More of nature

Something you don't see every day.

Blue winged kookaburras are common here at the beach, but I think our blue winged kooka's have the most spectacular colours of any I have ever seen. This fellow was snapped with the camera flash (I know the experts detest direct flash, but I don't carry around a ton of camera gear - mainly because I don't own a ton of camera gear).

It was late in the afternoon and the natural light wasn't picking up the iridescence of his blue feathers, so it had to be a flash. I'm not sorry. It has turned out to be my favourite kookaburra photo.

 

Another new favourite photo.

I photographed this water lily as the late afternoon sun was fading fast. The pond was already in shadow, but the petals were catching the last few rays. No flash for this one, just soft natural light and lucky timing.

Soon the McTavish clan are going to see some dinosaurs. Lets hope for some great photos on their blog when they get back. It's been a busy time for all of us lately, but blogging should return to normal soon. Normal is a very relative term, isn't it?

The Museum Trip

Mummy McTavish needed time off from children to shop, drink coffee, meet her friend E, prepare the boys bedroom for their new bunk beds. So I took them and Nanny (great-grandmother to the boys) to the museum.  It has some fantastic, hands-on gizmos for little boys to play interact with, especially in the science section. It's all science really, but you know what I mean. Dragon is making music with some bottles in the first picture.

The model of The Pandora takes up most of the first floor and the highlight of the day was the firing of the replica canon. The presenter asked Dragon which boat they should aim at (the museum is situated on the creek bank overlooking a marina and the canon faces the huge windows). Dragon pointed out a red boat on the opposite bank and was so focused on seeing it blow up that he missed out on all of the activity of preparing the canon and "lighting" the fuse. He didn't miss the bang, but I suspect that he was a bit disappointed when the red boat didn't sink.

While they were there they apparently were put in chains for some misdemeanor and thrown into Pandora's Box. Fortunately I had them released from custody, but not before I took their photos. Monkey looks like a violent and ruthless mutineer if ever I saw one. Don't you agree?

Dragon is such a hardened criminal that he can still smile while being chained up in the dingey, smelly ship's hold. He seems to have grown an extra pair of hands too. Strange things happen at sea. . . .

No wonder they turned into criminals when even their great-grandmother couldn't go straight and ended up in Pandora's Box also.

We had a great time and the boys were very good, but I didn't take many photos because I had my hands pretty full with grandma duties.