Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Small fire & small flowers

Fire truck on Nagari Road Woy Woy South

Fire truck on Nagari Road Woy Woy South. This was as close as I got to a decent photo of the fire. But the bastard didn't get out of control so I'm good. I saw a little bit of smoke then five minutes later the first fire truck went howling up there. Didn't see any more smoke after half an hour.

Small bushfire in Woy Woy on 6th of February 2007

The fire was up on the ridge yesterday afternoon, just over the crest of it. The fieries (firefighters) were in like Flynn. Half a dozen or more firetrucks went howling up Nagari Road to get to it. The Great North Walk (GNW) goes off the end of the rubbish tip road which goes off the end of Nagari Road.

Didn't catch the local TV news. Any locals got details about it?

Nagari Road Woy Woy South

After gawking at where the smoke had been I went home. These flowers were on the way. In fact you can see them on the left edge of the photo above.

They look like pink gum blossoms. They were on a bush at the Home For The Terminally Bewildered at the corner of Nagari Road and the railway underpass.

Only seen these blossoms on trees before and I got no idea what they're called when they're on bushes. Unless this is a baby tree. My plant recognition skills are abyssmal, as you probably realise by now.

Other stuff

There's a nice storm forecast for this afternoon. I'll enjoy that from the comfort of my balcony. I'm working on my wee shop again today. It's giving me a pounding fucking headache but I got to get the bastard up to scratch before the end of February. 12 months it was in the thinking stage, 12 bloody months. Since I created the shopfront in December I've made maybe 50 things for it.

Rock Walk is another walkies blog. Two people walking Staten Island in New York City. They haven't done much walking yet but have some beautiful photos up.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

i didnt even know there was a fire there was nothing on the tv about it what time did it happen spike?

i remember before they built the nursing home there it was a old paddock with horses and a crumbling scout hall - i had a friend who right behind the scout hall

Inexplicable DeVice said...

Well, I for one am glad you didn't get burned alive, Spike darling.

All that heat will ruin your hair, you know!

Lea said...

Hi

I think that you will find that the "srub" in actually a baby gum tree. I think they actually get to about 5m fully gown

Heard on the radio that the fire was at the tip, dont know how correct that is

Belongum said...

Got a few of those flowering gums over here Spike... at about oct nov, they shoot and the bright red colour against a cloudy sky, shot through with left over winter greys is fantastic to say the least!

Then they fade... the way red sheets would fade if you left them out in the sun too long... and then their gone! Gotta love the way natives can surprise you like that... if I ever had the space and yard for it, I'd plant a english style cottage garden - but with nothing but natives - all rambling and patchwork-like, colourful, and Australian!

You've got some 'hilly' countryside in your part of Oz Spike... we're pretty bloody flat over here. Glad I'm not walking around YOUR Part of the neighbourhoor mate - I'd need an Oxy-Viva to keep me going!

Cheers mate ;-)

Spike said...

Michael - Um. Erm. 4 o'clock? Sounds about right.

Device dear - Thank yer.

Don't need this bloody heat to ruin my hair lately. The way I'me sleeping I look like a fucking dunny brush in the mornings :(

Lea - Hi. Ta. That tree's only been there maybe 3 years. How long do they take to get 5 metres?

That's where Umina Rampart said it was as well.

Belongum - Sounds like an excellent garden. You'd even have room for proteas though you might need a big hairy dog to stop people from leaping over the fence and nicking them.

Love the Oxy-Viva image.

Okay, peeps, I'm off for a nice lie down. My eyes are on fucking fire peering at this screen.

Anonymous said...

oh well i still didnt notice any smoke coming from that area

i just went back and had a look at my orginial post and the last line shouldve read ' I had a friend who lived right behind the scout hall'

Spike said...

Michael - I'd been wondering what was on that land before the nursing home. It's a sizable piece of land. They must have room for 100 DOTs in all those little villas and units.

Anonymous said...

i'm not sure how many DOTs it accomodates but as far as i know it mainly looks after people with dementia
as i said before it was an old paddock with horses and a old scout hall on it

Spike said...

Do you know if it's private or govt? I didn't look that closely at it.

I'm looking at an old 60s town planning map ATM. I can see the paddock. It's marked "R 66258 FOR FUTURE PUBLIC REQUIREMENTS".

Interestingly, down the back of Umina in the Cowper Road area, there's a an area marked "R 78648/9 FOR SANITARY DEPOT" and, adjoining it, "R 71336/7 FOR SANITARY DEPOT".

As far as I know there isn't a sanitary depot of any kind in Umina. Maybe they were going to bung the sewerage farm there before the fight over Pelican Island. From the age of the houses there, I'd say that area of Umina started being flogged off in the 70s.

Anonymous said...

its run by the hammond group i have no idea if they are government or private maybe your superior detective skills can flush something out
as for the sanitary depot down the end of cowper road i dont think there was one there at all i also think there is some sort of sewerage thing down off the road to patonga

Spike said...

That Hammond crowd started i the 30s according to their website but don't why or how. They seem to be all about dementia and they've got three places on the Coast.

You're right about there being access to that sanitary depot off the Patonga road. It's in the bush there between the Great North Walk and the back of the Cowper Road area.

Gotta find my earlier town planning map and see how long that stuff has been there.

Right now I'm off for that nap before I qwerty myself.

Anonymous said...

I visit the Hammond Care place in a professional capacity. There are 6 "cottages" each with about 14 residents. Nice big rooms, cosy fireplace in winter, kitchen and laundry, and gardens to walk in, probably with more of those pink flowers. Interestingly, each cottage is named after a local shipwreck! From memory...Ashley, Minora, Yamabacoona, Birchgrove, Mariposa, Kiama.

Spike said...

Great info, Anon, thanks. It sounds lovely. Good place to spend one's terminally bewildered days.

The shipwreck names seem weirdly appropriate to a dementia home.

Birchgrove Park "Steel screw coastal steamer ... built Aberdeen Scotland 1930" and sank off "Broken Bay ... Avalon ... 1956". Sounds like it went down near the mouth of Broken Bay.

Kiama was a Collier, a coal transporter. "Built 1921 ... Foundered 8 kms off The Entrance, NSW, 19 January 1951. Only six of the crew of twelve survived. It is thought that her cargo of coal shifted soon after she left Newcastle".

Mariposa "Built New Jersey, USA, 1843 ...lost ... in Broken Bay, NSW, in 1870."

Minora, a brig which Wiki says is "a vessel with two square-rigged masts". Built in 1867. "While on a voyage from Newcastle to Sydney, sank quickly 12 nm off Broken Bay, NSW, without warning in heavy seas, 3 January 1898. Seven crew drowned; only two survived. A Court of Inquiry decided the seas badly damaged a fore hatch, allowing a large amount of water to enter."

Yambacoona was a "Screw steamer ... collier" Built in Tasmania in 1899. "Struck on the Skillion at Terrigal, NSW, and quickly foundered, 24 February 1917."

NSW Shipwrecks