Stayers

One would think they'd have parties to get ready for, but there's still a core of people who don't want to leave.

Perhaps it's the temperature still hovering around thirty that's doing it, surely they are all holiday makers.  Locals would be home watching the sunset on television.

Moffat Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia
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Penultimate Sunset

Sky at sunset over Moffat Beach.  Somewhere up there, invisible at this scale, there is a skydiver sailing merrily earthward.

One more sunset for the year.


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Spoilt for choice.

What will it be, the holiday home or the caravan?  

In our house, without those choices to make and the rain set in for the day, a warm couch with the television beaming the Cricket is be a fine alternative.  We are happy to leave the beach to those who are only able to enjoy it for a few weeks a year!

Moffat Beach

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On any Sunday

Even if it wasn't a Sunday, I suspect that there would be no haircuts for anyone between Christmas and New Year.

Moffat Beach

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Here they come!

The vacationers are among us, with their piles of rocks and happy kids!

To be fair this is a photo of a wall "prepared earlier", and even if it is a bit faded it gives a sense of the place at holiday time.

Moffat Beach

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Yesterday's Sunset

It's kind of that sort of day, Boxing Day.  

Most won't move for a while, even those who rose early and put the family in the car to start their summer holidays will have been stationary for hours on the highways leading into our town.

I wonder how long the flags will fly?

Ho ho ho.

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Peace on Earth

In Australia, today is a holiday.

It's more than a "Holy Day" here though, it's a strange sort of secularly blended party day as well when people of all religions or those who profess to have none at all, stop, get together and celebrate, perhaps in some ways that aspect can be likened to Thanksgiving Day in other countries.  

Perhaps it's the abrupt halt that comes to the madness that is the commercialisation of the festival, perhaps it's the sudden silencing of every loudspeaker jingling bells for weeks on end and signalling the end of the spending, or perhaps it's something far more esoteric that is the cause, but this day is different to any other.

Peace on earth, good will among men.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Caloundra.


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A short break.

He has time for one last, short break by the water before making his rounds, and doesn't he look tired?

How will he feel by this time tomorrow?

Bulcock Beach.

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Christmas Hedge.

Passing on Season's Greetings to all walking by clearly and simply.

Moffat Beach

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Reindeer Season.

A reindeer watches over pre-Christmas diners or perhaps guarding a glass pine tree full of "snow" trimmed pine cones.

It's thirty-five degrees and mid summer, and the nearest living snowflake is in the Antarctic.  

There may be a living reindeer at Australia Zoo, so I'd better not continue with this line of thought.

Bulcock Beach

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Bins.

A line of wheelie bins getting into the Christmas spirit!

Moffat Beach

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The first snowman of Christmas

If anyone can explain how this "snow is synonymous with Christmas" stuff has managed to persist in a place where even the water temperature is in the mid twenties, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Yet here he is, complete with bent carrot nose and sticks from some sort of plastic tree for arms!

Caloundra
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Summer chill.

The storms have brought cooler weather.  Some people are wearing shirts and even sandals to deal with the ocean front chill.

Moffat Beach.

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Summer.

A note to my friends in the Northern Hemisphere.

Yes, I know the colours seem familiar to those around your place right now, but I am standing here in board shorts, bare feet, spray jacket (to protect the camera) and a wet head.

Temperature?  Twenty-four degrees.   That's what I like about summer!

Dicky Beach
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The lake is almost ocean.

A few weeks ago, the lake was tucked happily above the level of the ocean, then of course it broke out and the ocean spent a few weeks carefully rebuilding the dune across the mouth of the creek.

Then Council came along with tractors and made the dunes higher.

Then it rained.

Tonight, it will be a creek again.

Tooway Creek/Lake

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Before the crowds arrive.

Last weekend, rain or no rain, it was the last chance to get a wave before the holiday crowds arrive.

Moffat Beach

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Desperately seeking Christmas decorations

Traffic control barriers trying to make a bit of old pavement look just a little cheery.

It's the best I can do!

Nambour

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Boy on a ramp

A small boy runs down the pedestrian ramp after crossing the highway on the footbridge.

Big Pineapple
Nambour
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Rose (ish) coloured glasses.

Under the flowering Poinciana, everything takes on a red-orange hue.

Dicky Beach
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Christmas is coming.

Nothing says Christmas is coming more than a flowering Poinciana tree, and when the sky is that particular shade of blue.

Dicky Beach

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Roadkill!

Some countries in which I have had the pleasure of living actually encourage bicycles as a means of providing a genuine transport alternative.

Here they are considered to be the enemy of drivers who are given every assistance to rid the world of this scourge.

Is there anywhere else in the world that considers a white dividing line to be an adequate bike lane?

Battery Hill

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Salt, Sun and Heat

Older luxury cars make cheap cars for cool kids, but even they don't have sufficient thickness in their paint to withstand the exposure to the beach elements.

UV light is a clear coat killer!

Dicky Beach

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Underwater Walk.

When the boardwalk is flooded, it's quite a pleasant cooling balm for hot feet on a warm day.

But it won't be for long.

Tooway Creek

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Tooway Meets the Boardwalk.

There is no need for a flood marker, when the boardwalk goes under, it's a sign that the lake is about to become a creek again.  It's above the level of the ocean and something will give!

Dicky Beach

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Tooway meets the Ocean

Every few months Tooway Creek becomes Tooway Lake, the sand builds across the entrance, there is no rain and the creek simply fills until the sand bar at the entrance can hold it no more.

Or until some enterprising kid with a shovel decides to build the mother of all wakeboard parks for a day.

Ripe for the picking.

Moffat Beach

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More vintage tin.

Had this photo been taken in the twenties when the car was new, there would have been no fences, no gutters, no bitumen on the road.

Actually there would have been no road.

Such is life in a new country!

Dicky Beach.

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Lamkin Lane

If it had a roof we wouldn't get wet when the storm arrives.

On the other hand, if it had a roof, it would be called Lamkin Arcade.

Caloundra

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Vintage Tin

It's curious how the surfing souvenir culture relies heavily on the American car culture, which wasn't actually part of the surfing scene here in those nostalgic times.

I guess no one makes models of Morris Minor Vans, or Ford Consuls.

Caloundra

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Coffee Shop

I wish I had the ability to take a trailer to the tip and come back with a fine suite of furniture for a coffee shop!

Caloundra

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Christmas is Coming!

For a brief moment I thought Council had lashed out and spent some money on Christmas Decorations.   I've wasted weeks of time in years previous trying to find some evidence of public Christmas Cheeriness and I thought things were looking up.

But they aren't.

The bunting is there to keep people off the (new) grass.  Bah Humbug!

Caloundra

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Worker

I split a couple of my Australian Native Stingless Bee (tetragonala carbonara) hives yesterday, and as usual when covered with wax, honey and a million angry little bees, my photos turned out poorly!

But here (top right) is a worker loading her legs up with some wax before trundling off inside to do something "constructive" with it.

This is just one interpretation of today's theme "worker" - please follow this link to view many more.
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No turning - yet.

At some time in the future there will be a turning lane, but the temporary kerb does nothing to enhance the streetscape.   Perhaps it will be there for years.

I guess white lines and "no turns" signs aren't good enough for today's blind drivers, but why forbid turns now anyway?  The intention of the lane is to allow turns at some time in the future when the road is busier!

Kawana

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Entrance Sign

After half a dozen years in the sun, the bright primary colours have mellowed quite nicely, but in some cultures one wouldn't know what to make of the two words.... actually it's only one, the hyphen is invisible.

Kawana

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How did the chicken cross the road? 4 of 4

Finally somewhere for pedestrians to access the centre!

That's it, with the handrail by the way.  The little brown path through the ground cover is the logical spot, that those who survive the road crossing tend to use rather than walking the extra twenty metres to the not so logically positioned pathway.

If you build it, they will come, but not if you build it a bit out of the way!

Kawana

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How did the chicken cross the road? 3 of 4

Safely on the side we need to be, but we can't find a break in those prickly plants to get through to the shops.

Lighting in carparks must meet certain standards, so despite an absence of after-dark trade six nights a week, there is a huge investment in pylons topped with mercury vapour.

Nice.

But we still can't get in.

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How did the chicken cross the road? 2 of 4

Having successfully negotiated yesterday's monster path, and thus far three lanes of traffic (although two of those were so innocuous as to be non-existent, the level of difficulty as in all good games, increases.

Now with just one lane to cross, the pathway narrows to the width of a single shopping trolley, the road here is busy, there is no room for two of anything to pass between the kerbs.

If it does, notice the logical end to it all on the other side.   Perhaps trying to enter on foot by the driveway is not a good idea, cars are leaving the road at seventy kilometres per hour at that point!

Kawana

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How did the chicken cross the road? 1 of 4

So here we are, just a ziggy path and a couple of roads from the Home Centre.  The world's widest crossing with enough bollards to make absolutely certain that no miscreant car can possibly mistake the path for a U-turn opportunity.

Kawana

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Pasture of the cranes.

The largest collection of cranes on a single project in the Southern Hemisphere/World/Universe  depending on who one listens to, is on the new hospital construction project.  

There are a lot, but more importantly the follow-on jobs should underpin a large proportion of the surrounding community.

Birtinya

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Carpets

I've been tracking the steady decline of this tenancy as well.  There is still the vaguest of hints that a photo once resided in the billboard, and the sign bracket is still holding up well, although sharing its rust colouring with the rest of the facade.

Let's wait a few more years to see what time  and a salt laden atmosphere can do.

Kawana

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In another hundred years...

I've been watching this complex for at least half a dozen years now, pondering the aging process, watching the bright paint fade and get dirty,  wondering if the patina will every settle in comfortably.

It won't, but at the moment it's not terribly unattractive.

Kawana

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Accidentally on Purpose.

I've looked and inspected and short of getting a ladder I can't make up my mind if the colour change is deliberate or whether it's an accident of the painter's art.   How I would like to believe that it was a new tin of paint and they worked their way down one panel on a swinging stage.

Kawana

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Where's Willys?

Life can't be easy when you are the only one that isn't a Kombi.

Caloundra

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The Cusp

We are on the very cusp of the high season.   In a few weeks time there will be lot's of neon "NO" signs lit all over town.

The Christmas holidays are coming. Ho ho ho!

Caloundra.

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View from the West

These buildings have almost no openings on this elevation because it faces west.   That means that arguably they miss out on some lovely views of the hinterland, but also on some incredible heat loads every afternoon.

Sadly from a climatic response perspective, the views and balconies are on the southern side, where the prevailing winds are such that balconies remain unused on many occasions, and wind blown salt spray can be bothersome!

Caloundra.

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Streetscape

I'm not trying to tell any stories here, simply recording the streetscape as it is in 2014.  

Perhaps it's the sort of view that would make an interesting meme.

Caloundra

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Contours

I've been mucking around trying to find a way of expressing the contours of the streets in Caloundra.  Today I discovered that the sky was doing its best to assist.

Caloundra

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Lamkin Lane

The books all say that one must make photographs in the first and last hours of the day.   How then does one illustrate the shelter that we seek from the midday sun?

How can we describe the heat that jolts as we walk from the shade to the sunlight to cross the road for instance.  It's like jumping into an icy bath, in reverse!

Caloundra

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Urban Vista

I don't know whether the future of the fig trees in Bulcock Street has yet been assured, I hope it has.  They provide a depth of shade and protection from glare that has to be experienced to be believed.

They are quite difficult to photograph satisfactorily though.  I shall keep trying.

Bulcock Street
Caloundra

 © Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia
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Blues

I mostly don't get the use of blue to somehow draw "beach" or "nautical" themed images.   Then occasionally I go for a walk when the sun is shining and there's not much humidity and the sky is a particular colour and I walk away shaking my head.

On those days, somewhat reluctantly, I get it.

Caloundra.

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Wiggly Shadows.

One of the nice things about building a wiggly wall is that it throws wiggly shadows, which actually move out of parallel as the sun transcribes its arc across the sky.

It's one of those little things that people don't question, yet the subconscious perceives the softening of the hard surfaces and suddenly the act of walking on a footpath becomes something pleasant.

Or it might just be the view.

Bulcock Street.


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