, so if we look in the right places we can pretend at least.

Mangroves

Across the river from our home. Mangroves, with their aerial roots visible at low tide, somewhat reminiscent of a bed of nails. Not pleasant to walk on, but not too nasty either, sort of soft but stiff none the less!

We're almost home, and looking forward to renewing our acquaintance!

Going Home

The Lifeguard at Alexandra Headland packs up after another day on the beach. There are people who would kill for a collection of toys like he has!

We're packing up too after another month or more on the road, and will be back on the coast in a few days, hopefully arriving before the Easter Traffic begins, ready to see what sort of devastation has been caused by six weeks of big seas and heavy rain.

Welcome

Now just a few friendly reminders to ensure your stay is a happy one.

Alexandra Headland

Splash

Splashing around in the rockpools is just about the best fun anyone can have on a warm afternoon.

The Old Caloundra Lighthouse

When I say the only thing we lack on the coast is a history, this is perhaps the best example I can give.

If you have followed the links to the Old Lighthouse web pages, you will already know that this is thought to be the oldest surviving structure in Caloundra, and I doubt that we will find evidence of an older one on the Coast. Built with a timber frame and clad in corrugated iron, it has survived (just) since 1896.

I know people who are almost that old!

One of my many projects listed for coming years is to try to track down further remnants of construction, but I suspect there will be little to find until around the 1940's and once I get to there.... well I do know people that old, lots of them.

Caloundra Lighthouse History

In the left corner, we have the "New Lighthouse" which if you follow the link you will discover was built in 1967 and was last in use in 1997.

On the right, the "Old Lighthouse" which has a much more interesting history and worth one more photo I think.

Three Lighthouses

Let me explain:

The one on the left is the old "New Caloundra Lighthouse"

The one in the centre is the old "Old Caloundra Lighthouse"

The one on the right is an apartment block which blocks the view (and light) to the shipping channel for both of them. Appropriately or not, it is named "The Lighthouse".

A history lesson follows tomorrow!

Where's the lighthouse?

Here's a hint, there are three of them in this picture.

Glamour

It does look a bit glamorous from the water, I'll give you that, but it's no Monaco.

Can you see the lighthouse?

A spot of revision.

Anyone paying attention over the past few years will recall that Caloundra is to all intents and purposes, the largest settlement at the southern end of the Sunshine Coast. Like all of the populated parts, it is confined to a relatively small geographic area, huddled against the water's edge. Unlike many of the other centres, residential development has actually taken place on the hilly bits, giving it a little more interesting streetscape than some of the lesser endowed suburbs.

Layers but not much Sky to Watch!

I think I could take a thousand photographs of hills at sunset and be happy with them. Or I could just tear up newspaper and spray paint a cheap imitation. I love the way the colour changes every second, and how it becomes unbelievably odd at times, but I'm not going to bore you with the other twenty in this set!

Of course with a clear sky we have to rely on the texture of the land to create the focal point, so if it's dramatic photos of the actual sky you are looking for, pay a visit to Skywatch headquarters!

Maleny

Battens

I know I'm standing here with a camera, but I love the way that timber battens on the picnic shelter give a framed view on what's going on outside. Even though there are no walls one gets a subconscious feeling of enclosure, and ownership of territory.

That's why I asked the people at the table if it was OK if I came "in" to take the photo!

Loo with a view too.

Mooloolaba has its "Loo with a View" but I think the one in Golden Beach doesn't fare too badly either.

Loo with a habitat.

Much has been written about our vernacular building methodology, and to my eye the juxtaposition of timber and tin can provide a very pleasing visual result. Of course as it ages, all those gaps provide homes for all manner of spiders and lizards and frogs and other crawly things, and the girls in our household aren't at all happy with public conveniences constructed like these.

We're two!

Unless I'm mistaken, and I know I'm not, today marks the second anniversary of this blog, and what better way to do it than with a picture of sunset on a hill near Maleny.

This is a popular spot for paragliders, and yes in the late afternoon sun the sky had faded to almost white, the rest was the result of a slight overexposure!

The next twelve months will almost certainly bring a number of changes in our situation, including the relocation of the place we call home, but with just a little luck and a bit of energy to be expended, we'll be able to continue with a photo each day, just as we have done thus far! It's all pretty much downhill after the first couple of years I understand.

Thank you to all who drop by and comment, your comments are greatly appreciated. As those who follow my other blogs will realise, we are often on the road with limited internet access, which does make regular reciprocal visits quite challenging, so thank you for your patience as well!

Here's to another year, three to go and I've caught up with Eric! ;-)

Grassy Knoll

I don't know if this is an actual knoll, but I like the sound of it.

Knoll.

Art

Is this art I wonder, or a poorly focussed, poorly timed reject?

I don't care, I quite like it.

Fig

A youngish Moreton Bay Fig tree seems conent enough with its waterfront home.

The Tenin Technique

Congratulations Eric!

Today is the fifth anniversary of Paris Daily Photo and to celebrate this milestone, City Daily Photo Bloggers are attempting to imitate Eric Tenin's Technique! Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

There are a few very Australian things about this picture. Bare feet for one, and a bicycle chain devoid of any lubrication for another.

I'm not sure whether I've succeeded in capturing Eric's style, after trawling back through several pages of Paris Photos it's clear the light is VERY different to here, and I posted this picture because it reminded me of one that I took last year for my Postcards blog, one that is much closer to the way Eric would portray things I think: a bicycle melting in Paris' summer heatwave, 20 August 2009

Balls

Soldier Crabs live here. How do they make those tidy little balls of sand.

Why do they do that?

I do recall describing Pumicestone Passage as shallow with lots of shifting sandbanks, and this probably proves the point. I may have failed to mention that Bribie Island is also narrow, and there are some fears that the ocean is about to break through its northern tip and restore the course of the passage to one that it's had many centuries earlier.

The main shipping channel to Brisbane does run quite close to shore on the ocean side, which is I suppose one of the reasons that the navigation beacons can be seen from ships at sea.

The Leads

To put a bit of scale to the light tower, here's a view with some buildings in the picture. Many's the night in the days before GPS and satellite navigation that I've been sailing "outside" and been grateful for it's presence.

Pumicestone Passage
A week of the blues day seven.

The navigation beacon has an interesting structure I think. Those bracing fins are cut from a single steel beam in a process called castellation, the halves are then used on opposing sides.

Nifty eh?

Pumicestone Passage
A week of the blues day six.

Another day another puddle in the passage. That murky stuff in the foreground isn't actually murky stuff at all, it's just sand in the very late afternoon, the remnants of excavations by soldier crabs. More importantly, the tower is a lighthouse of sorts. It provides lighting to mark the main shipping channel to Brisbane located on the outside of Bribie Island (on the left). There's a tricky little bend that happens just abeam of Caloundra that's been the nemesis of more than one ship over the years in stormy seas.

Pumicestone Passage Skywatch
A week of the blues day five.

Caloundra Airport isn't too far from the passage, but it's a small strip used by light aircraft and helicopters.

Sadly, development has occurred around it's perimeter and the new home owners have put enormous pressure on Council to relocate it, so another part of our very short history will soon be gone.

I will never understand this process. The one where we allow people to build adjoining something that has the potential to cause them nuisance, and then shut down the nuisance despite it having preceded them by decades.

As usual, Skywatch photos with clouds and sunsets and pretty things may be found in abundance by following this link.

Pumicestone Passage
A week of the blues day four.

Being shallow and calm, means the passage is a beaut place for families to play. It also means at low tide there are lots of puddles for me to play with in the dying light of the afternoon.

Pumicestone Passage
A week of the blues day three.

The passage is one of those places where the shoreline vegetation is low and the water shallow and narrow, so when the breeze is right, sailboards can play at high speed with little wave action. Of course most sailboarders I know get bored with that and head out into the surf, and today the breeze wasn't right, so this pilot had a lot of work just to balance the sail in an upright position, let alone to make headway.

Pumicestone Passage
A week of the blues day two.

From yesterday's vantage point, looking north. The passage turns sharply right (east) which is a handy manouvre because it avoids any chance of a nasty collision with Caloundra. The low land to the right is Bribie Island, and there is a very shallow channel through the surf between it and the mainland. After that there is nothing but Pacific Ocean.

Pumicestone Passage
A week of the blues day one.

Today's City Daily Photo theme is "Passageway" and as usual I probably cheated a bit by taking the broadest definition I could find.
Pumicestone Passage is a thirty five kilometre long Marine Park and conservation area, which runs from Caloundra in the North, between Bribie Island and the mainland. For those with a boating intent, be warned that it is very shallow mostly and littered with shifting sand banks.
Of course this photograph doesn't quite take in it's full length, but it is a view from Golden Beach, looking South, with Bribie Island in the background.

Post Script: Bribie Island, as you will see in coming days, is a very low, very narrow strip at this its northern end, offering little protection to this shoreline should a tsunami make it to this side of the world. One did of course, yesterday, in a benign but none the less sobering way drawing us closer to those suffering from the consequences of the earthquake in Chile just an ocean away. Our thoughts are with them.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

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