Category Archives: Daily Post

Feb 06 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Emu, at the Emu Ridge distillery

Wednesday 6th February 2013, 9.20am (day 531)

 

Emu, 6/2/13

Toured Kangaroo Island today and saw plenty of interesting creatures both in the wild and in sanctuaries of one kind or another, including kangaroos, koalas, goannas, seals, wombats and more. Good landscapes too, but as I did a landscape yesterday, the wildlife theme is more appealing – and this emu wins because I love its deep red eye sitting in its otherwise bland plumage like a jewel. Vicious-looking thing however – was glad it was behind a fence.

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Feb 05 2013
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Daily Post, Landscape

Hog Bay, Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island

Tuesday 5th February 2013, 4.20pm (day 530)

Hog Bay, Penneshaw, 5/2/13

 

A thoroughly prosaic name for a very beautiful spot. Penneshaw is a little town (population 1,500) at the point where the ferry arrives on Kangaroo Island from the mainland – which can be seen in the very far distance of this shot, this being the tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide.

When I arranged to have my sabbatical here in Australia, and spend the first part of it travelling while I started on my book, this is pretty much the kind of place where I pictured myself. I’m here until Saturday. This is good news.

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Feb 04 2013
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Daily Post, Interior

Monday morning workspace, Adelaide

Monday 4th February 2013, 9.40am (day 529)

Adelaide workspace, 4/2/13

 

A fairly normal Monday of work for me, not at all eventful or particularly uplifting, but at least the office space was more attractive and al fresco than it could have been.

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Feb 03 2013
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Daily Post, Landscape

Stairs down to South Port beach

Sunday 3rd February 2013, 3.55pm (day 528)

South Port beach, 3/2/13

 

Well, I’m sure it’s very spiritually fulfilling to spend February Sundays all huddled up around a good fire but this year, frankly, give me this kind of thing. This is the stairway down to the beautiful – and mostly empty – South Port beach, at the mouth of the Onkaparinga river just south of Adelaide. Visited the vineyards of the McLaren Vale today and then drove back (or was driven back, by my excellent hostess Caroline) along the side of the Southern Ocean, and enjoyed the whole thing.

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Feb 02 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Pigeons at the South Australia Museum, Adelaide

Saturday 2nd February 2013, 3.45pm (day 527)

Pigeons, SA museum, 2/2/13

 

Translocated myself (via Qantas) to Adelaide this morning. My original plans were to spend this week checking out the Queensland coast but Cyclone Oswald put paid to that, so here I am in South Australia instead. It feels very different – not sub-tropical like Brisbane is, but more Mediterranean, much less humid, and with these big wide boulevards and low-key, but attractive, architecture. But then again it was a 3-hour flight, and a 3-hour flight from Manchester gets me to (say) Corfu, so I suppose it’s no surprise that the environment has altered somewhat.

More evidence of this – we are back with pigeons (as opposed to ibises) as the bird-pest of choice. This huge flock of them were wheeling on and off the cornices of the South Australia Museum this afternoon, as I came out, having done the tourist bit.

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Feb 01 2013
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Daily Post, Interior

Digital Barrier Reef, QUT

Friday 1st February 2013, 1.10pm (day 526)

Digital Barrier Reef, 1/2/13

 

This massive, interactive display – 30 feet (9m) high at least – resides in the foyer of the brand new Science and Technology block at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). OK, it has nothing to do with business process analysis, or whatever – so is essentially trivial – but it gets a lot more interest, from all sorts of people.

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Jan 31 2013
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art), Brisbane

Thursday 31st January 2013, 3.55pm (day 525)

GOMA visitor, 31/1/13

 

This is an exhibit by (if I remember rightly) Tiffany Chung – who has cast literally thousands of little glass animals and arranged them in this twenty-foot long swirl. There were lots of interesting pieces in this place today, for the ‘APT7’ (Asia-Pacific Triennale) exhibition. I was more into taking photos of the visitors, though.

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Jan 30 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Ibis drinking in the Botanical Gardens

Thursday 30th January 2013, 10.05am (day 524)

Ibis, Botanical Gardens, 30/1/13

 

When I first came to Brisbane in 2011 I remember seeing an ibis wander down the main shopping street and thought, cool, how exotic. Very shortly I realised that they occupy the same ecological niche as pigeons in other cities, and are basically a pest. But they look quite good, with that curved beak and white plumage.

I do like the Botanical Gardens in Brisbane, a beautiful park nestled in the curve of a river, but I couldn’t wander through it today and enjoy the sun, because it’s closed because of storm damage. You get a small sense of the amount of debris that is around by looking behind the bird. This shot is taken through the perimeter fence, with a big zoom (x50 at least), hence the slightly strange depth of field: but I like the effect.

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Jan 29 2013
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Anzac Square, Brisbane

Tuesday 29th January 2013, 11.30am (day 523)

Anzac Square, 29/1/13

 

Brisbane has been spared more flooding, the sun came out, and there were lots of nice things to see. And, well, in the end it was a choice between a photo of her and one of a lizard. But I’ll catch the lizard again some time.

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Jan 28 2013
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Brisbane River boardwalk

Monday 28th January 2013, 1.30pm (day 522)

 

Brisbane River boardwalk, 28/1/13

As you can see, it was a much nicer day today, but there is quite a lot of debris around the city from yesterday’s storm, particularly in the Botanical Gardens. And the Brisbane river is very full – but not yet flooding, indeed, there is evidence that it has gone down, namely the thin layer of mud over this boardwalk below the museums on the south bank. You can see here that it is scant inches – millimetres in fact – below the pedestrian and cycle track. Here’s hoping…

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