Queensland

Strangler Figs in Their Prime (Monochrome Monday)

/ Joanne / 5 Comments

Strangler Figs have always fascinated me. Not that I like them by any stretch of the imagination. However, its aerial roots, searching for a foot-hold anywhere, command my attention whenever I see them.

Strangler Figs in their Prime

In this instance I may have edited just a wee bit too much but I really wanted to highlight how this plant strangles its host tree. Such a silent yet quite deadly predator.

At one of my homes in Brisbane (Australia), there was a beautiful old Jacaranda Tree in the front yard when I first moved in. By the time we sold the house just a few years later, it was all Ficus. So, so sad.

 

 

 

7 Day Nature Challenge – Day 7 (Flower Friday)

/ Joanne / 6 Comments

Day 7 of the 7-Day Nature Challenge. It’s hard to believe we are at the final day of this fabulous challenge and being a Friday I couldn’t resist a flower. This is a Australian Bottle Brush of which there at least 50 different varieties.

Bottle Brush Flower

Having spent the morning exploring the delightful Pincushion Island, we took another route back to where our car was parked. For the last 20 meters there was tree after tree of these Bottle Brushes in bloom. It was just glorious!

The lovely Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist nominated me for this wonderful challenge and I have had just the best time. As I’ve been saying all week, do visit her fabulous blog if you aren’t already familiar with it.

And being the final day of this challenge I’d like to invite anyone who might be interested in doing this 7-Day Nature Challenge to please do so. It’s a fabulous way to have nature “re-inspire” you, and not just with your photography I assure you, lol!

 

 

 

 

7 Day Nature Challenge – Day 6

/ Joanne / 2 Comments

Day 6 of the 7-Day Nature Challenge is the combination of the force of nature on what was once a post cemented on Mother’s Nature’s glorious Pincushion Island. Despite these man-made conditions nature prevails by slowly adding life to the bottom of the post.

Force of Nature

The lovely Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist has nominated me for this wonderful challenge. As I repeatedly say, do visit her fabulous blog if you aren’t already familiar with it.

In turn I’d like to invite Imelda of My Wall to join in. Imelda’s captures of the world around her are absolutely stunning plus her accompanying poetry is simply wonderful. Please take a moment to visit her blog if you haven’t already done so!

 

 

 

 

7 Day Nature Challenge – Day 5 (Wordless Wednesday)

/ Joanne / 6 Comments

 

Barnacle City

 

 

 

 

 

7-Day Nature Challenge – Day 4

/ Joanne / 5 Comments

Day 4 of the 7-Day Nature Challenge is the incredible rock formations we found whilst exploring the tiny yet intriguing Pincushion Island on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Rainbow Rocks

The lovely Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist has nominated me for this wonderful challenge. As I said before, do visit her fabulous blog if you aren’t already familiar with it.

In turn I’d like to invite Erin of Erin Waldie Lifestyle Blog to join in. Erin has so many beautiful captures that she often pairs with quotes. It’s so worth a visit to her blog if you haven’t already done so!

 

 

 

 

7 Day Nature Challenge – Day 2

/ Joanne / 12 Comments

For Day 2 of the 7-Day Nature Challenge we are walking along North Shore Beach, Sunshine Coast – Queensland, on our way to Pincushion Island, Maroochy River.

Sand Grass

Getting there took me to part of the Sunshine Coast that I honestly can’t remember visiting since the road was once nothing but a one-lane sand track. Trust me though, we shall be back. And hey, the bitumen is a big improvement, lol!

The lovely Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist has nominated me for this wonderful challenge. As I said before, do visit her fabulous blog if you aren’t already familiar with it.

In turn I’d like to invite Bud from AYR – A Young Retirement to join in. Bud‘s captures of his travels around the world and from Florida with his wife Jane are simply delightful. It’s so worth a visit if you haven’t already done so!

 

 

 

 

7 Day Nature Challenge – Day 1

/ Joanne / 12 Comments

Welcome to Day 1 of the 7 Day Nature Challenge.

For Day 1 I’m sharing a photo of Pincushion Island. This island sits at the mouth of the Maroochy River on the Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Each morning on a recent visit to Australia we looked out upon this island, finally exploring it on our last day!

Pincushion Island

The lovely Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist has nominated me for this wonderful challenge. Do visit her fabulous blog if you aren’t already familiar with it.

In turn I’d like to ask Spotted Cow of Wandering Cows to join in. The Spotted Cow’s captures of her travels around England and abroad are just incredible. It’s so worth a visit if you haven’t already done so!

 

 

 

 

Baby Uluru (WPC: Landscape)

/ Joanne / 5 Comments

Apart from the colour, all the vegetation, and it being less then quarter of the height, one could almost mistake Mount Coolum for Uluru don’t you think?

Landscape

Mount Coolum sits on the beautiful Sunshine Coast where I grew up. Each morning breakfast was eaten overlooking this mountain and the glorious Pacific Ocean. Yes, it was a hard life but I was young, I didn’t know any better , lol!

 

 

 

FOR SALE – Ocean Views! (Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge #38)

/ Joanne / 5 Comments

Walking on the beach early one morning back in Australia I came upon this sign. We were looking for something for sale that had ocean views but this?

Beach for Sale

Mowing isn’t something I’m particularly fond of but shovelling and bagging sand is even lower on the list so we passed, lol! Hopefully the sign was returned to its rightful owner for an actual sale.

 

Cee's Odd Ball Challenge

 

 

 

Travel Day… ugh! :(

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I vaguely remember my first long-haul flight, it seems like a thousand years ago! I was moving to Germany to work but first was stopping in Los Angeles to visit a friend, then onto London to begin a tour of Scandinavia, Russia, and East Europe. It was all so exciting back then!

Now many, many flights later and traveling with two little people, it’s changed somewhat. There’s no denying however having someone to stay with the hand-luggage come wash-room time, or to be on luggage spotting duty on the carousel does lighten the load!

This morning as I stopped the alarm before it even rang at 2.15am, all I could think was that it was going to be a long, LONG day and I just wanted it to be over… and it hadn’t even begun 😦

There was no need to worry though as everything went exceedingly well. The shuttle arrived on time at 3.45am, the children enjoyed breakfast at the airport whilst I plunged into an extra-large coffee with extra shots. The sun rise over Brisbane airport was quite beautiful making the flight to Sydney that much better.

Sunrise over Brisbane Airport

Our next flight, from Sydney to Vancouver, was brilliant. Yet again we were being paged as soon as we stepped foot into the International Terminal but at least we knew from previous experience we still had time to stop for snacks and a little window shopping before heading to the gate. The ground staff couldn’t have been nicer, to the point they actually came up to me and offered early seating since we were a family. No fight for over-head locker space – BOO YAH!

For this flight the three of us were separated but that was okay, after such an early start no one was feeling particularly social anyways and were all hoping for a little shut-eye for a faster flight. Well, one can always dream can’t one as we head up into the clouds?!

Having one's heads in the clouds can be good sometimes!

As Darling Hubby had meetings in Vancouver he changed our flights and arranged an early check-in at the hotel so we could spend the night with him. It was soooo very nice walking into a hotel room knowing service was but a phone call away. Yep, I’d have to say this is a great way to deal with jet-lag as we almost immediately closed the curtains and were asleep!

We woke up in time for dinner and this – talk about the stars being aligned – this full moon was incredible!

Full Moon by HLR

Now it’s time for a midnight snack and we’re waiting for our pizzas to be delivered as our stomachs growl… “mum, how much longer?”