I like the mean , dark looking storm clouds as they slowly roll in .

magnificent, @AW

Supafreak wrote:

I like the mean , dark looking storm clouds as they slowly roll in .

Me too Supa. In fact I love them all, beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

If you’re interested, it’s all interesting. How can you walk past those thunderous clouds and not take a photo ?
They sucked the oxygen out of the air and rocked our joint late last Summer, like exploding bombs in the night, got about 60mm in a short time which is huge for here, our annual is 450mm. Cheers B6. AW

I love the pics AW, and I think you're blessed to live in such a beautiful area. I'm kinda lucky in that regard too- I'll chuck up some pics one day.

X 2 on walking with dogs- twice a day, everyday, pre-dawn sub zero, farking turbocharges me.

There are some times I take pics and sometimes I wish I'd brought a camera but more often than not, I just gaze for a while, breathe it in and move on.

A little montage taken when walking the dogs.

Blessed is the dogwalking hour.

A time to ponder, a moment to reflect.

Then grapple to bag a steaming turd deposited in the most difficult piece of ground to pick up, cursing to oneself.

Then back to the introspection.

Dog and rainbow post walk. I remember this cause it was one of the most vivid rainbows I'd ever seen.

blackers wrote:

A little montage taken when walking the dogs.

Blackers. Oh mate, that’s a sensational arrangement into a montage, grabs ya eyeballs. Well done.

Zen, x 2, the dog walking in the morning is choice bro, mines always coupled with a complete bird list through the eBird app, temporal and spatial data with the touch of button ends up in Cornell Universities (upstate New York) ornithological depository and another towards the close of day.
My daily contribution to science.
Dog swims twice most days and four times in heat like we’re having tomorrow, 43c. Life is so good, wouldn’t be dead for quids. AW

zenagain wrote:

Dog and rainbow post walk. I remember this cause it was one of the most vivid rainbows I'd ever seen.

Zenagain. That’s so good, ‘double prizes’.
Beautiful dog. Male or female ? AW

Male.

And AW, slowly learning my Japanese birds. Lots of the migratory ones too.

zenagain wrote:

Male.

And AW, slowly learning my Japanese birds. Lots of the migratory ones too.

Good stuff Zen. Keep it up.

Ooh, you’ve piqued my interest.
Japan is a very important bird country as it lies basically just off the direct route of the northern part of the Pacific Flyway that basically eases off around the Bering Sea and the southern edges of the Arctic Circle.

Most importantly is Japan sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire on a tectonic boundary, here at the zones of subduction, enormous depths of water occurs at the very deep trench boundaries with immense cold water upwellings.
It’s here, super rich nutrients arise to the surface and attracts tens of millions of seabirds, many different species, one in particular Short-tailed Shearwaters ( Muttonbirds) from Australia, sometimes 12-16 million at any one time. They feed for weeks, fatten up, then turn around and fly back to the Southern Ocean and back to relictual breeding grounds on many Bass Strait and nearby islands, often settling not far from where they left from.
Biological world is amazing. AW

Hey @zen, how is the ratbaggy going? All good? I ask coz mine has a nose and taste for the grossest things he can find on our beach walks …. only to shit it out or throw it up afterwards, worrying that beach is notorious for fishers leaving all sorts of gear for the tide to clear

zenagain wrote:

Blessed is the dogwalking hour.

A time to ponder, a moment to reflect.

Then grapple to bag a steaming turd deposited in the most difficult piece of ground to pick up, cursing to oneself.

Then back to the introspection.

Ah but it also warms your hands in the winter cold I believe.
Nice rainbow.

Yours and mine are kindred spirits Guy.

He's going great, had him for a few years now. Got him a little female Mini Schnauzer and they're inseperable.

Edit: put that behind me blackers, this fella's a whole different monster.

Hello - can I have a smooch, please

Island Bay wrote:

Hello - can I have a smooch, please

IB. Howdy.

Nice, bit of a Tom Jones dog look a like.

‘It’s not unusual to be loved by anyone, it’s not unusual to have fun with anyone’. AW

Haha!
Harriet says thank you very much, but her voice is not quite like the big Welshman's

I reckon she'd be a good cuddler that one. Those eyes melt me.

How good are dogs!

Edit: coincidentally just got back from a killer walk, stunning sunset, freezing cold.

No pics:)

Ha haaa! Nearly spat me coffee.

Island Bay wrote:

Haha!

Harriet says thank you very much, but her voice is not quite like the big Welshman's

Island Bay. My sincere apologies to Harriet, she’s gorgeous, it was a 50/50 choice I got wrong.
I’m guessing she likes the end of your bed !!!? AW

Supafreak wrote:

That’s hilarious, nearly choked on my hot tea. Animals, laugh a minute. AW

Ha!

Hahaha poor kitty.

@AW , some dark ones rolling in this morning on my daily walk , thought I was going to get a wet arse but it all got shades lighter. On return just as I entered home it finally did piss down but wasn’t from this front .

Supafreak wrote:

@AW , some dark ones rolling in this morning on my daily walk , thought I was going to get a wet arse but it all got shades lighter. On return just as I entered home it finally did piss down but wasn’t from this front .

Supafreak. Hi pal.

So good, don’t you love meteorological systems, puts us right back in our place.

We are miniscule critters in this amazing world, dodging peril after peril.

BTW , I should have all our accommodation shit sorted out in the next two days, waiting on a bit of info from their end. I’m excited already.

Here’s a few of morning sunrise shots of a well known landmark near here, Devonian granite (~380 mill, around the time of the dawning of fish on earth) at the You Yangs, remnant uprising from the mantle with younger landforms eroding away around it over millennia.AW

Yep , looking forward to surfing LR again, I know it will be crowded but a bit of luck will have us jagging a few . I was there when the cooly kids were in town and we were anchored at LL , my mate grabbed the dinghy and we went around to LR . After an hour with only the cooly kids and ourselves out in light sideshore , it flicked to offshore and we were on , only lasted an hour but 4ft with 5 out was pretty special . I could have done a big cut back hack in front of MF but something in my head said if I fuck it up & run him over , possibly injuring him, then there would be all hell to pay so I simply kicked off , he looked thankful I did . I’ve got your accommodation sorted on NL for your initial visit and when you come back from your jungle safari .

Supafreak wrote:

Yep , looking forward to surfing LR again, I know it will be crowded but a bit of luck will have us jagging a few . I was there when the cooly kids were in town and we were anchored at LL , my mate grabbed the dinghy and we went around to LR . After an hour with only the cooly kids and ourselves out in light sideshore , it flicked to offshore and we were on , only lasted an hour but 4ft with 5 out was pretty special . I could have done a big cut back hack in front of MF but something in my head said if I fuck it up & run him over , possibly injuring him, then there would be all hell to pay so I simply kicked off , he looked thankful I did . I’ve got your accommodation sorted on NL for your initial visit and when you come back from your jungle safari .

Cheers for that. We will get waves. I rise early there, always first in the water, I often was up drinking tea around 3.30am and ready to roll.

I had a moment with Steph Gilmore in 2008 at Four Bobs near Kandui, I’m paddling back out to the line up after catching a wave and she fucked up this big vertical snap and landed on me , her board cut three big fin grooves in my mine, no damage to hers, she was so apologetic and nice, only a week prior I’d said hello to her at Bells Comp in Torquay, then bump into her again . Freaky.
Geez she surfs well. AW

I’m glad you’re an early riser, I rarely sleep in after 4.30 am.

reckon @jef's ears mighta pricked up at the prospect of a 3am cuppa, @AW.

basesix wrote:

reckon @jef's ears mighta pricked up at the prospect of a 3am cuppa, @AW.

Basesix. Hi mate. Hope you’re cruising. You bet. Those irregular hours he keeps, maybe something else is regularly pricking up and needs soothing attention.

I love east coast Oz in the Summer months, light around 4am, you’re up and about, go for a surf,, eat breakfast, bird and plant observing, second cuppa, you turn, look at your watch and it’s all of 8.30am, done so much already, seize the moment I say. Life’s good. AW

Cuppa or Cuppy basesix?

Great storm pics Supa. Recognise this beach?

@chin , how old is the photo ? I ask because the blue & red boat drift divers was Made Dolphins but think he sold it . Very black over klungkung & Mt Agung.

Great photos. Wow.

Supafreak wrote:

@chin , how old is the photo ? I ask because the blue & red boat drift divers was Made Dolphins but think he sold it . Very black over klungkung & Mt Agung.

Jan 2017 I think Supa. Storm passed by peacefully.

chin wrote:

Supafreak wrote:

@chin , how old is the photo ? I ask because the blue & red boat drift divers was Made Dolphins but think he sold it . Very black over klungkung & Mt Agung.

Jan 2017 I think Supa. Storm passed by peacefully.

Yeah ok thought it must have been old , those storms normally go around us , this year has been different.

Rains finally gone for now . Bottom 2 photos of 2 shipping buoys that got blown onto the beach on Lembongan , chains & ropes still attached , possibly from entrances to various ports in Bali .

^^ Lembongan headline: "Mighty big crayon washes ashore, locals left to draw their own conclusions."

ha, valentine's day SN winner @blackers. have a sexy tee-o
https://www.wslstore.com/products/abu-dhabi-photo-tee

Asymmetrical dreaming on an Ordovician bed.

Nice work Alfred.

Awesome!

blackers wrote:

Nice work Alfred.

Blackers. Morning. Thanks

How’s things at your end ?

Re: photo, bottom of a watercourse here at home.

500 million year old sediment that’s accumulated after being eroded and washed down the grade from the colluvial fan on the eastern escarpment side of the Brisbane Ranges National Park.

What I love about the photo besides the patterns we see, is the actual chemistry at play. This soil contains high volumes of platy minerals such as aluminium and silicon.
In their crystallographic arrangement, microscopically, they are separate laminae that lay flat and water molecules are trapped beneath the two different layers, when it’s very wet or rains profusely, the clays typically swell and become sticky by structure and silky by texture. Incredibly strong molecular bonds and forces are at play.

Converse to wetting, this time of the year in Summer, this soil type typically dries out very quickly and the molecular bonds go into retreat mode and shrink thus giving what we see in the photo, there’s moisture in there, very little , but it’s held so tightly like a glue, the bonding is powerful.
What a world we live in. It’s ace I reckon. AW

Morning Gentlemen , this morning’s walk , gonna be good this arvo if wind behaves .

Supafreak. Morning mate.

Nice pics and morning for a walk and surf check. Couple of prickly characters amongst it all.
Hope you get those good winds this arvo. AW

More beautiful shots from paradise Supa, looking tasty.
And Alfred, digging the connection between form and formation. I have spent the past few days up in an old landscape, dry like yours. Looking forward to a weekend of waves to wash off the dust.

upload pic

blackers wrote:

More beautiful shots from paradise Supa, looking tasty.

And Alfred, digging the connection between form and formation. I have spent the past few days up in an old landscape, dry like yours. Looking forward to a weekend of waves to wash off the dust.

upload pic

Blackers. Hi.

Great shots of terrain. Are we on the basalt plains or behind the GDRange ?

The slope angles look like the former but I could be completely wrong.

It’s as dry as dry everywhere, I’ve even got a few plant casualties at home here that are local to us.
I don’t water anything except veggie garden. Not long now, we will get some precipitation. Good stuff, don’t you love the two faces of southern Australia. AW

Edit . Putting my head on the block, it’s basalt plains isn’t it, please!!!

'Crack a Smile, Australia'

AlfredWallace wrote:

basesix wrote:

'Crack a Smile, Australia'

AlfredWallace wrote:

Basesix. Hi mate.

Our in house wordsmith has spoken , you are displaying your usual skills. Love it.

I love the variety of thoughts that each person’s brain produces after looking at an image.
Endless variations from a similar theme. Clay with cracks in it, but it’s more, we know it is.
I wonder how many different themes or ideas that many of us would produce after staring at it for at least ten minutes. AW