Doing a house sit (farm sit 😀 ) to mind some lovely animals while the owner was away. (click on photo’s for larger view)

Beautiful Amigo. (He has a cancer on his face) I did a healing on him and before I knew it the healing went both ways 😀
A Morning Walk
(Some sunshine for a friend who is still coming through a winter wonderland 🙂 ))
And I must apologise for these photo’s, they were taken with a damage spot on the inside the lens. My new camera is still but a dream. But one day!
(Click on for larger view and slide)
- Morning Walk
- The bridge
- Early birds fishing
- Boatsheds
- At the back of the main street
- Going under the bridge
- Coming out towards the lakes ocean entrance
- Along the jetties
- My runabouts 🙂
- Ok, I’ve got 5 runabouts 🙂
- And a houseboat 🙂
- Locals preening after a feed from the fishermen as they clean their catch
- The bridge
- Looking across the channel
- Out the channel to sea
- The rockpool along the breakwall
- Town Beach from the rockwall
- Another Town Beach shot from the end of the rockwall
- Back down the rockwall
- Across the channel to beaches that go forever
- One of the local fishermen coming back in
- At the end of the rockwall looking out to the deep blue sea
- A warning shot to get my backside off the end of the rockwall before I get washed off 🙂

Me and the girls. Dixie (mum), Bonnie (foal), and my daughter hiding over the back. (taken with a very old C26 Kodak Camera, then I took a photo of the photo 🙂 )
(Click on for larger view)
- Old School house and teachers residence.
(A wander around the Central & Mid North Coast, NSW, Australia)
And I must apologise as all photo’s were taken with my mobile phone
(click on a photo and a slide view will come up to view at larger sizes)
- View from the front pew of the open air Green Cathedral
- All the pews have this view out over the lake
- Roof of the cathedral
- The back of the church and the trail leading in
- Forster town beach
- Forster southern breakwall
- Pebbly Beach
- The Tanks swimming spot
- Another of those pesky whales 🙂 Amazing how the camera only catches the splash and no whale
- Nobby’s Beach Newcastle
- Newcastle main beach
- Front of Newcastle Ocean baths
- King Edward Park (Rally driving area) Oh, and you can picnic there too!
- In the picnic area King Edward Park
- Looking over the cliffs from King Edward Park (notice the boulders on the road. They had to close it due to unsafe conditions 🙂 )
- Newcastle beach from the southern end
- Newcastle business district from King Edward Park (Stockton beach in the background, 20 miles long)
- Got lost in the Elephant Shop (Crystals everywhere)
- More crystals
- And more
- A few pieces of Amethyst
- And an Amethyst cave or two
- And Citrine caves and pieces too
- And other pieces
- A Amethyst guardian at the door (close to 6 feet)
- And a fossil or two
- A very large Emperor Gum Moth (6 inches) My mobile phone takes better macro’s than normal pic’s (this one is for Tracie Louise 🙂 ) Yes I know, it didn’t fit in and half is blurry 🙂
- End of a long day, my mate likes to originalise his coffee’s when he makes them
(Port Macquarie – Laurieton)
(click on a photo and a slide view will come up to view at larger sizes)
- Map of Australia
- Map of New South Wales
- North Haven inlet to lakes
- Hazy due to bushfires in the area
- Views forever
- Hang Gliding preparations
- Feel like your already gliding
- Hang Gliding from North Brother Mt.
- Hang Glider
- Hang Glider
- Main Beach
- Main Beach
- Hastings River Entrance
- Tacking Point Lighthouse
- Quiet Spot
- Town Green (Old Royal Hotel)
- Inside Hastings River Entrance
- Water craft off Main Beach
- Lighthouse Beach
- Sorry, just as I was about to snap this lovely calm sea shot…a whale jumped out of the water and ruined it! 🙂
- Another one of those pesky whales (so far out I could barely see it)
- Tacking Point Lighthouse
- Tacking Point Lighthouse
- Lighthouse Beach
- Shelley Beach
- Oxley Beach
- Main Beach
Fires on the Eastern side of New South Wales, Australia
These pictures below are from local residents, fire fighters and news camera operators during the fires yesterday and today (17 – 18/10/13). These were from the Blue Mountain fires west of Sydney. There has been approximately over 100 Homes lost in the fires but that number is expected to go a lot higher, but so far, thankfully, no deaths which in itself is great considering the size and speed of the fires and can also be very much attributed to the incredible Fire Fighters who risk life and limb to ensure the safety of our communities. Currently there are 90 fires along the eastern parts of New South Wales. Of these 25 are uncontrolled because of the heatwave conditions, wind and inaccessibility of the fires.
(click on a photo and a slide view will come up to view at larger sizes)
- Bushfire smoke over Sydney. People in the suburbs had ash dropping onto them from the fires.
- At the firefront
- A little fireball 50-60ft?
- The smoke is just as dangerous
- From a distance to give an idea of the size of the fire
- Fireball coming down into the valley
- Homes lost to the fire
- Losing more homes to the fires
- Fire at Abermain near Cessnock
- Fire fighters tackling it from the road
- Losing a truck to the fire
- Wall of fire
- Jumping the road
- These guys and girls are incredible
- The line
- Into the night at Williamtown above Newcastle
- And the fire goes on
- More fireballs
- These fire fighters never stop
- It’s like a hell on Earth
- Homes lost to the fires
- Fire fighters battling the blaze
I enjoyed looking at all your photos.
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Thank you Cheryl. They are a wander all around my area. Plus the fires, they were a bit crazy here a while back. Thankfully this summer has been much quieter 🙂
I hope you had a lovely Christmas and Santa was a very generous man. Have a happy New Year, may it be one from the heart 😀
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Lovely photos. Tacking Point Lighthouse is wonderful.. Thank you.
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Thank you JoHanna, it is a wonderful area to shoot in. Now if I can just get that Canon D70 I’ve been eyeing off to take some a bit better 🙂
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i love your blog, The Fires so sad, i live in California, we had them to, My butterflies and birds are back. Your beaches pictures are beautiful ..your words are wonderful, healing of the heart..I always have a hard time finding the place for comments..hehe..
great blog
Sherri
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Thank you for your lovely comments Sherri. The fires are one of those things in nature, it may destroy but it allows a rebirth that is lovely to see. Even the animals lose the old and weak which enhances their species. Not good to watch but in the long run, needed. I would think your beautiful California would have a similar process. Australia is a place of extremes, but in that is some of the most lovely things and places. And thank you for your kind words, you found the right place to put them, as they are now accepted within. Thank you for sharing them. Namaste
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Loving your pics! Green Cathedral – open air services there? I might have to steal the gallery idea – there are quite a few expats reading my blog and local pics might be a good trip down memory lane for them. Now if I can Just figure out how to set it up………
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The place is absolutely magic. They have services, weddings etc. And the view from all the seating looks out over the lake with the black swans and sailing boats and it is just beautiful. The entire area is encased in a forest of palm tree’s with a few gum and paper bark tree’s thrown in. The only drawback to the entire thing is…the poor priest watches the flock…of people, with his back to the lovely view. But I suppose that is a small price to be able to see those faces listening raptly to his every word…and not the view 🙂 Gallery is easy, just click here, http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/gallery/ and it gives the instructions on how to create one. Don’t worry if you make a few mistakes…I did several times and it wobbled a bit. No one can see it till you finish and ‘publish’ the page anyway. So take your time and enjoy the experience. Have fun! 🙂 Namaste
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wow thats my idea of church! as to gallery will def give it a whirl, thanks, again
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My pleasure! It is a beautiful place. Every couple of weeks I go down and meditate there for a while. Magic! Have fun with the gallery, its good when it goes up and you can see your handy work 🙂
P.S. I even had mistakes after I put it up, just take your time, go back into edit mode and correct it from there 🙂
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Your collection of photos are wonderful and some very dramatic, those bush fires must be very traumatic both for Humans and animals alike… I hope you get some rain soon… If you ever need a field full, we in the UK will be only too pleased to send you a million or two gallons 🙂
Namaste.. Sue
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Thank you Sue. It always seems to be the way, one extreme to the next over here. Bushfire’s, followed by drought. The farmers are removing all their animals because there is no grass. The drought is affecting a big range of areas now. And you wouldn’t believe it, we has thunderstorms last night in some areas so hopefully it will alleviate the conditions in some places. They have undersea pipes for their black gold (oil), and water is becoming that way too, so I don’t see why they can’t pump a few billion gallons out of your fields to us. Do us both a favour 🙂 Thank you for the wishes, take care. Namaste. Mark
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Yes its Crazy.. I am reminded of this Quote Mark..
When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
~ Cree Prophecy ~
I thinks we will all need to hold onto our hats in 2014.. as we see things alter around our globe at even faster paces..
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Yes, it does feel different. Like a convergence, a peak of some kind. I hope we are strong enough to see it through. Thank you for sharing that prophecy Sue, but I hope it never reaches that point. Namaste
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We just have to keep the optimism going Mark and understand that Change happens all the while, and in order to bring about the ‘New Dawn’ we have to let go of the old and that will be the materialistic world we are seeing now pulled down with Nature.. And Mans Greed.. There are many more positive people out there than we get to hear about the negative ones.. So we just have to keep going One Day and One thought at a time.. 😉
Enjoy your weekend..
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Thank you Sue, a voice in the wilderness I gladly hear! Have a good weekend too. Namaste
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The fire is destructive but it is also beautiful.
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Yes, it is a very destructive force, but like all things, there is a beauty to it as well. The areas around me that were stripped by the fires are now green with new growth, the animals are returning and it is more beautiful than it was before. The bush fire cycles are there for their reasons, their seasons and create new growth…just as we do. Thank you for your comment. Namaste
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If you get any photos from me they’re likely to be headless – not my forte I’m afraid. But I will try. Best I can say.
The last few years have seen some extreme winter weather for us. Usually it’s rain and more rain. 😉 I quite like the snow – up to a point, if I can just play in it and build snowmen and have snowball fights. It’s a pain when we still have to travel in it. We don’t get enough of it for the powers that be to justify, they say, more intervention than a bit of gritting of roads. The last few years though we’ve had snow ploughs out to clear the worst of it. I think Scandinavian countries just laugh at how inept we are when a bit of snow falls. They are used to it and have measures in place to prevent life coming to a standstill.
Two years ago, all cars except 4 wheel drives ended up stranded in places, just pulled in and abandoned at the sides of roads, in very random ways. It was really foggy with it too. And all these people were walking to wherever, trudging along through deep drifts. it was like a scene from Armageddon. Quite eerie. But there was a great camaraderie about too. Extremes seem to bring out the best (or the worst) in people.
I think I’m going to go with the ones I’ve already done. It was just that some of them were a bit….depressing. I had thought to do two on a page at a time to give comparison, so it wasn’t all doom and gloom. I hate doom and gloom!
Imagine koalas walking up your main street. Boggles the mind here. So cute. Apart from the claws obviously.
What a wonderful world of extremes though, eh?x
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I will try to not laugh at the headless poet, promise 🙂 I have to admit something here, I’ve only ever seen snow once, and that was a flurry of nothing that once on the ground in the red mud was just a sludge. We did make a ‘red’ snowman, but it somehow lost its charisma 🙂 And you are so right about people coming together in those extreme times. We get fire fighters and others coming from thousands of miles away to help out, relieve the exhausted local men and women and just give to those that have been through some horrendous times through these fires.
Which above all else, gives me a belief in what humanity is underneath, regardless of the strains and stresses of day to day life, they will always come to each others aid. That gives me hope in a world gone mad sometimes.
You’ll know which ones are right. Maybe some may feel doom and gloom, but another shows the saints among us. At the least it will tell a tale for those that want to hear it, from the Bardess of Glascow! 🙂
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I know it shouldn’t but it still feels weird to think of you all going to the beach while we’re turning on the central heating.
I hope it doesn’t get any worse. It’s incredible and heartening that no lives have been lost, thank god. But still so much devastation in people’s lives, losing their homes and all the upheaval and distress.
I’ve already knocked out several poems but I’m looking to do something a wee bit different with them so I’m not posting quite yet. Thanks again for displaying them.x
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Yes, that does give an odd feeling 🙂 Our ‘warmth goes from Sep right through till Apr (still T-shirts and sandals most years), and we only get a bit of serious cold for about 8 weeks in the middle, not like you over there. I keep reading about blizzards and snow falls to bury houses practically. See, you get extremes over there, just at the other end of the scale. We have a hot spell coming over the next 3 days so it’s going to get pretty bad but most realise the danger so get out in time before they get caught in the areas. And yes it is quite distressing losing so much of your life like that. And compounded by the livestock and animals in the forests you see in distress. Not a good sight. Where I used to live up the coast you knew where the fires were by the animals that started to wander into the town. Its amazing to see a few Koalas walking up the street with a joey on her back trying to get away from the fire and smoke. We usually pick them up and take them to the Koala hospital that they have due to the large population around the town. Mind you, they are frightened and have very sharp claws. Not intentional but just frightened. You hope that they have been handled before and don’t panic. Go with the flow, the poem that is right will come from within when it is ready. For you, probably about 3am 🙂 By the way, you do realise that I expect some photo’s of you digging your car out of the snow or doing the toboggan slide down the driveway or something 🙂 x
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So awful. I might complain about our weather here but we rarely get extremes.
I’ll save the photos if that’s ok and start on some poems. The images are so powerful and could be conveying so many things.
Thanks for sharing them. And I hope this all comes to an end soon.x
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Yes, it seriously gets away and causes some havoc. But I suppose like all things we become used to them to some degree. Everyone says ‘look at Australia, great place, beautiful weather etc’ but the reality is underneath there is always the extremes. Mind you, so does anywhere else on the globe, it’s just that we become used to our own place I suppose. Just as an update, they have now totalled 200 homes lost (still no life lost thankfully, which is amazing), but we have now moved past a cooler bit and moving back into the hot (38 degrees Celcius) weather again, so the 20 odd fires that still aren’t under control will probably flare back up again and begin this all back over again. When we get these very dry winters the summers are always bad and it won’t stop now until the weather cools off in March next year. But if we are lucky we get the monsoon run off from up north and that will wet everything down after Christmas. Now we just have to pray the El Nino weather patterns haven’t caused a problem and those monsoons are weak or don’t come at all. Save away, as I said, some of those I got ‘may’ be copyrighted but I don’t think they would mind if your just displaying them for a poem. In fact that is a compliment to the photographer anyway 🙂 Have a great day, I’m off to the beach to see if there is a breeze somewhere or at least a bikini or two. I won’t mention the muscled, bronzed body’s all over the place or you might get distracted 🙂 Actually, that looks like Hugh…no shirt…diving into the waves over there….:) (yes, I’m bad, so hit me 🙂 )
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OMG! Mark, those photos are incredible. And so awful. How much devastation that must be causing. You say no lives have been lost, thank God. But the homes lost and the fallout from all that is shown must be huge. I haven’t even seen the news. I will check it out.
But these photos already have my mind going nineteen to the dozen .
Thank you and thank your friends/neighbours (maybe not the papers?) in the fire service for sharing these with you and us.
I truly hope it ends soon so that damage to all is limited and some respite may begin. Praying for that.x
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These were not from my local guys. These came from locals down in Sydney, probably owners of homes etc in the middle of it. And the fire fighters down there and news shots. Haven’t been able to catch up with my friend up here. Mind you , there has been three bad fires near here. This is the time of year that we get all this regularly but what made it so bad was we have had a very dry winter and the undergrowth in the bush is so dry. Mix that with the occasional heatwave from a pressure cell that drags the really hot air in from central Australia and you have some very serious firestorms that with any sort of wind behind them and you have a lot of problems. That’s what happened the last 2 days. We haven’t even got into the summer months yet, we are only half way through spring. That’s what they are worried about. It gets seriously warmer like into the 45 degrees Celcius ( 113 F) in the old scale. That’s why we love to swim, anything to cool off 🙂 Thank you for the prayers, any and all accepted for those that lost their homes in that mayhem. I’ve been caught up in some but not like this, they were pretty bad.
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Ok, the reply buttons seem to have returned 🙂
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Just finding this on your page. it didn’t show up in my wee window!
Was just about to snaffle a couple of ocean pics to go with their inspiration. :)x
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Snaffle away. I’m just looking at your post now. It’s hard to see but in the centre, up fairly high, is the spray from a surfacing whale. That in the picture will give your poem some more magic. Pity it wasn’t closer. I’m determined to get you a decent photo 🙂
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Thanks, Mark. I just went for it. 🙂
There’s something strange going on with WordPress at the mo. Your comments are appearing without a reply button and when I click on the link in your comment it’s saying page not found, still. I know some other people have been having probs. I have to go to your site and click on a page to open a comments section. Weird stuff. ;)x
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And you did ‘went for it’. The poem with the shots were fantastic. well done, I loved it. Mmm, on my Gallery page the reply and all its actions are appearing and happening at my end. I may have to do something to the page and re-publish it to see if that will change anything.
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It might not be a problem for you then. Just that some settings and apps for others seem to be off. Posts going into spam and so on. keep an eye on your spam folder in case you lose any real messages.
Little quirks and probs I’m sure will be ironed out….eventually. 🙂
Thanks again for the great photos.x
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My pleasure, I enjoyed the picture taking. Took me places and I had fun. And I will keep an eye out on my blog and make sure it’s working properly. And now that you mention the flying thing I’ll see if I can get some more goodies. Maybe I can go back there and get one of the guys (or girls) to take a cam up with them. That would be great footage of actually doing the flying! 🙂
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Oh that would be tremendous! An aerial shot. It would be like being there on the ride. See, you’re gonna be an enlightening photographer, linking words and visuals to greatest effect!x
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That type of shots would be like your poem, free like an eagle. I think I may have to make a call to check it out 🙂
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Go yooouuu! :)x
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This is so odd…on my site the top 8 comments between us today on this gallery page has the reply button but the bottom 3 do not. How’s that for weird. I think their server is having a hissy fit, that or that little yellow pill I took this morning does have more than sugar in it 🙂 Then again, maybe it is the sugar. I’ll keep an eye out. Just let me know, if you wouldn’t mind, if that doesn’t rectify at your end. Thanks 🙂 (By the way, this comment is from a reply button on the gallery page. Hopefully you get this without little green men or some other weird and wonderful oddity hanging off it 🙂
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Only kiddin’ with the meanie.;) I was glad to be kept up a little longer to see these. They came up a treat in a lovely large sized gallery display. I was able to scroll through the whole lot. Again and again! without once returning to the smaller images.
You do, however, appear to have a problem with your comment that appeared. No reply button. Then clicking on the link said page not found. I came back to your main page and speaking from here. Though no other comment evident.
Wordpress and its vagaries. Sometimes, honestly.
They are really great, Mark. Thanks for sharing them. A little dreaming now of other corners of the globe where water looks like somewhere to melt in and whales appear unepectedly from nowhere. And flying! Good grief. I’ll be in heaven. :)x
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Great! Thank you for that. Wasn’t sure on the outcome on different computers. Of course I new you didn’t think I was a meanie…but SOME sleep would be nice 🙂 I’ll check that reply button thing out. When I put the new gallery in it may have needed me to retick a box somewhere on the gallery page. Thank you. And many thanks for your lovely comments. I will have to keep wandering to keep this up….but oh, the things we have to do. Hopefully by the time you awaken I can get it running smoothly. Sleep well my friend, may you fly like an eagle in your dreams!
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Almost snoring….sorry, soaring. 🙂
I’ll check back in tomorrow to view again and may the muse descend. Night.x
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Ok. Thanks again, night! 🙂
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