Thought of the Day

Here's the weirdest thing. When poetry comes to me (and it doesn't very often), it's usually while I'm under the shower, washing my hair, no chance to jot it down. By the time I get out of the shower, it's usually gone. Something unique to my brain structure, I suppose.

But this silly little ditty stayed with me for long enough to get it typed, LOL ... I said poetry.  I didn't say anything about it being spiritual, romantic or meaningful...

There's a daft old saying, "Life is just a bowl of cherries" -- it became a song (Lew Brown / Ray Henderson); Judy Garland recorded it in 1956, for a start! Doris Day sang it, about ten years later. Google it: I kid you not. But forget the song. Go back to the daft old saying which inspired it...

Life is just a bowl of cherries:

Twenty bucks per kilo.

I don't know if you have the cash,

Or even how you feel; oh,

If I had the price of cherries

Every day, to munch ...

Life would be a perfect breeze.

And I'd be out to lunch.

Sorry for that. But I'd surely like to have the $140 a week. I wonder how much cherries cost, in 1956?

Happy New Camera, 2020!

After a year or more of bemoaning the fact that my Fuju HS50 has almost completely given up the ghost, well ... it was time to get a new camera. I've been researching them, looking at reviews, trying to figure out where the "sweet spot" lay, between needing something good, not having unlimited dollars to invest, and also needing to buy something that was light to carry about. So --

All things taken into consideration, I wound up with the Lumix TZ90, from Panasonic ... at at $438, it was an absolutely amazing deal. Then, there's its Leica optics, and its bells and whistles --

Ahem! Suffice to say, I'm having a lot of fun. More fun than I've had with photography for well over a year, because I knew that most of the shots I wanted to get, the HS-50 would spoil. (Almost everything had stopped working on it: light metering was off by a mile, and I'm sure its focusing system was way off too: you'd pull focus "here," with your chosen object right in the crosshairs, and it wold focus about ten degrees of arc away. Not fun. Not fun at all.)

So, in the last year or so I haven't done very much with photography; and I've missed it. The hobby gives you a reason to get out there and hike around, go the extra "nine yards" in order to come back with superb pictures. What's the point, if the camera is only going to spoil them? So --

The biggest step was making the decision to set down a great wad of cash. With that decision out of the way, the next was to work out which camera to buy ... and you really are spoiled for choice, no matter your price bracket. I think I spent about ten hours, hunting down individual cameras, reading reviews, comparing features.

And it all came down to a choice between a Canon PowerShot, and the Lumix TZ90. They are comparable; but the Lumix does a great deal more. It has those Leica optics, and a 3" touch screen display, plus a 'finder ... which the PowerShot doesn't have. The decision turned out to be the right one for me...

...I know, I demand a lot of a camera. I've used Fuji for well over ten years now -- had four of them; but the last one was surprisingly fragile, and I was honestly shocked when it started to break down in just a few years. I think I noticed the first "hmmm" moments after the second year. This time around, I've made the promise to myself, to be ultra-careful with the new Lumix, and deliberately NOT take liberties with it. Don't knock it. Don't let it hit anything.

Sooo I've just got myself a spare battery plus charger (there's another hundred bucks!), and have also ordered a camera bag, which will fit the Lumix snugly, not let it move about, and damage itself...

With any luck the camera bag will arrive before Dave and I take off for the Limestone Coast at the end of this month. If not, I'll have to MacGyver something to protect the camera on the road. I'm looking forward enormously to the trip. We haven't been to Mount Gambier in eight years. Hoping to get good weather for this one ... the last trip (our second to the Grampians), we had rotten luck with the weather for most of the time.

My other hope is that my health picks up a bit before we leave. I'm basically going one day at a time right now, and while I know I need to see a doctor and find out what's wrong ... I also know what the tests are going to be like. I'm putting them off as long as possible, because I just don't want to go there. Not ready yet. I'll know when I am. So --

There you have it! Happy New Camera, 2020! This is going to be big fun ... in fact, the fun has already begun. Pictures here were taken at Belair NP, Punchbowl Lookout, and in the back garden right here at home. Monday, if I'm up to it, I'll see if I can get to Onkaparinga Wetlands, and if the sky is blue and the sun bright, we should get some lovely pictures!

My fourth story going into print!

Am very pleased indeed to announce that my fourth story is going into print at this time, with Dim Shores Presents.

The story is Root and Branch, which also won an Honorable Mention in the Writers of the Future competition last year.

I don't yet have a "buy now" link for this issue, but when I receive one, I'll return to this post to include it.

The anthology looks like being a really good read -- am looking forward to it greatly. Have been an ocean of spec-fic lately, and genuinely enjoying it. We're lucky enough to have entire shelves filled with Andromeda Spaceways, Eidolon, F&SF, and a huge assortment of other magazines, from Story Hack to Aliterate, via Lovecraftiana, Interzone, Analog and so on. And on. The indie magazines tend to have a much fresher taste and feel than the old, long-established mags, and I've been enjoying them greatly.

Also, this would be an appropriate time to mention that I've finished the novel, "The Hesperides." This piece isn't spec-fic, but an Aussie story, full of angst and humor with an ending which, I hope, will be not merely "feel good," but also surprising. For my next trick (ha!), find a publisher -- which means finding a literary agent first. The quest (roll drums, sound trumpets and set loose the dragon sentinels) has begun.

Punchbowl Lookout ... and WHAT is going on with this February weather?!

Taking my shiny new camera for another walk -- this time to Punchbowl Lookout, which is an easy hike, a kilometer in, same out on the same trail, albeit uphill ... and I could have wished for beautiful weather to road-test the aforementioned camera. The conditions at Onkaparinga Gorge were so dark, the camera popped the auto-flash, in broad daylight, at ten o'clock in the morning! Not only that, it was chilly and blustery. February?!

(Fair enough ... we'll be back up to 30C+ in a few days, with some modest heat for about 72 hours before we dip back into the 20s; but this ain't February weather, folks. Not even close. Back in November, when the heat began, the long-range forecasters warned about a long, super-hot summer. We got colossal temperatures in January (and the fires I woll never forget as long as I live). Then this. And although I have to say I'm completely relieved to not have to contend with 40 degree heat for week after week, I also have to note that this February weather is atypical. Abnormal. Not right. Something is ... wrong. Weather reports from Antarctica last week recorded 20C temperatures one day. It was as warm there as here. Say, what now???)

Anyway -- Punchbowl Lookout, in dismal conditions:

The awful conditions at least gave me a chance to work hard with the camera, make it produce images that could be "rescued" in the computer later. These have all been heavily tweaked to make it look as if the sun came out; but if you look at any shot on which the sky shows, you'll see that Mister Blue was well and truly in hiding. Took a lot of work in the computer to get these images up to speed, and I must go back to Punchbowl with the Lumix, when the sun is shining.

A feasting echidna ... how lucky is this!

How lucky is this! My new camera arrived in the late morning yesterday, so after putting the battery on charge over lunchtime, we braved the weird, weird February weather (chill, windy, overcast and spritzing with rain -- like late April, not at all like summer) and "took the camera for a walk" around Playford Lake, at Belair NP.

While strolling, on the lookout for likely subjects, I noticed something that looked, from a distance, like a crocheted bag ... then it moved, gorblimey, and I realized what I was looking at! These guys are normally shy, you don't see them very often. This is only the fourth time I've seen one in Belair, and only the second time up close. But this guy was so intent on his ants' nest, in an old log, he ignored me. So --

I shot loads, because I'm still learning this Lumix TZ90, and was pretty sure I was doing something majorly wrong for the first dozen shots. Yep, I was. Soon as I caught up with myself, adjusted one of the settings, it was plain sailing. I am very impressed indeed with this camera -- I'll be doing a "Happy New Camera!" post tomorrow, but for now, this little guy is worth a post all on his own.

A feasting echidna! How cute is this?!

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty ... Now We Are Six!

Another year has gone by! It's Valentine's Day tomorrow, which must mean it's Zolie's birthday ... though it doesn't seem possible that she can be six already. In fact, her birthday is an arbitrary date, calculated backwards from her "welcome home day," when she came home from the Lonsdale shelter to begin a whole new life. That was August 14, and she'd have been six months old. Count backwards from there ...  yep, Valentine's. Thus was the date decided.

Zolie's 2019 was a year of exploring like Amundsen, swashbuckling like Fairbanks, indulging in extravagant desserts, helping to organize the shed...

...braving the dreaded Puddy-tat Repair place -- the clinic! -- to have her teeth checked, measuring the doormat for its roll-ability quotient, helping to open Christmas presents...

...but mostly, 2019 was The Year of Naps. It a banner year for naps of the epic variety! Soooo many cat beds, sooo little time! Only 365 days in a year. How many naps does that make? Now, let me work this out --

But there was always time for other stuff, like playing hide and seek, and camouflaging herself on the hearthrug, and playing a game of "I'm a landmine, better watch out for your feet!"

And that was pretty much Her Majesty's year! Oh, there was lots more along the way ... legendary battles with her arch rivals, the dust bunnies, and mountaineering up the boxes in the store room, sneaking out for the occasional night on the tiles, toasting the royal tummy in the sun in winter and flaking out on the cool tiles under the a/c vents in summer. But mostly, it was a year of naps, and cat dreams. Oh yeah, and desserts!

That's all, folks ... till Valentine's Day comes around again!