Pretty.

I was curious what this was next door this morning, I expect they'll all be racing in the sandpit soon, with the truck getting an extra workout.

A full sized crop taken at max zoom with the new S9100, focus probably on the rail but good enough to see what it was.

Testing.....

First up be warned I didn't reduce the size of this picture, though I did reduce the file size a bit, it's still near a Meg though and may be a slow download, or a painful one for those users who suffer punitive download limits, eg. many Aussies.

Anyway a new photo photo box arrived today and I just had to test it, and with Valentine's day approaching I tried a cute approach. I think Valentine's day was named after the late actor/magician Carl Ballantine.

The NX100 works well here and its lack of anti-shake or flash is more a bonus than a drawback, the little kit pancake lens used here is a ripper but has to be stopped down a bit to get depth of field.

A new toy.

I've been using this Nikon S9100 for a few shots lately, I've a weakness for shiny things and saw it at the right price a little while back. It's nice to use and Jimmy has bonded a bit with it, easily pocketable but not if you don't expect to use it.

Having a colour other than black or grey upped Jimmy's interest.

A surprise.

Grace had a birthday yesterday and a few minutes ago a car pulled up and a lovely lass delivered these flowers.

Thanks Bec, and thanks for calling yesterday on Skype, it always cheers both of us up.

Jooble

I just received a lovely email from Serge who works for a company called Jooble, it appears to be a job search company which I think is a great idea, the internet can and should have many uses.

Since I always post a pic with anything I plonk on here, here's a fairly useless one of me at Wallaman falls in this morning's gloom.

Not a total wasted trip.

This ripper of a snake was doing a good job of blocking the road to the falls, I'd reckon it about 2.5 metres long, out of respect I carefully drove past in the roadside crud.

Misc Wallaman.

There's a tree growing in front of one of the good viewing points. I suppose they'll have to have a committee meeting to consider what to do, then fight reams of paperwork before giving up and allowing the tree to block the view altogether.

Nobody there but the lookout is well groomed.

They even have lavatories

Rules.

I can't help but get the feeling we're heading to a future that makes the old soviet regime appear a free pleasant place.
We can't allow people to work out for themselves what may be dangerous.
Latest tales I hear is customs are now confiscating leatherman type tools and even emergency seat belt cutters due to the possible dangers to people. Guns are now a distant memory except usually for the criminals.

 

Nearly a waste.

There was a hint of sun this morning and I've been meaning to treat Artie to a little trip and a drive up a hill for the first time in the six months I've had him, so we took off up to see Wallaman falls. Naturally Jimmy's luck ran out close to the falls when there was a splash of rain and fog abounding, so photos were a horror.

I wonder if anyone will notice?

With Australia day coming up on the 26th Kraft have relabelled their iconic national food.

I must also confess to being a huge fan of Kraft as they now seem to be the only cheesemaker who are capable  of making a block cheese that isn't tasty. All the other makers stick different labels on the same (un)tasty cheese, someone should remind them that Queenslanders like MILD, leave the tasty for those southerners who have no palate. I think the American's call tasty sharp, maybe if we also did then we'd be able to see decent mild back on the shelves.

Time I did some work.

The weather's been nice so after I did a touch of mowing today I treated the mower to a bit of care.
The rocker cover has begun to rust so I gave it a spray of Killrust paint and while the lid was off adjusted the valves. It took a while to work out the method of adjustment but when I saw the allen screw inside the big bugger it became remarkably logical.

Oil changes on these mowers are easier than shelling peas so overall I didn't even raise a sweat.

Grumble.

Our long term internet router spat the dummy last night, this morning after finally conceding the problem may be  ours I hauled out the backup router, naturally after much looking I still hadn't found the power supply which of course had a different plug to all the others we have, so I soldered a new temporary socket in place, success.

Then I had a look at the old unit and noticed a slightly bulging capacitor (E206) so replaced it with the one on the left of pic.
Sadly still a fail, new router ordered and the backup shall have another rest.