4th November 2004, my garden in Sale, Victoria.

Joh has met this guy, Durwood, and has known him for three weeks. I’m talking on the phone to her right now. she’s doing a lot of swearing.

At me.

Already, she has changed all her plans for Durwood. But, she is really happy. And Tom and all his friends like Durwood too, which is pretty impressive.

Joh’s family and Joh’s best friends like him.

Everybody likes him, and they all think Joh has never been happier.

Joh and Durwood have been spending all their spare time together – they live one or two minutes apart.  They can’t get enough of each other’s company.

I’m laughing. I was kind of making fun of her while we were on the phone, but I am really happy for her

Popularity: 26% [?]

15th January 2005

We used to take a back road home between Woodside and somewhere not far out of Longford. It is a beautiful little single lane road that meanders through lots of corners, dips and rises.

Sometimes we’d leave the car on the side of the road and head off through the bush for few kilometres to the beach. We always had it to ourselves. No people, no houses, no people footprints. Just us, the wallabies, pacific gulls, and occasionally a solitary seal tired and resting.

We used to give the seals lots of space so that they could relax -Ella was considerate like that.

Often a pacific gull, especially the juvenile grey ones, would hover along with us, just a one or two metres away. I think they, like dolphins, enjoyed the company

We could walk for hours. It was usually windy and cold.

Popularity: 22% [?]

24th February 2005.

This is from wetlands on the outskirts of Sale.

I wasn’t going to post tonight; I’ve got home late and have to wake up early (0340) in the morning. But, I thought of a good name for this picture, and couldn’t resist.

I don’t think this is a particularly great picture. I have been spoilt with sunsets and sun rises. I think I’ve seen them as good as they get.

When I lived in Sale, I was often out with Ella in the evening. Nearly always, we would be walking back through the bush, or riding this insane little bike, with Ella sitting in the front, in the dark. It is one of the reasons I bought a white car – because they are easier to see in the dark.

We got to see lots of magnificent sun sets. Not so many sun rises – Ella didn’t like to get up too early.

I love summer evenings.

Popularity: 19% [?]

23rd February 2005.

Aye aye aye (nervously wrings hands together); I’m not going to tell you why this moon and sky look so weird. I’ve depressed myself enough already.

It was a happy time though. Coming out from the Avon River about ten km from Stratford – everyone with a classic education probably thinks I’m joking now.

It was a beautiful summer evening. I’d been practising rolls with the Victorian Sea Kayak club. The Avon River has sandy beaches and beautiful warm pools. And I was with great people.

Popularity: 23% [?]

24th February 2005.

Another Gippsland wetland shot. The birdlife is prolific in the wetlands, but I didn’t see that many spoonbills. Ibis, their relatives, are everywhere; at the tip, picking through paddocks after rain, and great V formations of them travelling through the sky.

Spoonbills are majestic, whether they are flying, or walking through shallow water.

The haze is from bushfires. Smoke filled air with a strange coke coloured light for months on end is becoming a seasonal occurrence. Athsma, a common symptom of the nearby coal fired powerstations, is now an even greater problem. The wetlands have been diminishing in size and duration. It really is grim.

It is also a terrible present, and future, for wildlife.

Popularity: 18% [?]

1st February 2005, the Strezlecki Range.

I remember this picture, it is one of the few times I stopped to take a photo on the way home from work.

Whenever I could, I would ride one of my bikes to work. If it was a monday morning, I could ride through the bush for over 50km, and appear across the road from my first school for the day.

On the way home, if it was summer and long days, I would explore and try to find new tracks. I could go in any direction, but generally head North. If I got down to about one and a half hours of daylight left, and I was still south of the range, I would head North. Once I hit the Grand Ridge road, which runs pretty much east west along the top of the range, I knew all the tracks running off it toward home.

I really appreciated the freedom and adventure of these rides. River crossings, steep climbs and steep drops. I often came to grief struggling up or down a track, having to pick up the bike time after time.

My track memory became really good. After finding a new route home, that might use up to ten or so different tracks, I could generally follow the same route again.

Popularity: 20% [?]

30th January 2005, Gippsland.

This is the intersection of East Tanjil Road and the magic road. I’ve tried going both ways lots of different times, even during the day. 

I always ended up in Morwell.

Luckily, there is a way out of Morwell that doesn’t bring you back.

Popularity: 17% [?]

22nd February 2005.

This is a wetland not far out of Sale, in Gippsland Victoria.

I really enjoyed my time in Gippsland. Ella and I had lots of adventure there.

Sale was surrounded by wetlands. From September till up to March or so, but in more recent years, not long at all.

Tortoises crossing the road heralded the arrival of the swamps. If the road was busy, I would take them in the car, and put them in the water at the next river crossing. Once I carried one in my day pack on the mountain bike; I could feel it trying to climb up my back.

We would walk for hours through ankle or knee deep water. Ella was never too keen on this.

Sometimes we’d see huge carp in the middle of paddocks, with their backs exposed because the water was shallow.

Popularity: 18% [?]

24th February 2005, and 12th January 2005.

I see these pictures of Ella, and I know her.
I remember her.
Not the memories of what she did, but of who she was; her presence.
Of what it was like to have her around.

As though she is here, now.

Popularity: 19% [?]

9th February 2002, Sale, Gippsland. 

Saffy, the one nearest the camera, used to stay over when Kathy was working or playing. Ella (aka ”the weasle”) used to stay at Saffy’s when I was working or playing.

They had a strange relationship – Ella always chasing Saffy. Saffy was a social girl, Ella was discerning, and other than Saffy, didn’t associate with dogs. Saffy taught Ella to jump things, and use her sense of smell, which came in handy when I used to hide from her on walks. Ella taught Saffy road manners; not to cross the road until I was with them, not to walk in front of me, to stop when I stop, stuff like that. I could ride my mountain bike with them, fast, stop so hard that the rear wheel would lift off the ground, and they would stop with me.

Ella had a sense of humour. If I was riding on the road, she had to run along the footpath. One of her favourite tricks was what I called the flyby. If there were people ahead of her on the footpath, she would pick up speed and zoom past them, usually brushing their legs. I used to wince, seeing innocent old ladies throwing up their arms in fright, or kids yelling out in surprise then laughing. It was really funny if we were in town, where there were lots of people on the paths along the shopping strip. I would be riding down the road with parked cars between me and her on the footpath. She would keep up, catching glimpses of me between the parked cars. I would see the reactions of all the people as she ran through their legs, with purpose. It was kind of like a Mexican wave moving down the shopping strip.

The above shot is of them sitting on a huge median strip, at night time, with a car driving by. It is blurred because of a slow shutter speed. I used a canon two megapixel point and shoot; I still use a more recent offering of the same model.

(c) Andrew Calder

Popularity: 16% [?]