Canberra (Australia) – Silver, Silver, Silver! It’s been another chilly month of rain and silver hues. Dreadful weather for photography really.
One bracing morning, the Crested Pigeons were hunkered down in patches of weak sunlight. Everything about the photographic conditions was terrible, but you will get the general idea.
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Needing a distraction, I have taken to Photoshop to bring you a couple of black and white thingys in response to the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Black And White.
Our host, Anne, has asked us to explain how we’ve processed the photos. I’ve only got a couple of photos for this challenge because my aim is to stay off the computer as much as possible due to injury. Both photos were originally taken in colour. As I don’t have any fancy editing software, I used basic Photoshop to convert both to black and white. Let’s see how I went.
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Canberra (Australia) – I’m so cold, oh so cold!
I felt anxious and grey during June, perhaps mirroring the inclement winter weather and the times, but here I am, on the eve of July. Soon the wattle will be blooming gold and the landscape will extrude from its current camo coat of green and brown.
I barely managed to pick up the camera but spurred on by my supporters, the crested pigeons, I began. Fluffed up, a crested pigeon warms up in a pocket of sun.
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There is nothing like the Lens Artist Photo Challenge to make me feel all philosophical. This week’s theme is It’s A Wonderful World. I have decided to focus on water because water is awesome. It’s essential to our being. Earth is the only terrestrial planet in our solar system that has liquid water at its surface.
Apart from Antarctica, Australia is the continent with the least rainfall. At the first hint of rain at the end of the recent horror drought in south-eastern Australia, swarms of flies emerged to drink from the puddles in still dry dams. How awesome is that?
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Canberra (Australia) – May be, maybe not.
May was like an episode of the tele tubbies, and I am not talking about the British kiddies program. How much tele can one pathetic, pain wracked woman watch? As it turns out, quite a lot. When one series is completed, said woman rises from the couch to gaze longingly at the beckoning craft table, only to shed a (metaphorical) tear for opportunities lost. The trick is to keep going. My physical challenges necessitate changing my priorities. Maybe a little less blogging in future. Maybe. Don’t quote me on that. I’m a work in progress so we will just have to see what happens.
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Welcome to my regular Friday song/tune day, ladies and gentlemen, where I pick a piece of music that reflects my mood or the times, to share with you. I also have selected some blue and green themed photos for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. It seems appropriate to match the music to the photos. Let me know, is it a good match?
Blue and green are my absolute favourite colours. At least, I used to think that. These days my palette of favourite colours seems endless. However, like an old lover, I always come back to blue and green. I love them soft. I love them subtle.
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I’ve lost my photography and blogging mojo, ladies and gentlemen. This is unfortunate because I do enjoy participating in the Lens-Artists weekly photo challenges. This week’s theme is Spots and Dots. I thought if I could just manage two photos – one I took yesterday and one from the archives – then I could ease myself back into it. Also, I swapped my computer mouse over to my other hand to see if that might bring some relief from the recurring muscle pain. That’s another story but it hurts to do computer stuff. Other stuff too. Ah, the joys of getting old and creaky.
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I need help, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to visit my mother in central Queensland (Australia) but between her and me is a plague of rampaging mice. It is my worst nightmare, or at least one of my worst nightmares. Who can blame me with reports of a farmer recently catching a rodent-borne disease and people being bitten by mice in their hospital beds? So, I need info. If I drive the inland route from Canberra to central Queensland, will I be confronted by a moving carpet of mice that will squelch under my tyres or will the wave of mice part in front of me as I drive at high speed through the chewed pastures, not even stopping for coffee or a bite? Also, forget sleep. Otherwise, biting. Let me know.
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A poem and photo.
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I really don’t like flying. I like being there, but not the getting there part. International friends should rest easy in the knowledge that if they invite me to their place, I am unlikely to visit. My reluctance to get on a plane is rather convenient because aviation contributes 2.5 percent of global carbon emissions. As aviation affects the concentration of gases and pollutants in the atmosphere, it contributes 3.5 percent to warming (see here). Nevertheless as an isolated country far from global markets, Australia is dependent on air transport.
In truth, I would like my children to travel, both for their own pleasure but also because you can learn much about the world and other cultures through travel. If my kids fly with Qantas in future, they won’t be travelling on one of the Boeing 747 400 series planes. These planes were retired in 2020. This is the last one leaving Australia for the plane graveyard in the Mojave desert, California. I watched that plane fly over my house. It flew low and slow and seemed to hang in the air. My True Love (TL) was at our local park with his camera and he snapped this photo as it passed overhead.
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