Umina Beach

Been feeling very cross and tired lately and nearly didn't get out of bed this morning. Laid there like a starfish with the fan on me wondering if it was too hot for a walk. The forecast was for 31 (84 F) and they're always under by a few degrees and it was already warmish and I was tired. Eventually I levered myself out of bed and wandered into the kitchen for a cuppa tea. Stood there for an hour moodily sipping tea and glaring out at the sunshine. Then I decided, Fuck it I'll go, flung some shorts on and buggered off down the beach.



The light was iffy, dark one minute then not quite bright enough the next. But Lion Island was clear and looked close enough to touch. (That never comes across in the photos.)

Sat on the sand for a bit and stared across at the island. The Lifesavers were setting up and it was busy with dog walkers and strolling locals and tourists. The icecream truck will do a good trade there today.

Barrenjoey Head (centre) with the lighthouse just visible, Pittwater in the background to its right, Lion Island (closest) and Commodore Heights in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park on the far right. Map.



They knocked the Ocean Beach Surf Life Saving Club down in October or November 2006, leaving just the balcony standing. The club was about the size of a small house. Haven't seen the plans for the new one.

Doesn't look like they've made any progress but I poked my head over the fence and they're doing the foundations at the moment.

Looking west-south-west to Mount Ettalong (left) and The Rampart in the background. The seat in the right foreground is the Bob Da Silva memorial.



W.L. Lloyd Park Norman Street Umina Beach. Go down to the beach end of Trafalgar Avenue to where they knocked down the Ocean Beach SLSC (not the Umina Beach SLSC at the end of Ocean Beach Road).

This wee park sits just behind the dunes. In the foreground is the loo. It's getting pretty dodgy. The walls have cracks in them and the roof is losing tiles. There's a wee shelter (left, white & green roof) with picnic tables under it and the playground gym and a few seats dotted about. The SLSC balcony is to left of pine tree.

Fire and ice

Thredbo, one of Australia's biggest snow skiing resorts, is under threat from a bushfire. This is the same Thredbo where snow fell on Christmas Day.

These ice storms and blizzards in America and Europe are bad news if you're there, and particularly if you're there and died of it, but it makes lovely looking at when one is sitting in Australia in one's underpants with the fan on full blast.