Mid-north coasting

I'm just back from a week staying with my mother near Port Macquarie, on the NSW mid-north coast. We took a couple of drives inland to the Comboyne Plateau, Ellenborough Falls and Walcha.  It's a beautiful part of Australia - rugged mountains with tall eucalypts and leafy tree ferns and valleys of lush farming land.

 Rural mailboxes...near Elands

 St Mark's Anglican Church at Marlee (between Elands and Wingham), built in 1874 and surprisingly still going. 

  Probably time for a new cross though

It's a damp part of the country - where there's timber, there's lichen and moss.

 Shack

 

Tiny black ant says hello from Apsley Falls, near Walcha

Along the long and winding road between Wauchope and Walcha.

Next time: Tasmania

Fixer-upper

Or a knock-down-and-start-over. Kent Street, Richmond

Pink

Those leaves look a bit like tongues...

Sparkle

Close up of Christmas star decoration on Flinders Street

Thunderdomes

Well, it looked threatening, but nothing happened.

Bauble

The Shot Tower, reflected in a Christmas bauble

I painted a plane

Not really. The photo somehow came out with an odd, but quite pleasing,

watercolour effect.

Hangin' out

The steps of the State Library

More dramatic skies

Sentinel

The Forum Theatre

Swing dancing

Street performer on Southgate swinging about on a bendy stick

Calm before the storm

I made it home before the storm hit this time

Waiting...

Who can resist an attractive man with a book? Corner Swanston and Little Bourke Streets

Skydove

The clouds were quite unusual this morning when I walked into the city.

Daisy

Blue

Flower and weed

Rowing in the rain

During yesterday's downpour. I took this while sheltering behind a tree with my umbrella.

Dark and stormy

Walking home last night. I'd already been caught in a downpour by this stage.

Blush

Taken while walking home through Birrarung Marr at dusk. I like the mirrored building, but it's a little odd plonked there all by itself

Windows

Off Rathdowne Street, Carlton

 Off Rathdowne Street, Carlton

Rathdowne Street, Carlton

Near Toorak Station

Cycle Sunday

 Melbourne Bike Share bicycles on Swanston Street

 The final leg of the Herald-Sun Tour in Carlton

 

 

 

Portsea Pier

 

Cleaning windows

Ernst & Young Building on Exhibition Street

Angels-Demons

Adorably evil giant babies on parade in the city as part of the Melbourne Festival

Here, gone

 Just as I moved closer to take a better photo...

Dammit.

Demolition

Demolition work for a new retail development between Little Bourke and Lonsdale Streets

Big day

You can just see the lights of the MCG which today played host to the biggest event on the Victorian sporting calendar - the AFL Grand Final.

Fluff

Eureka Tower with fluffy clouds

Protea

Strange clouds

When we first arrived at Sandringham Beach...

(click to enlarge)

Closer up

After the clouds above cleared, more like them

rolled in over the bay

Then, after we'd left the beach, another lot turned up (stupid powerlines!).

The clouds were a less dramatic example of the clouds in the sixth

photo and others further down in this gallery of weird clouds