Leap into Tarra

 Yes it's leap day which also means it is the occasional extra last day of Summer.  We went with our neighbour Jill to the Tarra restaurant which is situated in the recently built ferry terminal in Queenscliff. Not to be confused with that other recently built Tassie ferry terminal.  Ferries seem to be thriving lately as the Portarlington ferry area is getting a rebuild as well as the pier.  The lunch at Tarra was very tasty and I recommend  giving it a try.  The prices were similar if not less than some pubs I have seen.  The best views are had upstairs in the passenger lounge.  They have designed this like an airport lounge with a gangway leading off the top floor directly to the ferry lounge. So walkons don't have to dodge cars on the ramp to get aboard. 

note the wafers served in a log of wood

Upstairs lounge 

Asher sounds it out

 It doesn't take long to get the kiddies into reading mode at school. It has been 30 odd years or so since I paid attention to the school habits of prep grade. Asher is reading short sentences already with the picture there to show the scene being described.  Somewhere along the line she might make a comment on this blog.  In the meantime it was a Blink 10 9 8 concert lastnight but we did get 7 hours sleep which is a bit more than Debbie's PB schedule allows lately.  After mowing lawns early at Williamstown (sorry neighbours)  We have made it back to the Springs just in time to get organised for a luncheon in Queenstown.  The clouds have rolled in but it is still getting towards 30° so far.

this is going on the fridge but maybe on the blog is better

reading no problemo

water play

Short Swim

 We are off for a night of Grandie sitting later today so there was time for a swim across the way.  The earlier the better this week for tide heights, however as I have found this year, a combination of surface floaties and low angled Sun does not make for the best illumination. There was some good fish action, with rays and a very large fish that I disturbed from it's rock groyne shelter.  They disappear quickly into the dark grass masses. Back on shore there is the running saga of the leftover shoes. I have been watching these for four days now. They look reasonably good shoes with socks still tucked in them.  There is one couple who are in the habit of doing exactly that, leave socks tucked into shoes and go submerge themselves completely clothed then put shoes back on and continue jogging.  Anyway she was there this morning and knew nothing about them.  I will give them another couple of days then in the bin.

absolute calm

Ultimate rubbish leavings

 We went across to the beach yesterday around 3ish after a good quota of PB work had been completed.  There was a boat load of party goers coming in and out on rides etc. It wasn't too bad as at least there were no jetskis involved. We had a pleasant two hours and left them to it.  Our cleaner was here this morning and in order to get out of her way I went across to the beach even though the tide was a bit low.  There were two ladies there who wanted to know all about the area, so after 15 minutes of being tour guide, I spied the huge box left by yesterdays boatload. The two ladies were appalled and wanted to take the box full, up to the top immediately. I talked them out of it while I walked to the other end and back.  They had just got to the top when I caught up to them with the box load of rubbish.  Now they know where I live. 

someone else's problem - eight bottles and cups plus half finished fish and chips

Short Beach Ride

 Took advantage of the sunshine to do a short ride along to the next beach area. This is the jetty road boat ramps and boat harbour. It got a huge upgrade in the last few years with extra boat ramps and a fishing pier to boot.  There was a lady on the high tops where I stopped my bike and she says "I have lived in Port Arlington all my life yet I have never been to this spot. Is that a retirement village just there?" I said "All of Clifton Springs is a retirement village."  Yesterday after all the PB work was ticked off we went across to our beach around 3:00pm.  This time we got to our rock seat to admire my handiwork of the morning clearing out some of the blade runner intrusions.  There are still more under there. 

see two distant grass shoots surfacing

old pier new pier

Grass Blade Runners

 Sounds like a film but these runners are invading our space on the beach so now I have had to resort to some beach gardening.  Before I got into that I walked the length of it checking for flotsam and the report today is a clean beach. I still got a few bits like butts, small plastics and what looked like hardened purple playdough but it was only a small haul. So I went back to the rock couch that we use a lot, to clear some bamboo like growth. These grasses send out a spear or blade tipped root that travels underground.  This is all very secret until a telltale vertical pops up sometimes four and five metres away.  Then you will start seeing a line of popups.  I got hold of one this morning and it was never ending. I got five metres of it out of the ground. They always lead back to the jungle growth at the back of the sand. My fingers only seem to be able to get one out per day. 

long long root

a telltale row

Golden Glow

 The Sun is moving back into sunset position but well before sunset we were getting this eerie glow as the cool change started to come in.  We did get some beach time but mostly just kept our cool indoors.  On the way back there was a tangle of netting and beach skirts as a few more tomatoes were picked before the critters got them.  The critters are most likely possums. At first we thought it was rats, so put out some inviting nibbles for them but those crafty possums just pooed in the box and covered up all the nibbles. The good thing about it was that they always went back to the same tomatoe they were chewing on the previous night.  Which meant we could still pick untouched tomatoes.

Murky Snork

 Not many of my tick boxes were checked this morning but I went across with the snorkel anyway.  It was warm being 25° at 8:00am but a Northerly was already pushing thru. It was around a 0.6 m tide so just enough water but five dogs were running madly right across where I wanted to go.  I waited 10 minutes and they moved to the other end.  I did not go far and it was only for 5 minutes as visibility was poor and I came face to face with a critter who wasn't budging. You would think with five dogs stirring things up everything would move out for a while.  I could only see a ridgeback type of body as the rest was hidden in growth.  Most times it works but I did get to cool off.

Genuine Hot Weather

 It has taken a while but you could describe this weather as hot. I am not sure if it is the done thing to go to a funeral in the morning and then go to beach in the afternoon but that is what we will do after a rest period.  Todays funeral was an upto date techno marvel, from complete live youtube transmission, to pre recorded video from the guest of honour, and also there is the instant online sympathy register by snapping the barcode on the back of the booklet.  We managed to get into the church along with the 200 immediate family members. Now that is a dynasty.

immediate family lining the route

10 year blogger

 It has been 10 years since I started doing these blog posts.  Four years of that time in Essendon and six years of it here.  It's hard to believe I have found something to say on a daily basis for the last few years and sometimes twice a day.  It has amounted to 3,361 short articles including this one.  I can spend an hour somedays or most likely 15 mins writing most of these.  If I was asked for a highlight it would most likely be one where I have included some video like the plovers at Lake Yambuk this month.  There are some online influencers that spend a lot more time than I do on this stuff but I still managed to get around 1,000 comments and 70,000 visits to the blog in those 10 years.  Now what can I write about tomorrow.

Ray Time

 It is overcast here with a cool breeze.  I thought it was warming up and had intended to try the swim this morning but it seems there will be time for a beach run instead so I will hangout for that. In the meantime there is still a short video I cut out the other day which shows the two banjo rays doing their thing.  Also played around with some sunset photos. When you click on them back and forward you can see where the object is and isn't, is and isn't.  No wonder fake photos are out there.

This version I edited. Who would know?

This one is the original

Kaia's No1

 Good weather makes for a good outdoor party. Daniel was on the road early to pick up all the essential supplies and also grab the only shelter that was available. The lady who also planned a children's party watched on as all the balloons were installed, the tables wrapped and the pinata cable tied.  She did have a table under shade so their party went parallel with ours.  If you want the main table, get there early, otherwise too slow so low too bad so sad. In the meantime amongst many running kiddies the pizza delivery man came with eight pizzas and by the time he came back with another eight pizzas the first lot had mostly been eaten.  Not a bad way to have a party, all the food, the guests and the mess are not at your house. We have a three year olds party coming up soon.  Kaia took it in well and Asher had more lollies than she could handle but its party time.

Never Truly Lost

 I have read this book before but if you are a bushwalker in Australia then this is essential reading.  Paddy Pallin is a legend of the outdoors and did everything from walking to swimming, canoeing, canyoning and skiing.  Then you can throw in the manufacture of outdoor equipment and setting up shops to sell it all. Some of the stories in here echo stuff that I have done. He tells one story of being the navigator and coming out of some tough jungle at precisely the spot he wanted and the rest of the party were suddenly surprised that they stumbled on this perfect exit. I remember doing the same in the dead of night finding our way out of a morass and exiting right where I wanted.  One guy was convinced we had fluked, that was the exact word used, we had fluked it.  I never went with him on a rogaine again.

Whiting

 Clouds have closed in here but before that I went early with the snorkel as the tides are suitable. Also had to prepare for the steamer and cleaner man.  I have moved everything I can off the carpeted areas.  The snorkel swimming is reduced to a smaller area but I am seeing more fish than ever. This time was a large school of whiting. The fish were smaller but there were a lot of them.  A couple of rays thrown into the mix as well.  The video is darker as the earlier Sun does not penetrate as well at this angle,as the overhead does. The lemons are are a hot item, a whole tray of 20 or so went to a good home yesterday, I think I will go grab some more right now while I think of it.

Sunsets are swinging back around again

lemon stall 

It's a good thing this only happens once per year

Database Update

Just spent two days getting my stamp database back online after some windows updates broke it.  The guy who developed the Microsoft Access database that I bought from  him, was at a loss.  We tried all types of repair and reconfiguration but in the end it no longer worked.  The underlying freebie software called Access Runtime 2003 is now out of date, although the Gates Guys didn't mention that. So after installing Access Runtime 2010 which is the next available, it all started working again.  Mind you at 14 yar old it is probably on the countdown to obsolescence as well.

Beach Ramble No758

I took the snorkel over early but there was a lot of disturbed floaties in the water after the wind the other day. I settled for scanning the sand for stuff,  up and back along the waterline.  The usual couple of bottles, rope pieces, butts and small plastics. The unusual one this time was a cage. It reminded me of the small cage that I saw once which used to house a cricket. You have to be an eccentric to have a pet cricket and Salvador Dali was certianly that. It was hanging in his beach house at Port Lligat in Spain.  It will take some hunting to find a photo. I do have this cage though.

not sure what this is for and seems slightly encrusted

found this photo from 14 yar ago

Lemon Wind

 We had a powerful wind hit us yesterday afternoon. The house next door lost some tiles off the roof and items from his deck.  Our deck got hit as well. Generally wedging the cushions and matresses behind the furniture is enough to hold stuff down.  This time everything got lifted off the floor.  I retrieved a matress from the front street and chased a pillow a hundred metres down the side street and it was travelling fast.  The glass on the deck had its rubber lining stripped out by the wind but after an hour I had everything back in place even if I was a bit wet, a lot wet.  Speaking of wet, I have caught up on some video from previous. There were six lemons on the ground so if the wind is knocking them down they must be ready so I picked 20 or so to put out the front.

dangling rubber

Go Zone

 We try to get a look at the wreck of the Ozone at least once per Summer and I think we missed out on this excursion last year.  It's in deep water but also quite close to shore so tides aren't too relevant.  A thick wad of grass and surface floaties came in day before yesterday. In previous years it has been murky. The clarity this time was the best I can remember despite the surface floaters.  You could see well down into the workings of the ship. The other attraction here are the pelicans. There is a guy who hires tinnies out for a bit of fishing and when they come back, he will gut them for the fishermen and feed the pelicans. They can see when a boat is coming in then start queuing up.  I have video but I am a day out of order again.

dark blue deep blue

shade circle

Debbie and friend

just cruising

Spirits & Whispers

 We could call it cruise day yesterday as big cruisers were coming passed us in all directions. At first it was the Silver Whisper which was heading into Geelong. These can't get into Cunningham Pier as the channel does not get that far.  It does for the Tassie Spirit boat on the otherside. Cruisers have to anchor further out, using tenders to get ashore. This one left Geelong around 9:00pm, so stayed for a day. We drove around to the Queenscliff beach to get out of the North wind. This opens up the whole vista of 'The Rip".  Last time it was the Queen Elizabeth, this time it was the Norwegian Spirit.  We also noted a new pilot boat in bright yellow not orange.  We are paying attention to cruisers at the moment as we are going to try a P&O ship in May.

Tommies

 I guess mainly because of the cool weather, the tomatoes were much later than previous. We are now getting some consistent warmth and the tomatoes are ripening.  There are nowhere near as many as previous and that was deliberate, as we only put in three plants and did not want to be swamped by jungle growth. We are getting a steady haul so far and they are going into everything we can think of.  Haven't tried making tomatoe juice as yet. Do you need a recipe for that? I have switched book styles after the monumental whodunnit that I just finshed and moved across to an autobiography that I got 2nd hand by Paddy Pallin. He is an English immigrant who took to bushwalking here and started a business making backpacks, tents and sleeping bags. We spent a lot of time and money in his store. I have only just started this book but at the beginning of his life here he tried farming and growing tomatoes.

"In a few weeks we were picking them by the bushel. We had them stewed, we had them fried, we had then raw, we even made tomatoe jam, but I still like tomatoes."

Yestrday's haul with strawberries in there and the last nectarine

Lethal White

 I have read the first three Whodunnit books by JK Rowling some yar ago and then watched those three made into a TV series.  The detective is ungainly with his one leg. He does not chase after too many crooks that's for sure.  It has taken me all Summer to get thru this particular one, all 776 pages of it. The storyline is complex, with many characters and comings and goings, as well as dead people whose actions in the past, affect the story in the present.  I daresay these have made it to TVland as well but I still have three more of these books to go, so I don't want to look for any TV versions as yet. It is a good read but I refuse to take notes while reading a novel, unlike these two investigators who write down everything in order to crack the case.

Eunice

 I had a good swim yesterday and had started a rubbish pickup when I spotted a wormy thing swimming in the water. This interrupted the rubbish walk so I went back to finish that today. In the meantime I looked up what this critter was and it's name is Eunice Aphroditois common name bobbit worm.  This must have been a baby as they can get to 1 metre long. You would run the other way if it was that big. It has sharp mandibles for a nasty bite as well as lots of small fins called parapodia.  

not my photo

The rubbish pickup was straight forward with not a lot on offer except I found a thong in a bush and a poo bag thoughtfully wrapped and left on an obvious rock. I have another video from yesterday featuring the two rays.

you can't have fotgotten you left it there!

Gone for a Float

 Originally I was going across just with my rubbish bag but I threw in the snorkel gear just in case. The water was clear, the tide was up but not high tide. There were floaties gathered in clumps but I worked my way around them.  It was deep enough so I made my way out passed the groyne.  The Youtube snorkellers that I have been watching say you can attract fish becuase they are curious. I decided to try waiting, just floating and not moving. Sure enough fish were appearing and lots of different types. One had a longish almost a spear for a body. There was a small snake like fish that eventually went into the sand. Also two rays that were happily snuffling the bottom while I hung nearby. Lastly was the jelly fish that was glowing with sunlight. There were plenty of plants highlighted by the Sun and I thought this was also a plant at first. All the inner workings of the jelly are on display. I guess the extra grass etc has forced a change from point to point swimming, to just moving slowly without travelling far and there seems to be more to see, as a result.

Ride Fitness

 Debbie had a software hiccough where she was unable to work this morning, as the IT guy in the UK turned off a switch he shouldn't have, so we went for a bike ride instead.  It feels so easy to ride these days with the legs better trained for it.  We only went 18km compared to the 60km the other day.  A good half way stop is the coffee van at Drysdale station. While there, I noticed the Q Train has completely moved shop to the new railyards at Drysdale. There are old train carriages being worked on in the yards and the long sheds have trains parked as well. 

coffee van

passing Tassie boat again

Q the carriages

3km run

 We have done the jog to the Dell and back again for a third time. At this rate we might get to make it a regular thing. I also got on the bike for a short ride into Drysdale and back. That is my first go since the cadel ride and the stiff Southerly wind I rode into was not helping.  Speaking of rides, SBS has started coverage of some OS riding like the Alula Tour, mainly because the Aussie team Jayco Alula are in it. We are back to the workaday Pure Bookkeeping online activities and maybe these will speed up as I see NBN optic cables being layed in our area.  I have a photo here of the Thomas Thomson which we saw going thru the Heads the other day. It is a research vessel hence all the attachments.

Snorkel Legs

 The swimming has taken a bit of a back seat lately even though the legs have been pumping on the bike, it is a different motion and muscle usage when trying to kick thru some water.  Our beach is not suitable for the groyne to groyne swim at the moment but I still went out at high tide as it occurs mid morning this week. I did see a huge snapper coming toward me out of the shadows but as soon as he spotted me he was off. Yesterday I tried something different, walking along the tops to the previous ramp down. This beach is non existant at high tide. There are mounds of sea grass to stand on but the water was so clear with large sandy tracts to follow. I have never gotten the snorkel out here but I swam towards our house until I was directly opposite. You can briefly see the house in the top left corner near a water spot.  I followed a ray for a while then made my way back. Swimming into a low Sun is tricky.  By now this beach, being a Sunday morning, had three dogs in the water, 10 kids in the water and someone doing stand up paddle for the first time who nearly ran over me.  

We have been invaded by these white moths. If they lay eggs this is going to be caterpillar city

Nectar of the Fruits

 We did some fruit picking yesterday with punnets of strawberries and tomatoes but the big ticket item was the picking of one nectarine.  There was another harder one that fell on the ground so we have that one on the window sill.  We have a new approach to eating strawberries which is not to put them in the fridge but to leave them at room tempearture and to have eaten them by the end of the day.  You can tell the difference between what's grown out the back and bought in the shop. The neighbour cut down his nectarine tree as he said it was too messy. We ate a number of those fruits before the chop and I can report that this first single nectarine was just as good.

Fit Levels

 The bike fitness that came in the last month or six weeks was hard earned and not to be given back too quickly.  So we are going to try and maintain some of it, although we have not been for a ride as yet, since the Cadel Ride. Last week it was restuarants and lots of drinks so we are already behind. Today I went for the swim even though the water has much suspended grass in it.  I did spy some good fish including a large snapper. The fishing boats are out in droves so there is good amounts of fish out there.  We went back again for a jog/slog. This was a 3 km effort to the top of the Dell and back.  The temperatures are warming up so most likely I will be back there for the third time later today.  

From the top of the Dell.
The artificial reef is opposite the raised boardwalk

YHA

 The Youth Hostels Association is still going strong as you can often spot the signage as you are moving around.  We were heading back into town and passed the local YHA in Port Fairy which stirred some memory bank thread.  I took a quick photo but moved onto catchup.  I dug some stuff out of the archives this morning which proves a long history of visiting Port Fairy. This stamp was acknowledged in 1982.  Most of our YHA usage was in the 1970's so this is likely one of the last times we used the YHA and for two nights on the 30/31st Jan.  Debbie is under the limit of 26yrs with some kind of Bob haircut while I look fairly suave in an unkempt criminal mugshot type of way.

YHA Accommodation

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