So ends the July 2022 catchup...

 

End of July, 2022

...all of which catches me up with July 2022. This was still about six weeks or so before Covid came for a flying visit and seemed to invite itself to stay for a couple of months. At this point, Dave and I were still trying to plan ahead for a possible trip to the Limestone Coast. 'Twas not to be, of course: cancelled for the third year running. This time around, it was on account of Covid and heavy weather ... this is the third consecutive La Nina winter, and it's wreaking havoc. 

A few cancelled travel plans were the least of it -- and of course, I'm writing this in January, 2023, "playing catch up with myself" to full in the blanks in this blog, because I'd very much like to pick up the threads, and with the benefit of hindsight, complaining about the weather seems petty. People lost their homes, the livelihoods and their lives. So we lost a vacation: hunh. 

But by the end of July, even though Covid was some weeks off, I was feeing it -- "it" being SAD, or Seasonally Affected Disorder. Call it cabin fever, or winter blues. Call it anything you like, it's the same thing: a deep fit of the moody blues caused by being shut inside too much, for too long, because the weather sucks, your health is iffy and dodgy, and you seriously dread catching the plague! 

So we spent our days hiking in remote spots, well away from people, hoping to get some great photos to mark the passage of the seasons. Sometimes, though, you didn't have to go far from home:

This little beauty, above, was sitting on one of the succulent flowers about four meters from the front door as we walked out yesterday, for a drive down to Goolwa -- Dave and I again, making the most of low fuel prices while they last -- because they won't. I got about a dozen nice images, and it was sooo easy ... the rest of the day, I struggled with low light, uncooperative birds and frozen fingers! But we did the walk to the lookout above Mount Bold, hoping to see wildlife ... a deer, right on the trail before us! (And yeeees, I know they're feral, and have become a real pest in Tasmania and New Zealand, but they're beautiful, and I like them.)

Just a day or two later, this, below, is waaaay on the other side of Perry Bend Reserve, far closer to the dunes, but I'd tag it as Perry Bend, because I don't know what to call the location, otherwise! I mean ... you're in the middle of a marsh, looking at massive amounts of sky, river and saltbush, so ... Perry Bend it is. I got lots of pics of waterfowl, which I always intended to share, but never did because the SAD caught up with me, and before I shook it loose, Covid came knocking at the door. Argh.