Not Alone

I guess if you don't want people to take photographs of your hotrod, you leave it at home.

Kings Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia
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Vintage Tin

Here we go again - American car culture and the surf - a match made in heaven apparently.  The setting sun gives a distinctly seventies feel to the scene as well.

Kings Beach
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Shake Shake Shake

It's best to get those petals and all that sand out of the mat before it goes back in the car.

Bulcock Beach - after the wedding.

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After the wedding.

The party has gone, which just leaves the packing up to do before the sun goes down.

Bulcock Beach

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Barn Owl.

Not sleeping, just wondering why this picture didn't post when the button was pressed!

Caloundra

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Hi Neighbour!

As I was wandering down the street, desperately looking for subjects to photograph, Eric kindly stopped pruning to say hello.

Dicky Beach.

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Pee Wee

I have no idea why the Magpie Lark is known only as a Pee Wee in our state, it's one of those regional curiosities whose origins have been lost in the depths of time.

But here, is a Pee Wee, sitting on a fence.  Actually it isn't sitting, more balancing on (although it isn't clear) its solitary leg.

Moffat Beach

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Mailbox

I wouldn't blame the mailman if he was too frightened to deliver letters to the vet.

Moffat Beach

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Bottom of the wave.

I love the creamy little ripple at the bottom of the wave too, as it meets the one that went before.

Moffat Beach.

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Top of the wave.

I just love the colour contrast between the face of the waves and the ocean beyond, particularly when the sky is grey.

Moffat Beach.

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All at sea again.

The ocean is a big place for a small craft.

I am not sure that sailboarding alone out there with a storm coming is the most sensible thing in the world.  Actually it's not and I am sure, but it is fun.

Off Dicky Beach.

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Whomp!

Whomp!

The sound of a small steep wave breaking on the sand.

Moffat Beach



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All at sea

Actually on dry land!  One of the attractions at the Ginger Factory.

Yandina
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Not as it seems

The train at the Ginger Factory is pulled by the steam engine from an old cane tram, or is it?  Well no, what would have been the little carriage carrying coal now houses a diesel engine which does the job very nicely, but the old engine still very much looks the part.

Buderim Ginger Factory
Yandina

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Garden with fountain.

Just a view of the garden taken on the move from the little train at the Ginger Factory.

 Buderim Ginger Factory
Yandina
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Sub Tropics

It's the greens that give away the sub tropics.  They aren't as deep and rich as in the true tropics, but they are still rather green!

Yandina

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Too Late!

Note: if you are going to turn up at the farmer's market to take some photographs, it pays to get out of bed before ten!

Nambour

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Monkey Nuts

The fruit of the Cocos Palm is a relic from a sub-tropical childhood.   

The Palm itself is a declared weed now, but that doesn't stop the fruit being created in abundance and spread by hungry flying foxes (fruit bats) far and wide.   When the husk has gone the brown nut has a pattern which resembles a pair of eyes and a mouth and even a nose in between, bearing some resemblance to a monkey, at least in the eyes of some.

When I was much, much younger my friends and I used to try to hit them over our house with a cricket bat.  If we failed to make the distance, the resounding clatter on our iron roof would alert us, and sadly any adult who happened to be inside!

Yandina

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Happy New Year!

I have selected this photo as my "photo of the year",  because it's the only one I've taken so far!

Actually it was taken at sunset yesterday, and the real reason I have chosen it is not because it has any particular merit, but that it says much to me about why I live where I live.  

It is taken from the bridge over Tooway Creek, a few hundred metres from home, and when I am not gallivanting around the globe I can often be found not far from here, particularly in the early morning or late afternoon.  

I hope that all who are reading this have a "prosperous" (in every sense) new year, and I look forward to being able to find more photos just like this one as the year rolls on!
 

 
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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

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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

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia
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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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