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!

Farewell to a twentieth century icon

This week marked the passing of an icon. Kirk Douglas lived to be 103, and it feels strange, waking up in the morning to a world in which he's absent. I could say I was literally born with this man ... my mother took herself to see The Vikings just two days before I was born! And yes, I do know it had an X-certificate at the time (odd, since it screens on TV with a PG rating now. How the world has changed!) 

A few years ago, while her eyesight wasn't too bad, she had me do some screen captures from the classic of 1957/58, and print them out for her album. The Vikings was always her favorite Kirk Douglas film -- mine too, actually, though I appreciate many of his movies.

Goodbye to a Hollywood hero who once set the benchmarks. With the slightest bit of luck the rainbow bridge is right ahead.