1st February 2005.

I don’t know where this is. I reckon it could be near Tarra Bulga National Park in the Strzelecki Ranges. Ella and I used to walk here often on the way home from work.

I’m sitting here, eating dinner. Odd shaped pieces of toasted apricot loaf with mashed banana. The odd shapes are because the pieces that had bits of apricot in them are missing. I eat the tops off fruit cakes or the apricot pieces out of a fruit loaf. My idiosyncrasies run unchecked, because there is rarely anyone here to point them out to me. Chook, napping on the lounge room floor couldn’t care less.

I’ve been talking to a friend. She has lived alone for a while, and is concerned that she can’t live with anyone. I was thinking “yes, I can see how that could happen”

Popularity: 22% [?]

24th February 2005, somewhere in the Sale wetlands.

I’m time stressed. I know some people would laugh. My big job for tonight has been to do the dishes - about three days worth. Which still isn’t much - I’m a minimalist in the kitchen.

I’ve been researching cameras, digital slr cameras and lenses. If I had a spare $4,000 I’d be really happy.

There’s lots of things I should be doing: income tax return, putting stuff away, house work, maintenance on my car and bikes, emailing some friends, sending the camera that my sister left behind (about two months ago now).

Popularity: 24% [?]

24th February 2005, somewhere on the Gippsland Lakes.

Last night I was in a mental vacuum, veging out literally. Just standing or sitting like a zombie. I wasn’t happy.

TV was on, abc 1 or 2. And this dude started invading my consciousness. Tom Moore I think. He is a glass artist. Living in his own imaginary world, with his wife and partner who encourages him.

I started smiling again.

And then, later on, I was emailing a friend, talking about the highlight of my day, which, as often, was the bike ride to work and back.

The road to work has been recently graded. Inches of loose dirt on top. People are running off the road and sliding out sideways. It is comical to see the tracks wildly criss crossing the road, where people have lost control. It is like riding on ice. I have been used to it being hard dirt, with a bit of gravel on top. Really quite grippy. All of a sudden, both wheels of the bike are sliding and wobbling all over the place. I have to keep relaxing my upper body, trying to let go. That’s when things come together. Let the bike go, don’t try to hold it. It is a great exercise. One I can relate to with life in general.

Whenever I come off a sealed road onto dirt I just try and loosen my upper body, then push the bike down both sides a bit, to get into the attitude for riding corners on dirt. It’s totally different to riding on the road. For me it is a real mental thing.

Sealed road is just as exciting. Leaning forward and off the side of the bike into corners. Relaxing my inside arm. Feathering the power and my balance, according to the corner. Pushing till the tyres slide a bit. Watching forward, ahead through the corner. Throwing my weight from one side to the other through a series of S’s.

I love it. It is my meditation.

And timing an overtake through tight corners. Exquisite. It’s over in a flash.

Anyway, just recalling my ride, was enough to make me start feeling good again. I am lucky, to have these little adventures, and this life.

Popularity: 21% [?]

28th February 2005

This is at public tennis courts in Traralgon. It is a nice walk to get there through park land.

I didn’t really like this photo, but it has grown on me. I suppose because of the memory, and the summer evening. I love those memories of evenings out, being comfortable in shorts, shirt and bare feet.

For a while, I was really interested in tennis. I used to go out and practice alone; well Ella was with me. But some evenings, Joh and some of her friends would come and we’d play some games.

Pictured sitting and talking after some play are Joh, one of her best friends Rhonda, and Joh’s daughter Ashleigh.

Rhonda is the sort of person you don’t make fun of.

Unless she is far far away.

Like she is now (insert smile).

Rhonda is small, fiery (fiery as in highly volatile) and a red head.

Ashleigh is probably the most mature, balanced, and responsible of the three. Well, she is hands down (big laugh).  She is also great to be around and very entertaining.

Popularity: 19% [?]

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: 17% [?]

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% [?]