a few days worth

Tuesday May 8th

Sorry folks I realized when I returned from the internet café that I did not upload the pictures of the telephone poles for the blog yesterday, that must have been a big blow for ya all, hope you could sleep last night!
I have uploaded them to this entry.

We are going for a hike in the Yuraygir National Park this morning, a park that stretches about 10 miles wide and 50 miles up the coast. Part of this park is the Angourie Surf Reserve (see pic), which gives you some idea of the importance of surfing in OZ. where in California or any coastline in the US would this type of real estate be made into a Park? Pretty cool is what I think.

We have tried to go on the above-mentioned hike two different days now, and when we get out to Angourie (pronounced an-gary, which I can’t seem to remember as I always want to pronounce it an-gory), we end up going surfing instead. The water is so nice here it is hard to pass up even small waves, or kind of junky conditions, as we know what it is like in SB right now.

Wednesday 9 may

It is amazing how we are surrounded by so much that we do not notice or really see. Maybe I am starting to lose my mind, but I have noticed lately how I look at things and think I am noticing them, but when it really comes down to it I have not taken it in. For instance I look at the clock and say to myself, “I need to let my tea brew 3 minutes and it is 29 min past the hour.” I put the dishes away and then say to myself “now what time did I start letting my tea brew?” Or I watch the tide come in for an hour this morning (admittedly it is very dark), only to discover the tide is going out when I look at the tide chart. I wonder where my mind is at these times.

One thing I did notice this morning as I was sitting on the porch doing my practice is the shrimping boats out in the ocean. On any given night around here you can see up to a dozen boats out catching shrimp. Like a boat catching squid in SB they have big lights to attract the shrimp. If you go down to the local fish coop to get fish they will have a sign on the shrimp “caught last night”. Greg is not supposed to eat shrimp because of his cholesterol, but I can eat them and it seems a shame not to partake. The big size they catch around here are at least 4” long and about $24.00 a kilo. They sure look good in the market.

This brings up another point about the effect the warm water has on the climate around here. Fog is virtually unheard of. Unlike California where you find a big difference between the land and sea temperature, especially in the summer because of the cold Humboldt Current that sweeps the coast, there is no such current here, hence the warmer water, hence not enough difference in land and sea temperature, hence no fog. Next time the coast of California is designed I think I am going to ask that both the Channel Islands and the Humboldt Current be left out.

Another thing I notice in the early morning darkness are the fairly good sized moths that are flying around the street light just down the street, who don’t have a chance against the large bat that hangs out there. It is amazing how many of these bugs the bat can consume in a short time; he has it made as far as a meal ticket.
The parrots seem to be the first birds awake around here, and they make quite the raucous. Parrots seem to be very affectionate birds this morning I saw many pairs of them snuggled up together in a big pine tree. It seems most of the birds have what sounds to me to be exotic songs. When we walk out to the point at Angourie there is a chorus of song from the assorted birds, none of which I recognize.

We have a friendly little black and white bird that likes to walk into the living room here. He doesn’t seem at all afraid, as you can walk right up to him and he just looks at you and keeps coming towards you. He is what we use here to clean up any crumbs, as that seems to be what he is after.

A note to all you folks out there in blog land. We seem to have lost the wireless Internet connection we were piggy backing on last week ☹.
So it is more difficult to post these entries, especially to include pictures. For some reason it takes forever to upload a picture to the blog. It is interesting how big a part the Internet now plays in our lives. I think both Greg and I really miss not being able to go to our computer at any time of the day and night and get info. I think we are going to go down the rental place and see if they have a unit with Internet.

this other pic is as you come into yamba, i get a big kick out of it....

we are on another adventure today in the north, up byron bay way, more on that tomorrow