Orchid Hunter

 We have been ever expanding our exploration out of Geelong. The other day at Inverleigh we saw they had a large Fauna and Flora reserve and figured we would come back during wild flower season which is now. We had targeted 8 species of orchid to find so I plotted a path thru the bush that I figured would give us a good chance.  We spotted at least 6 possibly 7 of these flowerss. The final one or two are the larger spider types of orchid up to 5cm across.  We did not find these as they are rare but the others which we did find are miniature. We were literally on hands and knees to get a closer look.  It was more parkland than hard bush although some parts were scrubby and prickly.  It was around 3kms of walking, 1.5km in the bush and 1.5km on the tracks and we took 2 hrs. I might put up some photos tomorrow when I work out the names.

Bent Gooenia

Running Postman

?? orchid

HG Wells

 Finally finished off the last couple of stories by Herbert George Wells in the heavy brick of a book I have been carrying around for the last month or so. The Island of Doctor Moreau is the weird story of the group where the mad scientist is experimenting on animals so that he can make them into humans.  In all of these books someone always survives to tell us the story.  Except in the case of The Time Machine where the hero disappeared in Time.  I can remember just about every scene in the 1960s film and as normal, parts of it deviate a lot from the book.  I think Rod Taylor being an Aussie actor got me more interested.  This one has also been redone numerous times. Guy Pearce did the time travelling in the 2002 remake. I don't think I ever saw this one.  HG Wells is the first one to ever link the words time and travel. I think Apple should be taken to court when they called one of their hard drives "The Time Machine".

and only 70 pages long

Cauli Caper

 For some reason the cauliflowers are flowering in Spring, five months after they were planted.  There were two locations used for caulis, the Shaded spot and the Sunny spot.  The sunny spot has proven to be the late bloomer with a number of cauliflowers going big.  Debbie put in 5 hours of PB work this morning on a Sunday so we had to get out for some air by doing a short 16km bicycle circuit of Drysdale. The station paddock upgrade now has some painted linework on the ground and if I am interpreting it right, it seems the bike track will be squeezed over to allow for some new switching points to be installed as there are going to be numerous trains using the yard and staying over night.

benched cauli

netted cauli

What time is it?

 We have been confused all day about the time. Debbie's phone started the day with the wrong time and it took hours to catch up after an upgrade. We got in the car later and it went to eastern summer time a day early. But we were not confused over which beach to go to today. After yesterdays seagrass we went across to the RAFF's beach where a Northerly wind on a South facing beach works well. Especially if you are after surf.  The breaks stand up more into the wind and also slow them down a tad. Ideal conditions for the average surfer and there were plenty of them.  The water is colder on the ocean beach compared to ours but you get used to it. 

Barwon Head in the background

potential jigsaw puzzle 

Proper Beach Day

 Except for the sea grass.  There is still a lot of it like a black soup so I  wont add any photos.   I haven't tried my beach cart yet as we were not planning on staying too long or bringing much with us. We did put up the umbrella but the Sun is not so hot at the moment. Debbie retrieved a flipper from among the morass which we carried back up to the bin.  Other than that we did not get in the water. Our new neighbour was there and he reckons he could bring his tractor down and scrape the beach clean.  Three of our neighbours have a farm somewhere else.

I wasn't going to show this goo

Genghis Cairn

games gardens & gears

 It was a big midweek couple of days and we have definitely needed our afternoon nap today.  The mud guards came into good use on the wet rail trail.  I have given the bikes a spray to get most of the gunk off. My new birthday bike clothes needed washing as well. They have had a proper initiation.  While we were away, the Japanese maple has sprung into life. Some months back there was a risky uprooting of it from the garden bed and into a large pot. But the operation has worked and now it has a more shaded location. I also constructed my large tower of four x twos. If you have some left over building materials sell them as a game. I have not yet tried to knock it down though. 

knock a block off

gone potty

bikes with tail feathers

Bric a Brac Coffee & Climbing

 We drove out of town to the Mt Leura park summit and did the 2km circuit walk before breakfast at the Lake Edge Cafe.  You can do longer walks form the bottom but the Big Breakfast  beckoned.  This cafe is uniquely positioned next to Lake Purrumbete and is the 4th or 5th lake we have visited in two days. It is a former school building that they trucked into position by the lake. And a very tasty breakfast as well. Back in town we checked out the antiques yards. Most of them are only open at the weekend.  On the drive back we stopped numerous times to check out the canola fields, whole buildings were being submerged in canola. 

Hola Canola

old windmills new windmills

Grand Central

SugarLoaf

Mt Leura summit

some large brac

a lot of bric