It's been hard this week keeping up with this blog. Too much happening and not enought breathing spaces. Never mind. I'm stil looking at and appreciating the beautiful natural setting that we live in...as evidenced by this photo....

Waterskiiing!! The first I've seen in Tambourine Bay. You would definitely have to time your tides right or the sport might be called mudskiing.

The atmosphere this morning at 7am was heavy with humidity, the air predictive of a hot one today. But the boatshed still looked peacefully pretty.

Missing in action these last few days, completely engrossed in a yoga workshop with John Friend.
Meanwhile life goes on in our mud flats, ducks and seagulls enjoying Tambourine Bay while I sweat in the Sydney summer heat doing standing poses and backbends!

Yesterday we went paddling on the Bay, not too long after dawn. Quiet, windless, no one else on the water. Daniel was in the canoe and I was in my favourite surf ski. That craft was just tailor-made for me.
(It probably belonged to the owner's kids!)

I like these masked lapwings. That's why this one has shown up again in this blog. "He" was doing his ablutions this morning, and seemed to be volunteering as a photo opportunity.

He and his mate made this sound very loudly: kerr-kick-ki-ki-ki.
In relation to what I don't know but I definitely now know when they are around.

Eucalyptus - from the Greek words eu-, well, and kaluptos, cover, meaning "well-covered", describes the bud cap (botanically called an operculum).



The most readily recognisable characteristics of Eucalyptus species are the distinctive flowers and fruits.

A tree's budcaps are formed from modified petals and they fall off as the flowers open.

The flowers having no petals, decorate themselves instead with many showy stamens (as seen in the image).

Eucalypts' woody fruits, known as gumnuts, are roughly cone-shaped and have valves at the end which open to release the seeds.

6:15 am. The first view of my day.



Off on our Longueville morning constitutional...



...and what did we see - a new neighbour from Arabella St?



...and also the sun-up over Woodford Bay.

What a colour! Don't know if the water colour had anything to do with the intense atmosphere.
The air temperature was 31 degrees at the time of this photo (and about 10 degrees hotter in our 3rd floor rooms!).




I believe these are all ducks hanging out in the low tidal flats, but not quite sure....

This represents the first part of our tantra massage weekend. As a ritual of love and respect, Daniel and I washed each other's feet. Amazing how clean one's feet can feel afterwards, when one didn't even realise they were dirty!



What could be better than reading the weekend papers with a backdrop of beautiful northern beaches view, after having exchanged sensual massages the night before?

I might be making it up, but I think this bird is the male Masked Lapwing, and the one below, the female.
They are around a lot. I can't imagine that they have much time for having babies because they are so often on the lawn or the mudflats in front of our house. Still, it is the season for the birds and the bees, so I'm assuming that they have a nest someplace with little lapwings in it.



Here's a question for you, where do birds go to die? It's so rare to see a dead bird, unless the cat got it or a car tire.
Avian hospices?

Warraroon Reserve has these reflective pools of tidal water that I just love.
Kind of metallic feeling, the colour and the corrugation, and those gorgeous shapes the mangrove branches and roots make.

This almost didn't get posted today, as I was out all day, a little respite at home, and now off to my womens' group.

The above photo is from yesterday evening. I've discovered I can take very late dusk photos with my camera, to very good effect.

Time for just a simply gorgeous early morning image of our beautiful view.

Michael and Judy's maiden duet in the canoe on the lovely Sunday morn, inspired no doubt by our Hovercraft ride of Saturday.




A busy day all around with the first fishermen of the season coming out Sunday, too. I wonder what they might catch, and if it's really safe to eat the fish. Or maybe they just toy with snagging a creature and then throw a slightly wounded fellow back.

6 am. Reveille
Unwanted early wake-up caused by adolescents on the rebound from their school formal. They occupied the sea scout boat shed ramp, and there was a lot of alcohol/drugs/testerone fueled swearing.



A second group on one of the little yachts appeared to have captured a dinghy but it wasn't long before they capsized and ended up the the drink. An event that only increased the volume of cursing. Eventually they straggled back to their mates on the boat ramp, without managing to shut up, no matter how dedraggled they were.

Eugene, the Hovercraft Captain, is taking friend Heather on an exciting ride around Tambourine Bay and the Lane Cove River.
He and Robyn are the owners of said craft, the riding of which has become a 10 year hobby.

The household all got rides.

I posed Daniel and Judy for this photo, which they seemed to be resisting.
But, as you can see, they rose to the occasion, suppressed their negativity and pasted smiles on their faces....

At dusk last night the sea scouts came out to the boat shed and did some maneuvers. They must have so much fun in the water (I do!).

Michael reminded me that they also might feel a little nervous because of the Skeggs' boatshed having burnt down and another sea scout one, just around the other side of Longueville. Sick-o types who would do that.

Our neighbors have been cultivating their garden for many years, I would think, from the look of it. I have only viewed it with my naked eye and with my unnaked camera's zoom. The gum trees can be seen now in profligate bloom (I'm not sure of their variety.)

They seem to grow rocks too.

My sister would like this bouquet of stones, I think, a studied casualness with implied permanence.

When we first saw No. 1 Wharf Rd., we thought this boatshed would make a neat extra room, or perhaps it might be good for storage?

Side-on gives the real perspective that dispels any grandiose ideas. Not exactly according to achitect plans, is it? Another major problem is big tides, which cover most of the floor area, leaving mud and debris behind.

So the shed remains a slightly delapidated home for one canoe, one surf ski, & one dinghy of rubber and one of wood. And occasionally a smoking room for Jess & a female companion.

Late afternoon the tide was so low I put on my old boots and went for a walk which ended up partly in the muddy, inchoate mangroves, and partly on the sandstone banks of our little Bay. I certainly didn't get to walk far with the sludge sucking on every footstep. I didn't much like walking on the little mangroves shoots either.

There's something kind of spooky about entering the mangrove flats, I suppose, primeval. It's all too easy to imagine a creature coming up out of the ooze.

Still, it's beautiful in that primitive way. I suppose some part of our brain still resonates strongly with the pull of the mud, even after we have risen so far above it.

Fresh, clean, misty air carrying the fragrance of all these late spring flowers and shoots.
I rememer when I was annoyed by the rain. One season it would rain every single weekend and be sunny during the week.
A new record was set for rainy weekends, seven, eight, maybe. (I'm sure the number has grown over the years.) Now, I think, I wish it would rain for a month. Would that be enough?

Small Purple Trumpets

A gentle rain has been falling over the last couple of days, and it feels like a blessing in the midst of the relentless drought. Sydney's flora is a little more hydrated and our garden's spring blossoms are having a party. Can't you almost hear the little purple trumpet blooms of our jacaranda tooting?