The statistics confirm it. Summer ended yesterday (for the newspapers, anyway), and this one has been the wettest summer for sixteen years, and the coldest for eight. We had a 24-hour thunderstorm with lightning on Tuesday. The long-term outlook for autumn is looking similar. Not pleased. So I thought a summer picture should accompany this entry.
By an amazing coincidence I was asked yesterday whether the rain had stopped. I said 'yes'. It has been warm and sunny for several days. Today it was so hot I got sunburn. So we took a nice, pleasant ferry ride to the pub. When we left a bit later it started to spit, typically just while we were walking back to the ferry stage. Then the heavens opened. We gave in and finally bought an umbrella. By the time we reached Circular Quay, and the waiting ferry, this was the view through the ferry's front windows. Not a single person was sitting outside, for some reason.
The Opera House, barely visible through the rain.
The Harbour Bridge, almost invisible.
Having seen the new Queen Victoria leave yesterday, today the old QE 2 left Sydney to start her last voyage, accompanied by no less than four tugs.
We were watching from Cremorne Point as she emerged from behind Kirribilli, sandwiched between Sydney's two landmarks and preceded by a fire boat using its water fountains to best effect.
There she goes, past Cremorne Point and towards the Heads.
The Queen Elizabeth II came in this morning, again at 6:30am, though did not sound her horn sufficiently insistently for us to fully wake up in time. So we didn't see her come in (though we did see the wake of smaller boats following her). She was moored near Fort Dennison all day.
Later, she moved towards Circular Quay, just visible past our window, making room for the exit of her successor.
This is the Queen Victoria leaving, accompanied by an incredible number of smaller boats and lots of helicopters. We've never seen the harbour this full.
Tonight we were woken by a monster storm about 3am. The howling gale prevented us from going back to sleep again, which was just as well because at 6:30am, while we were dozing lazily hoping to be able to get to sleep at some point, the brand-new Queen Victoria cruise ship announced its arrival in Sydney with huge sirens, just to make sure that everybody was awake. So we brought out the long lens and managed to get this very excellent shot.
Since we had the SLR out anyway I took this shot of the CBD at dawn as well. Then we went back to sleep.
This was taken at dusk. The birds get very active in the early afternoon, making one hell of a racket. They look cute though.
It turns out that a successful visa skills assessment entitles one to membership in the Australian Computer Society, for a certain annual fee, of course. Since this is quite a considerable professional achievement I forked out the extra cash and am now allowed to put the letters MACS (Member of the Australian Computer Society) after my name. Pleased. The accompanying shot of an interesting flower has nothing to do with the subject of this entry; it was just a handy photograph of some artistic value, worthy of being exhibited here. I thought.
On a nice day, taking a ferry to somewhere around the harbour is good entertainment and practically free (with a travelpass). The trip to Watson's Bay is the longest available within the central zone, 30 mins each way. This time, skiffs were racing just off Rose Bay, providing excellent photo opportunities.
This skiff was approaching Garden Island at high speed and given the wind only just made it around without a capsize. It's a very tippy boat.
Just off Watsons Bay, this tiny trimaran was making its way into the great big harbour. It's the smallest Hobie I've ever seen. Looked very cute.
On shore, this flower was begging to be photographed.
Some noise startled these bats so they all took flight at the same time, screeching madly.
I already have a compact digital camera. It has served me well for two years, and has probably been used more than most other cameras over many more years, and given lots of joy. A considerable part of its accomplishments have been showcased in this blog. However, it had started to become very unreliable on booting, to the extent that I lost some shots I'd have liked to have. Enter, a new camera. This one. A Canon Digital Ixus 70. Shiny.
Having got a new camera, obviously it needed to be tried out. These kookaburras in front of our balcony made a lovely composition to try out the zoom features.
That done we took it for a spin on the ferry. Very carefully, since Sydney Ferries has notices put up everywhere, declining responsibility for damaged items (or, indeed, passengers) as a result of travelling on an open deck area. This is a fairly obvious shot of the Harbour Bridge. Rather moody in the dusk, I thought.
This is a less obvious shot, of just the top of the bridge. Impressive optical zoom for such a small camera.
This is part of the CBD seen from a ferry just about to arrive at Darling Harbour. The reflections are lovely, and the colours superb. Pleased I am.
It's a very wet summer. It seems to be perfectly possible here for it to be raining heavily, solidly, for five days in a row. In what is meant to be the hottest month of the year, wildlife in front of our balcony continues to seek shelter from the rain in the Jacaranda tree. This aptly-named rainbow lorikeet tried to get his feathers dry. Some chance.
One does get the occasional half-day without rain, in which case the temperature goes from cold to burning hot with no intermediate stages. The Botanical Gardens look lovely (no wonder, everything has had a lot of rain!). As it happened to be sunny at the time, this sundial actually managed to show the time we were there -- 11:20am (add an hour for summer time, which the sundial doesn't know about).
An ibis, caught while flapping its wings (trying to get them dry, no doubt).
We found an enormous spider web in a tree, just at head height. This was shot with a manual focus as the autofocus considered the tree branches in the distance to be the much more likely target of the picture. No doubt the spider is poisonous. In Australia, statistically speaking all spiders are poisonous to the first order of approximation.
On the main lake, somebody had built intricate little bark boats and set them afloat. I thought they were enchanting.
The Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, peeking over the bright-red flowers. In case someone is wondering, the flowers are deliberately out-of-focus. It's Art.
Talking of Art, allow me to introduce Ella. This amazing figure appeared a few days ago on the lawn between Circular Quay and The Rocks. It is made entirely of peaches and is meant to symbolise something about feeling great with good skin. Or something. Considering the building material I suspect the figure has a limited life-expectancy. Very eye-catching, though.
Remember Melbourne last year? It was so dry that I took a photograph of a flower, purely because I hadn't seen one in months. Sydney, on the other hand, is lush and green; as green a city as I've ever seen. The downside of that is it rains a lot. It has been raining for 48 hours, more or less without interruption, and is forecast to rain for another three to four days. At least it's still warm. This slightly soggy kookaburra tried to find some shelter on the Jacaranda tree directly outside our balcony.
In-between the showers, yacht races continue. This huge yacht (an Open 60, maybe?) wasn't actually racing but cut through the rest without any difficulty. Even the ferry had to wait.
Broadband! Finally. It is simply not possible to live without broadband.
Oh, and we have enrolled in Medicare, too.
In case anyone is wondering, today's picture is that of a water lily from the Botanical Gardens. It's pretty. And the watery theme emphasises the weather today; it has been raining heavily, non-stop, for 24 hours. Had an impressive thunderstorm too last night.
