Woodlands Garden

I discovered a very pretty front garden outside a Woodlands home today. I may or may not in fact be related to the homeowner.

African Sunset... in Perth

Driving home this evening, the entire western sky was illuminated by an ominous orange glow. A spectacular site, it was more reminiscent of a dusty African sunset than a clean Perth one. The cause was a bushfire north up the coast that had pumped smoke into the sky offshore.

It was 5.50pm and the sun had nearly disappeared, but after a mad dash to City Beach, I arrived just in time. The glow had mostly gone but it was still worth capturing with my iPhone.

Baobabs

There are several species of African baobabs. They're popular with the elephants, who often attack them to get at the water under their bark.

Zambezi Cruise

On a Zambezi River dinner cruise a couple of kilometres upstream from Victoria Falls, the boat captain has to watch out for enormous heads popping out of the water.

Just a Leopard Up a Tree

...with a grumpy elephant underneath. Light levels were low and this was shot on maximum zoom, so the image quality is not great.

Mystery Blobby

You'll never guess which astronomical body this is. The underexposure is a result of my fiddling with the metering mode of the camera. After accidentally setting it spot metering, it used the brightness of the whatever was in the centre of the frame (the sun in this case) to determine the exposure. Not a sensible move.

Waterfall Rainbow

More from Victoria Falls. Zoom into the top left to see tiny leprechaun people at the top of the rainbow.

Victoria Falls

Zambia is on the left, Zimbabwe is on the right, and wet tourists in the centre.

Rainbow Pigeon

Bird names aren't my strong point, so I'm going to call this specimen the Rainbow Pigeon. It was seen in Chobe National Park in northern Botswana, with my new zoom lens. Clearly the colours are unnaturally lurid, so I suspect a local has spray painted this poor creature for the tourists.

Majestic African Wildlife

Having returned home last week from Africa, I'm now ready to share some of the fantastic sights. Let's begin with the mighty African squirrel.

Freaky Clouds

Walking home after the Freo Dockers game yesterday, there was an amazing cloudscape above Salvado Road.

Mysterious Forest Hound

...spotted in Churchlands bushland very early Saturday morning. And when I say very early, I mean 8am. It wasn't safe to get any closer without knowing if the beast was domesticated or wild, but from a distance it seemed savage and ravenous.

Winter Fungus

With the recent rains, mushrooms have been popping up everywhere. Here's one from Churchlands Primary School this morning. Note the hungry dog searching for truffles in the distance.

Killer Butterfly

Another deadly creature from the Northern Territory.

More Litchfield Devastation

Burnoffs in Litchfield National Park

Bungling

From Kununurra, I flew south for a couple of hours to check out the Bungle Bungles. Having counted them (there are 5,542), I flew back.

Outback Air Service

Took a day trip north of Broome up to beautiful Cape Leveque.

Kimberley Boab

Here's the first of billions of boab tree photos I'll be posting soon.

Holiday Virus

Having spent a fortnight on a northern Australia roadtrip, involving numerous hearty meals, it was ideal to catch a virus on my return to Perth that removed my appetite. A whole week during which I lost interest in food was perfect for starving me back to my normal weight. This fortuitous timing gives me an idea for a business opportunity. How about a booth at airports at which gluttonous travellers on their return can infect themselves with this virus, renamed the "Diet Bug"?

Fosbury Flopping

Strangely, my Olympic high jump career never took off, despite clearing an impressive 1.20m using the Fosbury Flop at school in the early 1980s.

Fearsome Teen Gang

From the archives, a rare glimpse of a notorious gang that roamed the woods of Solihull in the 1980s.

Improvising a Spoon

Ever have a yoghurt but no spoon? The solution is simple - mold the foil lid into your very own handmade spoon. Here's my attempt.

Fixing a Radio with the Inverse Square Law

My trusty semidigital radio is gradually falling into disrepair, but it can still perform its fundamental task of turning radio waves into sound. But with the volume dial being permanently stuck on maximum, I'm forced to improvise to quieten it. Luckily studying physics at university has taught me the inverse square law, whereby doubling the distance from the source of a sound will quarter the intensity. So when my radio is 1 metre away and is ten times louder than I want it, whipping out my calculator it tells me that the radio needs to be placed on a table 3.16227 metres away. How convenient is that !

Classic Lego Spaceship

This was our household's first Lego spaceship, from circa 1979.