Fractal Blog

I've got a new character in World of Warcraft: A Draenei shaman called Acuity. She's already level 14. Here she is on an Elekk. The pompous guy with his back to the camera is My Other Half in the game, a Draenei mage called Illucid. He lost his Elekk while taking it out of the given area. (Acuity lost hers while trying to shoot a monster while mounted.) Never mind, we'll both get our own Elekks when we're level 40. On we go.

In other news, my iMac G5, no longer needed since the purchase of my MacBook Pro, has found a good home with a mate. Still, there is a Mac-shaped hole on my desk now.

Against my better judgement I was persuaded to come along for a bicycle ride despite the freezing cold weather. All right, 18 degrees and windy with the sun occasionally peeking through the clouds. That practically qualifies as winter; first bicycle ride with long trousers and a sweather. I caught this Pacific Gull at the mouth of the Yarra, just as it was taking off to find some normal-sized sea gulls to scare.

A view of the city from Westgate Park. The recent rains have left everything lush and green.

Despite the amount of rain, water levels are far from recovered. This island in Westgate Park is meant to be surrounded by water but there are still only a few puddles as yet.

Autumn here is really nice -- we had another warm, sunny day with temperatures in the low twenties. This weather in the UK in November would be unthinkable. I'd overdone it a bit yesterday on the cycling front, so while the Obsessive Cyclist threw his bike in the car again, I just took my camera, and off we went to Lysterfield Park again. Yes, there are other parks in this state but this is by far the nicest we've found. I walked on foot until I found the rock garden depicted here. At least I think this haphazard collection of rocks was what they had in mind when putting the label"rock garden" on my map.

Nil desperandum, I found myself a dead log (in Australia, never sit down on the ground; the country is full of poisonous spiders, snakes etc) and read a book for a while. This kookaburra was the reason why I felt something was watching me.

After a while I proceeded towards the top of Hug Trail, having vague thoughts of maybe finding some kangaroos there. I never got as far as the Hug Trail, since on my way there I found these! A walker had startled them by walking directly towards them.

Caught this adult kangaroo in mid-jump.

I saw several more females with half-grown joeys in their pouches, some of them in positions that shouldn't be possible and certainly couldn't be comfortable (e.g. head and one hind leg sticking out). And this one proved that having a baby needn't hold you back.

It being another beautiful day we did the Capital City Trail again, admiring the autumn colours.

This tiny yellow bird behaved much like a kingfisher in the UK, flying so fast that it's little more than a flash of colour, dipping into the water and taking off again immediately. This was a lucky shot, especially considering that it was taken with my little camera.

More wildlife. A heron, surveying its surroundings.

Tonight's blood-red sunset.

The weather forecast for today was terrible, much as it was yesterday. However, unlike yesterday they got it completely wrong: we had a beautiful summer day, sunny and warm. Since Lysterfield Park was full of kangaroos yesterday I wanted to see some too (only not in the rain), so we went out again, this time parking in the car park next to the Competition Trail. For some of us it was the second time in two days.

Track 10 is the competition trail. The mountain bike event of last year's Commonwealth Games was held on this very track. I rode 2kms of it, very slowly. Actually, I rode a 1km loop twice. After the second loop we turned right at this junction, down the Red Gum Trail (Track 5), down Middle Trail, bit of double track, then up Hug Trail back to the car park. Huge climb!

Then, right at the top of Hug Trail, 100m from the car park, kangaroos! Lots of them. These two were having a cuddle. I fetched my long lens from the car, and settled down for a photoshoot. Others preferred to do the entire competition track, twice, before some more single track.

This almost-grown joey still wanted to suckle, and did so for a considerable amount of time. Finally, mummy decided enough was enough and bounded away with a single jump.

This kangaroo had a baby still in its pouch. Baby was nibbling grass already though. I expect it will get evicted soon.