Happy new year!

Is it proper to wish everyone a happy new year on the eve of the new one?

I'm not sure, but I know that tomorrow's photo is also from our yard, although from the front not from the little bit of bush that's starting to appear at the rear of our place.   It's quite satisfying watching all this stuff grow from the tiny seedlings we planted a year ago, but now we are at the point where some serious gardening must begin!

Dicky Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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No rain, no lily

Rain Lilies (zephyranthes) can be tricked, I have discovered into flowering.   All it takes is a dry patch of weather, followed by a day or two of intense watering.

They will only be tricked once though.   I did post a photo of them in flower last year, you can find it here.

Dicky Beach

 © Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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The back yard.

It's early days yet, given that it was bare earth just a year ago, but if one hides under the passionfruit vine and squints a bit, one gets the feeling that the back yard is coming together.   It will be a very pleasant alternative to the beach in a year or two.

Actually it already is.

Dicky Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Not really wanting to mix it with the crowds in all that heat and sunshine, we thought it would a be a perfect time to see how things are going in our own back yard.    

Clearly, the passion fruit vine is about to explode, which is very pleasing, since it was planted as a seedling just a year ago.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Beach Holidays

No one is at work today in Australia, well that's not true, essential services are still available, things like ice-cream and wine and fish and chips.

Everyone is at the beach, which gives me an excuse to post this little part of a mosaic mural near the shops at Dicky Beach, which perfectly captures the essence of the beach.

Dicky Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Chillin'

There's probably no one at the beach right now, because they are all hanging in their hammocks, lying in the shade, relaxing perhaps after a touch of over-indulgence at the dinner table yesterday.   Yes, it's one of those oddities of life, that despite temperatures hanging in the early thirties, we still mostly cling to that old British tradition of taking part in a monster baked lunch on Christmas Day.

Why do we do that?

Probably so we can do nothing on boxing day and feel quite good about it.   "Where are the people" you ask, "Surely if things were as crowded as you suggest, there'd be people in this shot - you didn't take it earlier did you?"

Umm.. you've got me there.   I did perhaps prepare this one a day or two ago, but I can say with confidence that the scene probably looks like this today, because, well, they'd all be at the Sales wouldn't they?

Cotton Tree
Maroochydore

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Have a Merry Christmas

Santa, presents, reindeer, snowflakes and a couple of Christmas trees (sans decoration), in a summer wonderland.  It's a bit difficult to find any symbol relating to the actual reason for the celebration, well there is star in the East when viewed from a certain direction, but it's all OK.  

This is Australia, where regardless of one's personal belief, it's still called Christmas, a time for Peace on Earth and good will among men (at Christmas it's OK to refer to the human race as "men" too).    

Here's wishing one and all a very Merry Christmas from the Sunshine Coast, where the chance of snow is about the same as the chance was of a reindeer landing on my roof last night!

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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I hope he's not delayed!

If Santa arrives late at your house, you can blame the twilight markets in Caloundra and all their distractions.

Caloundra

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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The calm before the storm.

In the caravan park at Cotton Tree, the early arrivals have their tents pitched, the decorations up, the kids are already at the beach.  Things seem nicely quiet and relaxed.  All that will change in just a few days of course, when for many our summer holiday period begins, and the population of the town and the caravan parks will explode!

Cotton Tree

Maroochydore

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Well done you!

 

A silent protest hangs in a window of a high rise apartment block - I'll bet the rules prohibit owners from "lighting up" for the season!

Disclosure: - for reasons that revolve somewhere between protracted absence from home and having the place in pieces renovating when we are there, we don't actually have anything in the way of decorations visible this year either.

Perhaps Council will give us some sort of award for conformity!

Maroochydore

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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I found it!

It's been like a treasure hunt this past week, trying to find some sort of token seasonal decoration on behalf of the Council, but I kept persisting in the face of all odds and look what I found!

Yep!  For reasons that are not entirely explicable, other than perhaps it was left here from last year, or perhaps someone snuck it out in the dead of night, I found a banner that distinctly reads "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year", right there in Maroochydore.

I'm a big fan of minimilism (even if I can't spell it), but usually I make exceptions for Christmas decorations!

Maroochydore.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Starburst!

 

Racing skis in lie their racks at the Dicky Beach Surf Club waiting for the holidays to begin.

Dicky Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Lovely.

It's almost Christmas, so let me indulge in a small grumpy whinge.   In some countries (hi Denmark!) overhead electricity lines are not just frowned upon, they are banned outright.

How monotonous must the view of their sky be without something to break up the foreground?

Of most concern though; what happens to Christmas if Santa gets snagged on one of these things?

Dicky Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Bunbabah Creek

How can I have lived here for so long and not known that the little creek that runs beside between the  Dicky Beach Surf Club and the Caravan Park has a name?

Dicky Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Summer Shadows

It's the same old recurring theme; beach house, a bit of rust. a lot of texture and some shadow to make it all worth while, but its the pink 'feature' wall on the verandah that sells it for me.

Dicky Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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I can't let it go!

Christmas Ligths in Bulcock Street, Caloundra's main thoroughfare.  Apparently the Sunshine Coast attracts eight and a half million tourists each year, and it does that perfectly well without the need to spend a cent on silly things like creating a holiday atmosphere.  

If you have a tinsel allergy, this would be the best place in the world to do your Christmas shopping!

Caloundra

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Drifting

Watching the sun go down while being slowly swept out to sea.

There are less pleasant ways of meeting one's end.

Caloundra.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Swanning about

Black Swans are just as happy eating chips as seagulls are.   They aren't terribly common around these parts, but every now and then one turns up and acts like a local.

Bulcock Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Felicity Park

A week or so ago I promised I'd be back to see what they looked like after dark.

They look like this, and Council's Christmas Tree is quite splendid as well, albeit a little off the beaten path at this time of the evening.

Caloundra

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Lights!

Which came first the crowds or the lights?   I have whinged before about the absolute lack of effort that our Council makes when it comes to decorating for the Summer Holiday Season.

This is a nice try, and look, there's another one up the street!  Now if only there was something in between, perhaps the crowds would have reasons to gather!

Caloundra

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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The problem with being at the beach at sunset.

The problem with being at the beach at sunset is that the photographs are just too pretty to discard.

Sigh.   Be prepared for a day or two of photographs with a lovely pink hue!

Bulcock Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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As the sun goes down.

The light is fast fading which may or may not be the best time to be trying one's luck, but it's certainly a great time to be simply drifting around watching the day come to its logical conclusion.

Bulcock Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Transition

One week since this month's theme day photo, and the market in Bulcock Street is back sprawled over the full width of the street.

Those newly planted trees peeking over the tents will take a little while to reach the shade-giving proportions of their predecessors though.

Caloundra.
© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Poffertjes

One doesn't need to fly to Holland for one's Sunday morning dose of Poffertjies, a wander up Bulcock Street will solve the problem.  I think that the art of turning them using a pair of skewers is one of the great culinary skills!

Caloundra

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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The Cruise

Cruise liner poking its head round Moffat Headland just after sunset. Moffat Beach ©  Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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When a simple graphic might be better.

Often, the more complex the description at communication the less clear it becomes.

How does one become the owner of a defecation one wonders.  One's mind boggles.  

Is this a not very subtle way of preventing political speech?

Caloundra.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Sub-tropical response.

We are in the grip of the next heatwave of summer, temperatures are hitting forty plus in some parts of the state, but we are settling in to a more comfortable thirty-something.

Cheap air conditioning units like these are called "window rattlers" in the trade, but I shall give no hints as to why.

When all else fails, we can sit under a palm tree.

Caloundra

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Wheel of (mis)fortune!

It could be some sort of television word game.   If the "n" was actually locked on, perhaps it was picked.

Caloundra

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A really nice try at gardening.

Remember the days before artificial grass?   Some thought if you just painted concrete green they'd get away with it.

Not sure if they did, even with the visual distraction of the planted feature, but it's tidy enough and a good try.

Caloundra

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Pandanus as street planting.

Nice!   But the verge needs to be wide enough to cope with the aerial root mass.

Caloundra

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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A Street in Transition

It's a bit of a challenge, holding a market in a street which has disappeared for half of its length, but the traders and customers all seem to be taking it in their stride.  I'm guessing that the work won't be finished in time for that all so important Christmas trade which will be quite a blow for the shops in the street which rely on that annual surge.

It's a street in transition, which is a not so subtle reference to today's City Daily Photo time theme day.  For lots of different interpretations of that theme check this link..

Bulcock Street
Caloundra

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Let there be light.

They look better at night, apparently.   I shall return to discover just how much better!

Ahh, Christmas is coming and lights are going up, or perhaps they've been up for a while, but I'm sure whatever the case Felicity Park will look splendid after dark.

Council's "Name Origin's Directory" has this to say of Felicity Park:

The small park between the Caloundra Library and the Caloundra Regional Art Gallery named Felicity Park was sold to the then Council by Felicity and Maurice Steinsen on the condition that the trees and gardens established in the 1940s would stay as nearly as possible as they were when Caloundra's first Library was built.

Felicity Park
Caloundra

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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A transition into the Christmas Holiday Season.

Did you know that for every Christmas tree that is erected before the 1st December, one of Santa's Elves kills a reindeer?   I read that on the internet, it has to be true.

How did Christmas trees become tinsel cones though, when there are plenty of proper trees sitting around which I am sure would love a dose of decoration?

Good on the Council for making this effort right outside its  offices in Caloundra.  In a few more days the holiday season will be in full swing everywhere.  Perhaps it already is.  I should get out more!


Caloundra

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Litter (not natural!)

There are two kinds of litter in this photograph.  The beer bottle, which is no longer there, and the Asparagus "Fern" which is likely to thrive.   Asparagus aethiopicus is a native of South Africa, and a very threatening escapee from ornamental gardens.  When it gets going it smothers all native seedlings.

I wonder whether I'll get into trouble if I just march down with my garden fork and solve the problem in our dunes?

Dicky Beach

 © Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Leaf litter. (Norfolk Pine)

Beneath the Norfolk pines lies a thick carpet of spongy mat.  The leaves are quite hard, but remain on their branches when they fall to create a texture not unlike that of a rubber mat.

The scientific name heterophylla ("different leaves") was apparently a description of the variation in the leaves between young and adult plants


© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Scarred

The destructive storm was actually almost a week ago, the big trees have been cleared away, power has been restored, and ruined holidays forgotten by all except those whose holidays (and caravans) were ruined, yet as we walk around there are plenty of marks where it has been,

It's amazing the number of trees which were able to withstand the blow, yet had enormous limbs wrenched away by the force of the breeze.

Now of course, I can check the weather widget on the "About" pages of this blog to see if there's another storm looming, although at this time of year there always is!

 Dicky Beach

 © Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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It never rains but it pours.

It was well and truly time for me to get out and about and introduce a spot of daylight into my photographs, when this happened.

When it rains here, we can get an inch or so (twenty-five millimetres) in then minutes or so.  This little shower brought with it a few minutes of destructive winds, leaving powerlines down, trees uprooted, and caravans overturned in just a very confined area, pretty much defined by the block on which we live.

I might leave getting out till tomorrow.   Which reminds me: In my recent revamp of these pages, I installed a weather widget on the "about" page.   Actually to be technical I installed an "about" page after eight years of thinking about it, but the result is what I hope will become a handy set of links!

Dicky Beach

 © Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Super Moon

A few days ago, there was a bit of fuss made over the moon. It was supposedly larger than it's ever been,but I looked it up, and it was exactly the same size. That didn't stop anyone who is anyone getting out and about in an effort to take a photo though. Moffat Beach © Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

www.citydailyphoto.org

Things we never get to see.

It was dark by the time I wandered home last night.  Very dark as it turned out, and there was the slightest waft of petroleum essence in the air.

So THAT is how petrol tanks get filled up on a tiny suburban site.

Moffat Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Skyline.

As the sun slowly sinks in the west the Norfolk Pines seem to separate.  What in daytime appears as a green mass suddenly somehow de-materialises into a stand of skeletal frames.

Moffat Beach looking north.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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A reject.

I should have ditched it, but I really like the colours.

Pacific Ocean
Moffat Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Beneath the headland.

Sunset at Moffat Beach, looking north.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Swirls

This month's theme day was "out of focus", and I must confess I had a few rejects that I quite liked.  Buckle in for a day or two of rejects!

Moffat Beach



© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Sunset at Moffs.

If you don't like sunsets it may pay to tune out for a day or two.   This is one of the world's great miracles and one that I can never fathom:  actual photographic evidence that the sun sets in the east!

Moffat Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Feeding the sharks.

Yes, that is last of the setting sun setting the pandanus aglow on Moffat Headland, and yes that is a surfer heading OUT for a quick wave before tea.

Either that or he's meeting a submarine for some illicit spy trading.

Moffat Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Away from the Wetlands

In the park outside the Council Chambers in Caloundra, I was at first disappointed in this rather exotic display of planting because it was exactly that: exotic.

Then the impact of its cheery tropicalness took hold exposed my desire to see the place planted in native plants for what it is - a grand conceit!  Long live tropical gardens no matter what the origin of the plants!

Caloundra

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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More whitening of our suburbs.

A brand new street.  This will soften in time as the trees begin to grow, but it's interesting to note the colours, or lack of them.    A few years ago, this photograph would have had a sombre grey or mousey brown tone to it as housing in "neutral" tones was all the rage.  A few years before that, it would have been all peaches and creams in a none too subtle attempt to brighten up the world.

The sky, I think, gives us all the bright we need!

Pelican Waters

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Don't go there.

I like the way the bollards which keep vehicles from the walkways, just quietly disappear off into the bush, like some sort of column of alien soldiers, subtly saying "and don't even think about driving around the barricade".

I don't like the way certain behaviours result in this sort of thing being necessary though.

Pelican Waters.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Fungus unknown.

I'm sure it's a stinkhorn "bridal veil" fungus of the "Phallus" genus, but the yellow cap has thrown me.  If I've ever seen one before I haven't tried to identify it.   The ones I usually come across have a brown cap.

Stuff to see in the wetlands!

Pelican Waters.


© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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Textures

I love the way the level of dampness is telegraphed by the plants.   The melaleucas are a hint that things may not be all that firm under foot, and then the bracken gives way to sedges and reeds as the water makes its presence felt.  These changes in texture are  but one of the simple joys one experiences walking through wetlands.

Pelican Waters

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

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