Day 5

It's dull and overcast and this pair of Race novaehollandia (Spur-winged Lapwings) just loved plodding up and down Papa's Beach occasionally finding whatever it is they were looking for.  

They are pretty timid, and I normally wouldn't worry about trying to stake them out with a too-short lens, however we cannot be certain that we have sufficient time remaining here to get that perfect souvenir!

Social Scorecard 2010:
Day No: 5
Nights at Home: 5
Days Without Visitors: 2

Day 4 - Be careful what you wish for.

The last of the super king tides today, Mr Three had fun swimming on the boatshed deck before he went home yesterday.  "Papa's Beach" is a sensational place to swim on the high tide, and we seem to waste an awful lot of time watching the schools of fish swimming among the submersed Pigweed.

Roger and Margaret's place is the only other structure we can see from our place, and I used to joke that I'd made an application to have it demolished because it ruined our habitat.  I didn't count on our habitat being included in that demolition order as well.

Today I spoke with the Main Roads Department, who tell me there should be some news next Tuesday. It's impossible to believe how intrusive the spectre of resumption is into one's psych.   Emotions change hourly.  No matter how much we tell ourselves we were only borrowing this little patch, the probability that it will have 55,000 cars running over it each day doesn't seem to compute!

Social Scorecard 2010:
Day No: 4
Nights at Home: 4
Days Without Visitors: 1

Day 3

Early evening, across the mangroves to Nicklin Way.

Social Scorecard 2010:
Day No: 3
Nights at Home: 3
Days Without Visitors: 0

Day 2

Don't despair, I'm sure there'll be a tale or two to tell eventually.

Today was one of three days in the last 16 years when the tide made it over the boat shed floor, or to be more accurate since the boat shed has only been at that level for seven, since the tide has been of sufficient height to flood the boat shed floor if indeed it had been there previously.  Actually neither boat shed nor tide.... oh forget it!

I suspect that wherever we live in the future, we'll never forget what a privileged existence we've led in our time here.  Sure the midges do visit from time to time, but there's nothing quite like wandering ankle deep among the fish and pig weed in the clear water of a king tide, when it's all happening in one's own back yard.

Social Scorecard 2010:

Day No: 2

Nights at Home: 2

Days Without Visitors: 0

Day 1 - 2010

What's the point in posting, I wondered.  The photo is the same, the blind hasn't moved, the glare that comes off the water every morning means that it's impossible to get a properly exposed shot, and the green tinted glass means the colour balance will never be right.

Then we looked and realised (as if we didn't already know) that the house changes when we have visitors.  It isn't a comfortable nest for a pair of almost retirees, it becomes a beach house with towels and sand and scooters and surfboards hanging round.

And to top it off, the first words I heard this year were from the floor near my bed:  "There were fireworks Papa!", and there were, we watched the early session at least from the verandah by the beach towels.  Well we watched those that rose above the mangroves anyway, and we didn't have far to go to bed.    I don't remember another year when we didn't make it to midnight.

Social Scorecard 2010:
Day No: 1
Nights at Home: 1
Days Without Visitors: 0

From my bedroom - day 365; 2009

A new year brings with it a new decade and always the promise of new achievement, wipe the slate clean, start again......

So I thought a new skin for this blog might be appropriate, and it happens to be a photograph of the first street I ever lived in, taken when I was living there.   The fact that I haven't lived in Naughton Street, Wondall since 1957 will give some idea as to why there were almost no, well actually no motorcars in the photograph, no TV antennas, no vertical venetian blinds, no brick paving, and the list goes on.

By my rough count, I've lived in around two dozen streets so far, and the coming year will perhaps see that total increased yet again, so I thought it might be fun to document our travels for a year.   This is neither photoblog nor diary strictly speaking,  so I don't know where it will lead, but let's start each day with a photo from my bedroom, or somewhere nearby, and see what that brings.

It will be fun to look back on this post a year from now, to discover how we dealt with the new highway through our house, the new granddaughter, the new life shared between two countries, life without a job, but perhaps with a whole new career.

For now, this is what I saw when my eyes opened on the last day of 2009.

We were not alone.  We rarely are, but it was nice to begin the day with a grandson peeking over the edge of the bed wondering if he was the only one awake.

Note to file: If you are serious about this, you'd better clean the windows and the screens boyo!

Still on holiday

Hmmm... I'm sorry, but we're still in the wilds and doing other things. We will resume normal transmission as soon as possible. In the meantime we do occasionally post snippets of our whereabouts at Postcards from the Road.