Holidays

These pics are from a recent holiday to the aptly named Cosy Corner, on WA's south coast. The larger shadow in front of the wave is a school of salmon. And, yes, I am a very amateur bird photographer -- but I reckon 6 parrots in one photo is pretty good.


































Willy-wagtail meets cows (above). The wooden planks in the left foreground (below) are a launching pad for hang gliders. We decided not to glide on this trip.

Science vs. Ideology

When conversations turn to climate change and global warming, I usually keep quiet. Mostly, it's for fear of getting my head bitten off; also, however, not being a scientist, I know that I don't have a grasp of the facts and figures -- the underlying 'science'.

But it's time to come clean: I am a skeptic. Though the cries of "the earth is doomed if we don't overhaul our ways" are loud and almost universal, I'm not convinced.

"What! Are you crazy? Do you not have ears to hear? Eyes to see?" I can hear you thinking. "Haven't you heard of Al Gore?"

My attitude is captured well in an excerpt in today's Australian. The words were those of Cory Bernardi, a South Australian Liberal Senator. Frankly, I was refreshed to hear such sense from a politician. Here's the closing line from the excerpt, in case you don't get to read the whole piece:

Meeting Australia's long-term environmental challenges requires practical solutions balanced with the needs of our economy, not knee-jerk populist reactions based on conflicting scientific evidence.

The article can be found at A call for cooler heads in the global warming debate .

I'd be glad to hear others' thoughts on this subject. But, please, be gentle with a man who has just 'come out'!

Who said it?

"There can be no fairer ambition than to excel in talk ..."

And, who would dare not agree with it!

Clue: 19th century Scotsman.

Birthdays and moves

I blinked and missed March -- or most of it. My two big 'March-events' were a trip to South Australia for my wife's 30th and a house move. A couple of pics from each are below.

A champagne brunch for the 30th celebrations: all very sweet, except for swatting away wasps and stomping on bull ants. On a good day, this view extends for 100 kms (to the coast!). During the morning I discovered a new, sinister form of torture: a bull ant crawling up the inside leg of your pants while you are availling yourself in the open. Thankfully it didn't bite.



After the event we had some indoor 'fire entertainment'!

That afternoon I played golf on the world's driest golf course (Blyth, SA). The upside was we were the only people on the course, and I got to play in my socks and sandals. S-H-A-M-E, I know; but once you get used to them, they are so-o-o comfie. We found about 20 golf balls during the afternoon: people apparently stop playing after winter and when all the heathery-grass dies, the brown dust is covered with golf balls.



Living room of old house, mid-move, with boxes. I'll put pics of the new house up later. Imagine the same boxes -- but more of them -- in a far bigger, far older place. You get the picture.



A wall of the courtyard: my favourite spot at the old house.