The wattles are coming

(Random walkies in Woy Woy)



It's clouding over, blast it. It was a sunny winter's morning here in Woy Woy. Froze my bloody nuts off yesterday with the icy wind, and that was only a short scuttle from car to home. Bloody lovely sun though. All warm and toasty.

The golden wattles are starting to bloom. Not sure which wattle this one is. It blooms first round here anyways. The local wattles, A. prominens AKA Gosford Wattle and Coastal Wattle AKA Acacia longifolia or A. sophorae come in a month or two. Acacia pycnantha is the national wattle, the one on our $5 note and the old 2 shilling stamp and the 41 cent stamp in 1990 and under the roo and the emu on the coat of arms thingo.


Wattle-gasm at my Flickr


I've been spending my mornings in a sunny window, covered from head to toe in beanies and rugs and uggs. July's the coldest month in Strayla.


10 questions

A bit of entertainment from Device dear


1. What's your earliest memory?

Not getting to wear a fairy skirt at kindy. It would've looked fabulous with the cowboy hat.

2. What was the last thing you ate?

Breakfast. Boring I know.

3. Would you support a comeback by Steps?

Yes. No. I'll get back to you on that.

4. What is your dream car?

MGB

5. How tall are you?

5 foot 10.

6. Margaret Thatcher vs Queen Elizabeth II: Who would win and why/how?

The queen because no-one's fiercer and the corgis are pretty feral.

7. Mama Cass died choking on a sandwich. What sandwich filling would you happily choke on?

Jared Padalecki.


(Sasquatch & Jenny-bean

8. Has a pick-up line ever worked for you? If so, what was it? If not, what was the worst reaction?

Never used one. *slinks away*

9. You find yourself inexplicably cloned, barely wearing something sexy, and gagging for it. You would, wouldn't you?! Just out of curiosity, or maybe for some other reason?

Would definitely do it. Purely in the interests of science of course.

10. How did you find this blog? Go on, indulge me!

You made some terribly witty comment over at Glitter for Brains and I clicked you.


Local linkage

Flemings, one of those little old local supermarkets, is no more. Woolies have built a large flash two-storey job on the other side of the road, hedging in the library, and Flemings is empty.

Michael's photo of Flemings-as-was


Straylya-wide linkage

Orphans and other former inhabitants of children's homes, the Forgotten Australia site is collecting "personal histories of those who were placed in children’s homes – a voice for those who were inside and a chance for others to understand." It's a National Museum of Australian thingo. Some bloody disturbing but very powerful material on that site.


Web-wide linkage

Lee over at Glitter for Brains got to 1,000 posts last month. That's staying power.

Buggered if I know how many I've done. Got 598 posts on the counter for This isn't Sydney (this one) and maybe a couple of hundred at Woy Woy Walkies


The Doctor

Add your vote to the eternal question: Tennant or Baker?


The Doctors Who


P.S.

Ta Stevo for the heads up with the dashboard thingy for widening. Fiddled with it for a bit but the bastard only widened one bit. Will give it a kick up the khyber another time.

Filthy dirty filking

(Random hung-over, Christmas-party fueled whingeing & filking*)



O Christmas bush
O Christmas bush
O Cerapetalum apetalum

In New South Wales at Christmas time
You come out in December heat

O Christmas bush
O Christmas bush
O Cerapetalum apetalum

With petals red and orange too
Only after pollination

O Christmas bush
O Christmas bush
O Cerapetalum apetalum


There's also Cerapetalum gummiferum which is the same until you get up close and see the leaves are arranged differently. And the gummiferum is pretty tall and "during World War II it provided the butts for all rifles made in Australia". Huh.


Off to my fourth Christmas party this week this arvo. May not survive. Normally I avoid office parties like the fucking plague but I called in a lot of favours this year and the payback is showing up as stand-in date. The next person to offer me a mince pie is dead.


Local linkage

Bike bunnies do Umina

Dickhead factor rockets during school holidays


Woy Woy as was

Love the photos and stories of old Woy Woy in the local rag. Woy Woy Steve is back writing them again and Fred Landman and Keith Whitfield are regulars and I've got one from June 2009 by Bruce Richards.

Sometimes the old buildings they talk about, old cinemas and milk bars and so forth, are gone now and sometimes they're just re-invented but I can usually see where they were or their remnants are. Adds a whole new depth to my walkies to have personal histories tied to the streets and buildings of my town.

Keep writing, guys.


Christmas story re-visited

How the angel got on top of the tree (click 'n' scroll)


Want my thingy in yer whatsit?

I'm off for Xmas. Off away from the madding crowd to a place where the bush turkeys roam free.

I'll be back ab-o-u-t ... Let's call it mid January. The 16th. Yeah.

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Have yerselves a merry little Xmas.


* Filking ain't really dirty. I mentioned it to a Dear Old Thing one day and she reacted like it was a very naughty swear-word and now when I say it I get a naughty little thrill. It's that thing where you replace some or all of the words of an existing tune with your own words, like I did with Oh Christmas Tree. Go filk yerself (with links).

Spring flowers

The flowering of the gums sends the lorikeets berserk.




Bloody lorikeets in a feeding frenzy outside my window. Low res but the noisy bastards are coming across loud and clear.




These are coming out.




And these.




These are a garden favourite.




So are these. Waist-high bush covered in tiny wee pink flowers.




Local wattle species growing at Ettalong Beach last year.




And, of course, Australia's favourite golden wattle, the silver wattle. It's called that after the silvery grey of the leaves.




Golden wattle in the wind. Taken at the old Gosford quarry a while back. You don't often get to hear the wattle.


Lazy bastard

What with feeling crook and generally just being an unorganised bastard, I'm a month behind on my email. I'll get to yer.


Six degrees of Flickration

Got added to some new feature at Flickr. Gallery of sailboats.

Warm winter beach

(Random walkies in Woy Woy)



Right now it's pissing down again but a few days ago the winter sun was blazing and the dogs frolicking and the locals popping down to the beach.

This is looking out from Umina Beach through the heads of Broken Bay.




Box Head, the northern head of Broken Bay.

Box Head gave its name to the crowd who make Box Head surf gear. Or made. They don't got a website so maybe they got bought up. Anyways, they used to have their office in a house in Memorial Avenue right near Bustling Downtown Ettalong.




View south from Umina Beach. Mt Ettalong on the right, the arse end of Lion Island on the left edge of the photo, Pittwater and Commodore Heights (Ku-ring-gai) in the middle.




Lion Island from Umina Beach, looking south.




Geraldton Wax blooming in the winter sun. Proper name Chamelaucium uncinatum. It's an Australian native but is actually from WA (Western Australia) not NSW. I love it.

"[O]ne of Australia's most famous wildflowers and is widely used as a cut flower in Australia and overseas" says ASGAP. Pop into yer local Interflora today.

ASGAP fact sheet & photos


Second wave

We're well and truly into the 2nd wave of the swine flu now. The peeps who know about this sort of thing said it's normal and would happen and so it's happened.

But it's still not time to panic yet. Relax, eat yer vegies, lay back on the sofa with a DVD on and for fuck's sake don't watch those panic-merchant news reports on 7, 9 and 10. Bloody half-witted commercial TV channels. Switch over to Aunty and yer blood pressure will go down. ABC news is at 7pm.


What can you do?

"Influenza is spread from person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people. There are many things you can do to prevent getting and spreading influenza:

* Cover your mouth when you cough, and wash your hands regularly.
* Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the garbage bin after you use it.
* Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
* Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.

Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

* Influenza is spread from person-to-person through coughing or sneezing. Stay away from people who are sick.
* If you get sick, stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to avoid infecting them." (More at NSW Health Dept prevention info)


"Department of Health and Ageing swine influenza information...

Advice for returned travellers
...
Travel advisory" (Swine flu advice at the NSW Health Dept)

"Swine Flu Symptoms

Since swine influenza infections typically present in humans as seasonal influenza, most of the cases are detected by chance through flu surveillance. Swine flu symptoms, similar to those of seasonal influenza may include:

* Cough
* Runny nose
* Fever
* Headache
* Joint aches and pains
* Fatigue
* Nausea
* Vomiting
* Diarrhoea
* Acute pneumonia

The Federal Government has set up a swine flu hotline for public information: 1802007" (Aunty on teh interwebs)

All the leaves are green and the sky is grey

I have been working my arse off this last couple of months. Have not even walked for a whole month. Hideous state of affairs. Must remedy. Holidays coming up and I'm trying to wangle a whole month off in which to have rest and walkies and rest and stuff and rest. Meanwhile, Woy Woy is blooming with summer flowers.



Jacaranda and Hakea

Jacarandas are an exotic species (imported and not native to Australia). Gorgeous trees. Currently looking fabulous against the Woy Woy skies. An aerial photo of a town when these are flowering will instantly tell you where the older areas of the town are.

Hakea (or possibly grevillea) is a native species and a popular garden bush. Couple more looking spiffy on a black background here.




Christmas bush

Ceratopetalum gummiferum. Native species. Coming into full flower now, hence the name Christams bush.

Close-ups




Lillipilli hedge. A native species, Syzygium smithii. Not flowering but leafing. The leaves on top go red in spring and summer.

The flowering gums (native species) have finished flowering and those noisy lorikeet bastards have buggered off to greener pastures. The giant cacti are budding (exotic species).

Woy Woyan flowers both native & exotic

All the native flowers posted since I started tagging plus Winter floraland for added seasonal confusion.


Local linkage

The duck problem (Ta for the link, Ian.)

Excellent mappage and link to war stories from Steve. Had no idea the war came so close to the NSW coast.

Kite-surfer airlifted from Ettalong Beach. Looks like he came ashore at the end of Barrenjoey Road near those 60s flats. Poor bastard. Sorry I missed the chopper landing at Ettalong but.

Girl priest raises Woy Woy's PCF (Playground Coolness Factor).

Buy one get one free ferry tickets on the Codock II AKA Cockatoo ferry from the 27th.

Venice Road

(Pretty Beach walkies #2)

Finished Pretty Beach in two walkies. One in May last year and one in October this year (2008). Pretty Beach is not a big town. It's barely a town at all. Doesn't even have its own pub. Or even a corner shop with pies and newspapers. Just seven streets, two private schools and a public wharf.




Rock Oysters abound on the Brisbane Water. Every wet rock, every jetty, every old bit of wharf is covered in them.

Pretty Beach is just across the water from the Woy Woy Peninsula. Go down to the Ettalong ferry wharf (in Ferry Road) and look across to Wagstaffe and Hardys and it's in between them. (Map)




No trailer needed

To get to Pretty Beach, get the Cockatoo ferry from Woy Woy in the school holidays, or get onto Wards Hill Road off Empire Bay Drive opposite Palmers Lane and follow the signs to Hardys Bay. Then go down into Hardys and onto Heath Road and yer in Pretty Beach when you see the primary school.




Native flowers on a small native tree on the waterfront. The tree looked like a tea tree except for these flowers.




The house on the right is yer average house as seen around Brisbane Water. The one on the left is not. Looks very stylish in a rather sixties way. Can't find a precise style for it in my architecture book so we'll just say 1960s. It's in Venice Road Pretty Beach behind the tennis courts.




Hakea or grevillea. I'm back to forgetting which. Venice Road Pretty Beach.


Michael's bits

Michael's got some nice local photos over on his Flickr. I particularly like these three views from Killcare.

And there's a lovely sunny picture of the Codock punting past Wagstaffe on some stranger's Flickr.

How cool is America now?

Onya, 'Mericans! You voted in the black guy. Now yer cool enough to play with the cool kids.

Australia's cool because our Prime Minister officially apologised for being evil to the blackfellas.

So did Canada's so they're cool.

New Zealand is cool because they got a girl Prime Minister.

England's cool because they had a girl Prime Minister, even if she was pretty scary.

And we're going to be even cooler when we vote in either the rock star, the redhead, the chick (same person as the redhead) or the poofter.


(Wiki Creative Commons)

......Peter Garrett..................Julia Gillard.......................Bob Browne

Cultivars & the Cup

Grevillea lanigera cultivar

A purely picture post today. I am buggered. Lovely holiday followed by a day of very hard yakka. No fair!

Cultivars of native plants are getting popular. The sundae one is my favourite.

Garden Express will not mind my blogging their stuff in exchange for the link.



Grevillea hybrid 'Strawberry Sundae' cultivar



Callistemon Pink Champagne



The flowers of the Callistemon are very similar to the spines of this bottlebrush flower.



Grevillea hybrid 'Fireworks' cultivar

For non-cultivar grevilleas, pop over to my photos looking great on the black of Device dear's blog.




Wollemi christmas tree

The Wollemi (Wollemia nobilis) is the Jurassic tree found in the Blue Mountains in 1994.

Wollemi bonsai



Embiggen, high res

Leucospermum cultivar (Wiki Creative Commons)

Looks like a waratah but is in fact a Leucospermum glabrum x L. tottum ‘Scarlet Ribbon’ cultivar in Tasmania.


Snippets

Pop over to Steve's for Haunted Woy Woy

Welcome to the Bustling Woy Woy blogosphere (population 3), Grumpy Old Journo.


1st Tuesday in November

Tomorrow is Melbourne Cup day.

Form Guide & stuff

The Birdcage (hats, celebs & champers)

Iconic

(Random Woy Woy walkies)

Shocking walkies and photo weather so far this long weekend. Here's some I took last week.



Cabbage Tree Palms at Woy Woy Station. Proper name Livistona Australis.

Iconic local tree. Grows in the under-storey (under the trees) in local bush and pushes up to the canopy as it grows. Also grows in backyards and in carparks and on roundabouts on the F3.




Close-up of the Cabbage Tree Palm. Note the fan-shape of the fronds.

Early whitefellas in Australia made Cabbage Tree hats.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand says the heart of it is edible but doesn't say how to cook it.

Picture of teenage Cabbage Tree Palm




Bottlebrush. Iconic Australian flower. At the top, a third of the way across, you can see the buds. At the right, third of the way down, you can see the afters. They look like nuts but are not woody. (There's a joke in there somewhere.)

Bottlebrushes are flowering like mad at the moment in people's gardens and as streets trees in a street near the hospital. Might be Vidler Avenue, might be Mascot Street.

And are much enjoyed by lorikeets down the beach end of Ocean Beach Road.



Wiki Image

Dwyer Avenue has got oleanders as street trees.

"All parts of this plant are toxic" says Westmead Children's Hospital and "a single leaf could be lethal to an infant or child" says Wiki and "nausea and vomiting, excess salivation, abdominal pain, diarrhea...Extremities may become pale and cold due to poor or irregular circulation...can also affect the central nervous system...drowsiness, tremors or shaking of the muscles, seizures, collapse, and even coma that can lead to death".

Great plant for a street tree.


The boating news

It's nearly Putt Putt Regatta time again.

26th of October. Davistown foreshore. Get the ferry there from Woy woy Wharf.

2008 Regatta details

2007 Regatta - scroll down for photos


Havagoodlongweegend. I'm off to a barbie and it's just started raining again.

Ettalong Beach

(Random walkies on the Woy Woy Peninsula)



Golden Wattle. Acacia is the proper name of the golden wattles. This one seems to be the Coastal Wattle AKA Acacia longifolia or A. sophorae and as you can see it's growing happily on the beach and the link below says "[g]rows in dunal, heath and sclerophyll communities including headlands" and "[d]istribution: Queensland to Victoria".

Species page at some govt site

Wattle wattle wattle - all my wattle photos at Flickr




These photos were all taken just opposite the Excresence, that great white whale of a resort on the foreshore at Ettalong.




Lion Island there in the distance, and on the right the Ettalong foreshore where the pines, drain and barbies are and where Mr Whippy dispenses icecreams of a weekend.



Barrenjoey Head and Lion Island from Ettalong Beach.


Bustling Downtown Ettalong (Map)

Zoom with a view

(Random walkies in Woy Woy)

Been bloody tired the last couple of weeks. That blasted lethargy thing again. Feeling a bit perkier today so I went up a hill to re-photograph some views I snapped on another sunny day in 2005 and in 2006 when it was pissing down raining and the views were soft and misty.



Embiggen

The Peninsula dozing under the warm autumn sun.

Phegans Bay & Brisbane Water in the distance on the left. Stretching across on the right to Kincumba Mountain and, in front of it, a dark corner of Blackwall Mountain.

Map




Phegans Bay & Brisbane Water.

Left to right: Phegans Bay. To the right of it is what looks like Rumbalara Reserve which is the hill the east side of Gosford. The furtherest hill has got to be up around Wyoming or Lisarow. Could be The Ridgeway. On the right edge of the picture is Saratoga and behind it is the flattish top of Kincumba Mountain.




Giant cactus budding in someone's backyard. The flowers looked like they're going to come out pink. The huge one in Ettalong has pale yellow flowers.




Here's one for yer, Device dear. Golden dildo hakea. Might actually be called giant candle.


Linkage

Australian Flora Online - one of them database thingies.


Sing along

Can't get that blasted song off the HugePuddle ad out of my head.

From Wiki
"The song "I've Been Everywhere" was written by Geoff Mack in 1959 and made popular by the singer Lucky Starr in 1962.

It listed Australian towns. It was later adapted for North American (primarily United States) place names and by John Hore (later known as John Grenell) with New Zealand place names (1966).

The song was a number 1 hit in Country Music in November 1962 in the United States for the recording artist Hank Snow. The song was also recorded by : Lynn Anderson (USA 1970); Asleep At The Wheel (USA 1973); Johnny Cash (USA 1996); the Countdown Singers; Chip Dockery; Ted Egan; the "Farrelly Brothers" from the television series The Aunty Jack Show (Australia 1974 (parody)); John Grenell (NZ 1966); Mike Ford (Canada, 2005); Rolf Harris (UK 1963); Clifton Jansky; Willie Nelson; and The Statler Brothers."


Straylyan version:

(Pommy readers should remember the U in Tullamore, Muckadilla, etc is not as in took and mook but as is smut and fuck.)

Verse 1
Tullamore, Seymour, Lismore, Mooloolaba, Nambour, Maroochydore, Kilmore, Murwillumbah, Birdsville, Emmaville, Wallaville, Cunnamulla, Condamine, Strathpine, Proserpine, Ulladulla, Darwin, Gin Gin, Deniliquin, Muckadilla, Wallumbilla, Boggabilla, Kumbarilla

Verse 2
Moree, Taree, Jerilderie, Bambaroo, Toowoomba, Gunnedah, Caringbah, Woolloomooloo, Dalveen, Tamborine, Engadine, Jindabyne, Lithgow, Casino, Brigalow, Narromine, Megalong, Wyong, Tuggeranong, Wanganella, Morella, Augathella, Brindabella

Verse 3
Wollongong, Geelong, Kurrajong, Mullumbimby, Mittagong, Molong, Grong Grong, Goondiwindi, Yarra Yarra, Bouindarra, Wallangarra, Turramurra, Boggabri, Gundagai, Narrabri, Tibooburra, Gulgong, Adelong, Billabong, Cabramatta, Parramatta, Wangaratta, Coolangatta

Verse 4
Ettalong, Dandenong, Woodenbong, Ballarat, Canberra, Milperra, Unanderra, Captains Flat, Cloncurry, River Murray, Kurri Kurri, Girraween, Terrigal, Stockinbingal, Collaroy, Narrabeen, Bendigo, Dorrigo, Bangalow, Indooroopilly, Kirribilli, Yeerongpilly, Wollondilly


Kiwi version:

The New Zealand version starts: Well I was hitching a ride on a winding Hokitika road, when along came a lorry....

First verse
Kaparoa, Whangaroa, Akaroa, Motueka, Taramoa, Benmore, Pongaroa, Horoeka, Rimutaka, Te Karaka, Whangarei, Nuhaka, Waimahaka, Motuhura, Waikaka, Motonui, Hokonui, Papanui, Wainui, Matawai, Rongotai, Pikowai

Second verse
Woodville, Dargaville, Lumsden, Katikati, Naseby, Cambridge, Porirua, Mararoa, Hastings, Tikitiki, Tauranga, Auckland, Naenae, Waitaha, Hamilton, Poroporo, Taupo, Timaru, Oamaru, Tihoi, Awanui, Wanganui, Pauanui

Third verse
Featherston, Palmerston, Woolston, Te Awamutu, Riverton, Queenstown, Picton, Ohinemutu, Morere, Korere, Rotorua, Kaikoura, Matamata, Ruakura, Ikamatua, Papakura, Waitaki, Pukaki, Taranaki, Te Kauwhata, Ropata, Ikowai, Waitemata

Fourth verse
Ruatoki, Matahura, Taupiri, Maketu, Kyeburn, Sowburn, Wedderburn, Mossburn, Washdyke, Arawhata, Paparoa, Kaponga, Teraha, Thames, Kerikeri, Kokoma, Tapanui, Porinui, Tawanui, Otahuhu, Ruatapu, Mosgiel, Whareroa

Fifth verse
Kapiti, Ngawaka, Onepu, Reporoa, Tongariro, Tomoana, Renwick, Papamoa, Karitane, Oxford, Parihaka, Karetu, Coalgate, Whitecliffs, Urenui, Mamaku, Waimea, Waharoa, Dannevirke, Ngahere, Gordonton, Kingston, Oban


Map with the Straylyan towns marked at Wiki

MP3 of the Straylyan version

In like Flynn

(Random walkies in Woy Woy)

There was about an hour of blue sky yesterday. As soon as it appeared I snatched up the camera and rushed out for some some snaps.

Wasn't quick enough in the afternoon and got a power blackout halfway through blogging. Turns out there was some damage from that big storm last year and yesterday's storm was the last little push it needed. One of the Dear Old Things was all of a twitter, convinced we were going to be out for days again but it's fixed now.




Woy Woy Bay from Woy Woy. Quiet weekday water with the Woy Woy bus terminal (bottom centre) and the railway station (bottom right).




Equipment raft, pile driver & footbridge from Woy Woy Wharf.

The blue raft has piles and stuff for making jetties. The pile driver is for bunging in the piles to support the jetties. There's hundreds of private and dozens of public jetties on Brisbane Water.

The hill in the middle distance is Parks Bay/Koolewong. The one behind it is Tascott.






Grevillea acanthifolia. Australian native wildflowers popular with gardeners.


Partial solar eclipse yesterday

Buggeration. The storm yesterday was lovely and there was a wee glance of the eclipse. It was a partial eclipse of the sun by the moon. Didn't get a usable photo of my own, sod it, but here's a nice big specky one: Dramatic views of solar eclipse through cloud