I just love those otters! I hope they got their fish eventually.

Szabs, great photo of the patriotic aircraft. Love the sunflowers, too and Ren's posing kitty.

Here's my little wildcat today, after looking so serene in yesterday's photo.

Yes, Liz! She does not look quite so precious in that one!

These are Spectacled Flying Foxes, or Spectacled Fruit Bats. I know not everyone likes bats but I find them fascinating.

(We currently have a Japanese student staying with us and we took her to a wildlife park on the weekend, so you'll be seeing some of the photos I took at the park for a little while).

I was in a carpark this morning and there was a cycle attached to some railings where it ought not to have been, it was in a disable parking bay but there is no cycle parking area in that carpark, motorcycles yes but that has a notice saying no cycles permitted.

Attached to the saddle of the cycle was a parking ticket. Now cycles are not registered here, they are untraceable, so how the heck to they seriously expect this 'criminal' to be traced if he just ignores the fine?

I have just emailed the photo to our local newspaper, I am sure they will take the matter further. What a waste of a plastic bag and a parking ticket!

Typical 'Jobsworth'! Give some people a uniform & suddenly they want to rule the world. It would be funny if it weren't so sad. Hope your newspaper gives it the coverage it deserves!

"Now cycles are not registered here, they are untraceable, so how the heck to they seriously expect this 'criminal' to be traced if he just ignores the fine?"


If I were the owner of the bicycle, I'd want to frame the ticket and hang it on my wall for a laugh!

I bet it will be.

Well maybe the bike rider will take the hint and not park there anymore (can you tell I'm not a fan of bike riders?).

As the cycles ignore red lights and one way streets and cycle on pavements here and could get caught but rarely do it's a bit of a waste of time trying something that's guaranteed not to work. They could have taken it and waited for the owner to report it stolen though, that may have done the job.

A typical Victorian station building in Haslemere. These are gradually being demolished around London to leave empty platforms as staff are taken off many routes.

Despite this sign, I proceeded on and was glad I did so. More of that later.....

Re MotherGoose and the flying foxes; The grey-headed flying fox is causing great concern among horse owners in our eastern ststes.
http://access.health.qld.gov.au/hid/Infe...nfection_fs.asp

The E Type Jaguar is 50 years old this year.

My ex had one of those before I met him, a silver convertable.

Toketee Falls, east of Roseburg, Oregon

Welcome goofyfoot, I see some professional equipment used there! I still use my old film camera for anything complicated as I've had the equipment a long time so always there when I need it.

This is a typical wooded Surrey road actually in Sussex just before Haslemere but near the border.

If you consider a now obsolete XTi, a 55-250mm lens and a tripod as professional equipment, so be it.......

It is more a product of photomatix and photoshop......the effort of hiking in darn near finished me off!

Well it is gorgeous whatever you used!

Goofyfoot: Welcome! I noticed you posted to nearly every thread here today and they were ALL fabulous pictures! (Granted, you live in one of the most beautiful states I've ever visited, but even so, lovely "eye"/technique)

Satguru: I'm still waiting for a picture with more than 2 persons in it. I remain convinced that an invasion of the body-snatchers has taken place in your adjoining neighbourhoods LOL (nice photos though!).

SpanishLiz: I thought Precious looked pretty smug in both : )

SOTHC: Love the otters. And so VERY nice to see you posting here again! Have missed your sense of humour

Martin: Did you also visit the Smithsonian? (or did you "do" that on your last trip abroad?) It's one of my dream destinations. I got sort of close once but only made it as far as Baltimore and then on to Richmond.

Szabs: Wonderful sunflowers!

Love the bats too, eagerly anticipating Auntie's possible snake encounter : )

Glad you enjoy my sadly inadequate efforts..........I'm an HDR adherent, so there is quite a little post-processing involved.

Ah, when I said professional equipment I could see some effects would be impossible with a compact, but the depth and colour had also been enhanced which needs quite pricy software as well. But it's about the end result, and if I could brighten, focus and even out mine better they'd bring a lot more from average to reasonable. With the compact if the light isn't just right they look too dark, whether it is or even when it's bright and coming from the wrong direction. My solution is just to take many more and reject the dark ones, which is the one benefit of not wasting film on such attempts.

re: expensive software.........my daughter attends San Francisco's Academy of Art University, so she (and I)get student pricing on software.

Depth and color enhancement is the result of HDR, 5 separate exposures were combined to create the final result.

Sorry to disappoint you Jakeroo, but it's winter and there were no snakes in evidence.
Here's what I saw;



I felt I was walking down a bush road with wattles in bloom and the smell of eucalyptus in the air. In reality it's 300 hectares surrounded by dense suburbia.
The land was used for quarrying basalt from the late 19th century until the 1980's, and later as a municipal tip (rubbish dump).
Finally it was decided to fill the deep quarry holes to form shallow ornamental lakes and to landscape and plant the area as an urban park to be known as "Newport Lakes".
I was last there a few years ago when it was still rough and weedy with young trees struggling through drought. I am so impressed with the way it looks now, I think I'll be taking frequent short bushwalks.

Jake. Due to the limited amount of time I had available to me in Washington DC that day,
it was quite literally a flying visit to the Air & Space museum and here was no opportunity
to visit any of the other museums unfortunately. It was a dream of mine to see the A&S one
though so I'm glad we were able to go there.

This is the Capital building in DC..

A splash of blue......

and some purple

This is a pair of Gang-gang cockatoos. The name is derived from an Aboriginal language. The female is all grey and the male has a red head. Unfortunately they are on the endangered list because of loss of habitat.