Blue Lake to Cave Gardens

is only slightly less than 1.5 kilometres than the kookaburra flies.

Yes, Mt. Gambier South Oz is not exactly the hugest nor largest thriving metropolis out there, but at least it is Out There! Not for me though, heck I think Naracoorte is too big. A place just about my size would be Reedy Creek. Heck, it's close enough to that big smoke of Lucindale for me! Can you tell I like small towns? BTW, whilst we drove "thru" Reedy Creek I noticed there was only 1 (one, uno, einz) building visible from the "road".

Yeah, I could handle living there! The fact that the single building was a CFS (Country Fire Service) depot/shack made me feel right at home. Wifey-poo however feels that Naracoorte is more her size. Harumph.

*screech* go the brakes as we shift gears!

Hey look, I can cook. Here's proof:


And if you'd like to make the dish by your very own oneses, I have explained how to do that right here.

The above sentence is highlighted, it's what is called a LINC in the biz. Pardon me for showing off my skillz.

Back to The Limestone Coast and Mt Gambier! Here's some info (in case you were interested about Blue Lake):



And here is a picture PROVING (or proofing depending on the context of course) that whilst it was raining...


... Blue Lake is still really *bleepin'* BLUE!

No, there are no (as is NONE) photo enhancements done to nor on the above picture. Trust me.

Lake water is not supposed to look that colour when it is overcast, rainy, and the angle of the sunlight still only 2 hours after dawn. Oops, who's chasing Dawn????

Next stop: Cave Gardens!

Cave Gardens was the original waterin' hole for this particular area. And when the Europeans got to this area (after killing the original inhabitants of course) they also used it as a water source. The town of Mt. Gambier was built around the water source, hence Cave Gardens is right smack dab in the middle of the hustlin' bustlin' downtown Mt Gambier! Don't worry, rush hour is very short.

See what I mean?



But before we get to the first bit of Cave Gardens, I just have to share with you my not-so-latest 3d stuff. I'm assuming that all my loyal readers will have seen or perhaps at least heard of the second X-Dude movie. You know, the movie based on a comic called "X-MEN" where all the really cool "X-MEN" were not "MEN" but were actually "WOMEN"?

Anyhows, did anyone of you think that the inky-poof teleporting-in effect for Nightcrawler was nifty? I did. So I quite naturally did what anyone who thought that Calvin (from the comic strip) was just not using his imagination enough would do.

Hereupon I humbly present to you (dear reader) an here-to-fore unknown gem from the master of imagination (that'd be Calvin, from the comic strip) of... well... something...



I shall now take a bow. And I shall take that bow and shoot an arrow with it.


Alrighty, enuff stupidness and sillytude from me. It is far past time to let Momma Nature (who has had so much more practice than myself) show off her beautiful work!

Cave Gardens, Mt Gambier.














And what would life be like without a video?




Did any of you notice a particular critter in some of those pictures or a part of that video? Something that was perhaps not bipedal and non-hairy?

Perhaps this will help refresh your mammaries...



Next up: The Birds and The Bees of Cave Gardens!
don't worry, it'll be safe for work. maybe

Playing around with 3d stuff

Why? Because I can, that's why.

Not sure what I'll do with this, just monkeying around this arvo and thought I'd share. Please click on it to view it full size, the detailing is primo!

Another Year Has Flown By!

Yes folks, another year has gone by. Flew by! Shot by! ZZZZZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMED by!

I blinked, I missed it. Darn.

Yes, it is my birthday today, Sunday August 28th 2011.

I wasn't expecting anything this morning as our plans for overnighting somewhere (anywhere EXCEPT the house!) were shot to shit 2 weeks ago. Spent the last 2 weeks helping BIL with his PHD thesis AND helping him grade biology lab reports for 1st year uni students.

Is there anything his daveness can't do? Full disclosure: his daveness is what one of my twitter girlfriends calls me :-} She also wants a clone of me. Or at least someone to cook for her!

Don't swoon ladies, I'm human!

Anyways, wifey-poo and I are gonna get away, it'll be a late birthday pressie for me.

And even with that I did get some pressies this morning! I did have to make my own cake, but I'm pretty good at that.

BIL picked out a great card. It is the BEST BIRTHDAY CARD EVER!




Hey, off topic but can anyone guess whereabouts in South Oz this picture was tooked?




Now by now I'm sure that perhaps just one or two of you are about to inquire as to my current age. Well, you don't need to ask cuz I'm gonna tell ya!

I am now 2.6914 x 10^52 Planck time units old.

And I feel every single one of them at times!

For those of you who have a hard time converting Planck time units into the arcane "year" measurement, I have this to say:


nanner nanner nanner

The Butt of All Jokes

I really did mean to get these monarch butterfly pics up for you, butt recent circumstances did knot allow me to.

Butt I'll explain that later. And you get another story of Unkie Dave hurting himself. Butt this is NOT from his youth, this is a story from his oldeth instead.

Butt first, how's abouts some monarch butterfly pics?

The Adelaide Hills has a very stable population of monarch butterflies, and when they are migrating through the Hills you can see loads of them. A few weeks ago this just happened to be one of those days. And Wifey-Poo had her new camera! Her new one is a FujiFine Pix HS10. It has a 30 to 1 OPTICAL zoom! And twice the dpi as our ole S6500fd (which I was using)

Needless to say, we both got some pretty darned good butterfly pics that day!

Here are some of mine first. Enjoy!

This pair had just landed and were folding up their wings to get ready to feast on pollen.




Same pair, slurping away with wings folded.




Same pair. Most of them folded their wings up whilst slurping nectar.




I finally found one bloke (yes, this one is a male) that left his wings open whilst feeding!




And then there's the best pic I was able to get of him!




You are now about to see the difference when you double the dpi and triple the zoom. BTW, Wifey-Poo's new camera goes from taking supermacro to taking 720 mm zoom shots without changing lenses.

She was still learning the colour balance and all the nifty controls, but the detail is just amazing!









We both took pics of the bloke who left his wings out whilst feeding. Just compare the detail!




This one is cool since you can see his tongue!




Butt that's enough of butterflies!

Let's move on to the next subject, ME!

Story time! Yes, I know it's been a long time since you've heard a story about your Unkie Dave hurting himself, butt let's just end that right now! I'm sure you all recall the time I left my face on the pavement (6 yrs old), broke leg in scissors swing thingy (5 yrs old), broke arm 10 yrs old, left 10 foot long bloody skidmark on pavement from summer roller-skiing accident at 15 yrs old, did a faceplant... oh, HECK! I'm sure you get the idea! I had a fun childhood.

Growing up wild? Yeah, that sounds about right. Nearly smashing my eyesocket with the back of my hatchet? Yup, that'd be me mate. I should write a book titled Growing Up Wild.

Anyways, I tell you this cuz not only are all those stories in my blog archives *cough cough*, butt also to tell you I know a wee little bit about pain.

As in the pain difference betwixt a sprained ankle and a broken ankle. The pain of multiple broken bones as opposed to a cracked rib or three.

I tells ya mates, when my skeleton is dug up and examined by future archaeologists they are gonna think I was tortured from 4 yrs old to 45 yrs old. Nope, I just had fun.

Butt two and a half weeks ago I was not having fun.

Oh sure, I was cleaning the pool (which is always fun as it means I'll be jumping in) butt it wasn't exactly what you call "fun" as in the "fun" of creek climbing. BTW, the creek climbing story is in the archives, just have a squizz through some of my early posts.

I was standing on the edge of the pool. The edges of the pool are very hard tiles over concrete. The edges are also a crisp, clean, 90 degree edge.

As I was finishing vacuuming the shallow end of the pool, the end of the pole became slightly tangled in the vines that grow over, through, and around the fence.

Here's a pic of the offending vines:




Here, lemme just scribble all over the pic so it'll make scents to y'allns!




I'm totally sure that explains everything!

Back to the story. When the top end of the vacuuming pole caught in the vines, my first, and natural, reaction was to pivot to my right, reach out with my right arm and free the pole.

Sounds simple, right?

Ha!

You have to remember that I although I am rather strong (smelling) I do have to take care of how I move and lift due to my back. Don't ask, long story mate.

So as I pivoted on my right foot whilst reaching to the right with my right hand and holding onto the pole with my left hand, my left foot decided that if it pivoted whilst remaining stationary that my back would be not very happy.

Hence, at that point, my left foot decided to step forward in order not to piss off my lower back too much. There was, needless to say, a slight problem with that particular maneuver: a step forward was a step into the pool.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm NOT a klutz. Besides, if my batteries would've been fully charged then I'dve just walked across the water. Alas, I neglected to plug myself in the previous week as I did not anticipate any walking on water in my near future.

So my foot started to sink rather rapidly.

You know how when you are falling there is always the quite natural, instinctual reaction to try to arrest the fall? As in, you try to bloody-well catch yourself mate! Butt if I had been thinking (HA!) then I'm sure I would've just gone with the fall and went splat into the pool. Well, DUH!

Butt no, instincts took over and my body tried to arrest the fall well before my brain had a chance to engage (it was in idle, so it's excused).

What happened is that I tried to grab onto the pole with my right hand, my right foot slipped to the right (I'm glad I'm flexible as I did the "splits" without warming up) as my left butt cheek landed directly on the REALLY FUCKING HARD edge of the pool. Oh, and somewhere my left hand tried to cushion the fall and jammed it's own wrist -stupid left hand.

After my left butt cheek landed SOLIDLY on the edge, the rest of my body slowly slithered into the pool. The whole operation took about 0.001 seconds, butt it felt like an eternity.

My first thought was "Well, didn't need that tailbone anyways." Butt then the shaking set in. Then the nausea set in. Then my legs didn't really feel like working.

Yeah, I kinda knew something was wrong. Perhaps the nausea inducing pain from my left glute MAY have had something to do with it. Maybe.

About ten minutes later I was able to gather the strength to extricate myself from the shallow end of the pool which happens to a whole whopping 2 feet deep. I slowly made my way up the two steps to the pool door and whimpered my way into the kitchen to puke into the sink.

Since Wifey-Poo and BIL were in the kitchen at the time I do believe they figured out rather quickly that something was, shall we say, wrong. I threw up in the sink, then told then what happened.

I gotta tell y'all something. If you want some serious sympathy then you may want to consider cracking your pelvis and getting your glute muscle torn and separated from the bone. Oh sure, you'll be in a lot of pain, eating ibuprofen by the handful, icing your butt with multiple ice packs, and generally being miserable. Butt dang I tells ya mates: Serious Sympathy!

Of course after you've been laying on one side all day which causes your previously compressed lower back disks to go wonky you may not be too happy. That's why I recommend sending your BIL to the bottle shop for a case or four of tequila. And keep it in your bedroom!

As many of you have been following this blog for yonks now, you may have come to realize that I have left my scents of embarrassment long behind me. Therefore it really shouldn't surprise you that I have taken daily pictures of My Butt Bruise!

And I'm sure you're all just dying to see them! Ha. No, I didn't take them in ultra-high fidelity like the BUTTerfly pics. In facts, these were all taken in low light in a mirror. And I shrunk them waaaaaaay down.

And since they were taken by Yours Truly (don't swoon ladies, I'm human) in a mirror you'll notice the pictures are "mirrored". Trust me when I say that it's my LEFT butt cheek that has the bruise and broken parts.

I therefore do not think there is any reason why you all won't just LOVE to see this really awesomely cool bruise throughout a 12 day period. It kinda looks like I chased a rainbow butt the rainbow smacked me on the ass. Either that or the leprechaun has a really warped scents of humour.

Butt if you are easily offended (yeah, like any of my readers are!) then you may knot want to scroll down any farther. Oh, I've already shared these pics on twitter. One person said they've never seen a bruise like that outside of an emergency room! So weather or knot you view these pictures, please keep in mind that my bruised, naked, butt is already world famoose.

Without any further ado...

Here is the Butt Bruise Pic Day 1!





What comes after Day 1? Why, day 2 of course!:




Day 3 usually follows day 2:




Day 4:




Day 5 follows day 4:




I neglected to take a day 6 pic. I think the codeine didn't let me wake up. So here's Day 7:




Let's zip to Day 9! The dark line is from the impact (it hurts a bit):




Getting some really cool rainbow colors now!




Butt some things always fade away... Day 12:




Lastly, since you've read this far, I feel safe in telling you that I'm so very glad I'm right handed because I couldn't even begin to imagine the agony if I tried to wipe with my left hand!

Back From The Abyss!

Well, no not really. I didn't go anywhere. I didn't do anything.

"So why the bloody-hell din't ya post anythin' ya lousy wanka?" Yes, I heard you say that. From all the way down here too, also.

Why not? I always try to post something funny, or humorous, or punny so as to give all my readers some enjoyable entertainment and perchance a giggle or two. And just maybe an opportunity to forget about all the crap going on around us all.

Unfortunately, my phunny bone hasn't been very ticklish lately. Heck, Wifey-Poo will tell you that I'm not ticklish at all so the phunny bone not being tickled should come as no surprise.

See, lately every time I've sat my lazy ass down to type in a blog post, it seems like I've been forcing the humour. And I'm sure you can all relate to just how painful it can be when you try to force out a large blockage!

I do believe I've found a nice, natural, re-laxative. We'll see just what and how much of it hits the fan!

Basically, I'll be typing in whatever I want, putting up whatever pictures I want to with whatever caption I feel like putting on them. So, yeah, not much has changed, eh?

Befour you get to the pictures though, I'd like to share with you a brief conversation I had with Wifey-Poo as I can't remember the long ones.

As always, YT is Yours Truly -don't swoon ladies, I'm human! WP is of course Wifey-Poo -otherwise known as the most wonderful woman in the entire world since she puts up with Yours Truly.

*YT walks in from the cooker outside, and it's nearing dinnertime*

YT: Honey!

WP: Yes dear? *oh crap can't I get ANY writing done without his stupid interruptions?*

YT: How steamed would you like your cabbage? Just a bit steamed or really really pissed off?

WP: Just a bit, thanks. *Is there something heavy nearby I can throw at him?*


Now that you've read all through my above tripe (mmmmmmmm, menudo soup... delish), how's abouts some pics?

The first one is of me. Does that surprise you? It's a self-portrait pic I took of meself with NO mirrors and I wasn't holding the camera out in front of me pointing it at me.

So, no mirrors (or smoke) and the camera is pointing away from me yet I still managed to get a self portrait! And no, there wasn't any reflective surface nearby.

How'd I do it?

Any guesses?

H
e
r
e

i
s

t
h
e

A
N
S
W
E
R






I realize many of you up north may not have figured out how I did it since y'all probably ain't seen your shadow since winter started... Ahem.

Sew to help brighten a cold, dark, windy, snowy, dreary winter for all my Northern Hemisphere readers, I present to you the following picture. It was taken on Australia Day (January 26th).





I was cleaning out the webs around the front of the house the other day, and I spied a really really neat critter. No, you don't need to run away screaming and all like that! Sillies. This is NOT a picture of a spider.

But it is a picture of a critter that has an exoskeleton.

And is very pretty.

And was clinging upside down under the eaves out front.


Ain't she the purdiest thing y'all ever saw?

I tried to get a few front on views, but she was getting pretty skittish and I didn't want to "bug" her. But I did get this one though.




Well (and that's a deep subject), that's all I have for you today kiddies. Don't worry though, you won't have to wait another month for a post from moi, no worries!

Baby Koala Picture!!!!!

Yep, the baby koalas are now big enough at this time of the year to see them out and about with their mommy. This mommy/baby pair was only around 15 to 20 feet up a gum tree so, needless to say, I got some awesomely great pics of them.

Would you like to see one of them? Of course you would. I'll put the flickr one up first at 640 by 480. You can click on it to be able to see the 1600 by 1200 picture. The other one will be the blogger picture embed and you can click on it too to bring up the full size 1600 by 1200 picture.





And here's the same pic via blogger's picture engine:





I stepped outside the other day and found some aussie wasps busy starting a nest.



Needless to say, my next stop was to Bunnings to get some wasps nest killer. Sorry guys, but building your nest right next to my grill is THE WRONG THING TO DO!

Hey, look! A thistle flower!


You can also view this at 1200 by 1600 if you so desire, no worries.

Have you ever been out camping in the middle of nowhere? Perhaps on a small, rocky ridge overlooking a foggy valley as the moon rises over the mountains in the distance? Well if you have then I'm sure you know to keep a VERY close eye on that fog cus you just never know what is gonna come sneaking up the slope to your campsite to feast on your brains!

Here's what I mean:




At full size it's 1514 by 855 so just click on the flickr pic to bring it up.

Or you could just embiggen this one:


Have fun camping, campers!

Don-nah worry! Bee Happy.

Springtime in South Oz. The pacifica blue in the backyard is blooming and you know what that means! Besides lots of sneezing, of course.

Step Right Up and ALL Your Questions Will Be Answered!

Yes indeedy all you little ladies! Just step right up to the Imaginarium of Doctor Dave and all your answers will be questioned!

or something like that

Can anyone guess what film we watched last night? Anyone? Just leave a comment. HINT: It really plumm-s the depp-ths...

Butt I do have two answers for you --don't swoon ladies, I'm human-- instead of only the one you may or may not have been expectorating.

Firstly: why my but was sore and bruised. It has to do with my back. And pressure points. Yes, I had a visit to my chiro a week before my birthday. Wee-Hoo!!!! Happy Birthday to me; here dave, go ahead and treat yourself to a sore ass!

Butt no, it really did help. She had to do some serious work on the pressure points of my right glute with her elbow in order to get the swelling and pain to go away. It worked! She really is amazing, dontcha know. Heck, I can even go in for stuffed sinuses and a few deftly applied thumbs to the top of my neck and all the sinus pressure is GONE.

Alice is cool. Ummmmm, that's Dr Lay actually.

Much better than modern drugs. Butt that's just me.

*********************************************************************

Next answer: My age.

It's sorta kinda like gettin' up there. *wink*

In fact, I am now 2.659009203 *10 ^ 53 planck time units old, and my back with its 4 compressed vertebrae, off-kilter pelvis, off-kilter shoulders, and twisted neck vertebrae feel EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of those planck time units.

I suspect that 3 (three) of my readers can figure out my age. The rest of you can go bugga off mates!

Ha-rumph.


**************************************************************************

It's been a while since I've put up some pictures of Australian wildlife. I shall fix that problem.

I think this lorikeet had it's neck lock. I can relate.

Dude, just give Alice a ring! She'll fix it!

It's quite common for Aussie ladies going au natural to ask me if I think their butt is too big. Here's proof.

Ooooh dave, does my butt look too big?

Wouldn't you just hate to wake up with this bloke staring at you?




The other day I noticed this critter. Not sure whether it's an ant pretending to be a spider or a spider pretending to be an ant. Either way, I wasn't gonna get any closer!

Judging by the eyes, I'm guessing spider.

There's a koala asleep here somewhere...




Oh, why look! Here it is:




This flying bloke picked just the COOLEST LOOKING plant to hang out on!




Just now many cats can YOU find in this picture?




As always just leave your guesses in the comments to anything I may or may not have mentioned, no worries mates.

One last thing... As I'm sure you have all already sent birthday presents/offerings to me (don't swoon ladies, I'm human) I have, most regrettably, yet to receive any of them. Therefore I've decided that all the birthday pressies I receive from you, my loyal readers, shall be put under the tree for Christmas.

Just remembered!

A conversation with Wifey-Poo!

Just a reminder, WP is Wifey-Poo, otherwise known as The Most Wonderful Woman In The Entire World, and YT is Yours Truly --don't swoon ladies, I'm human.

*YT walks into mission control (the 'puter room) carrying his best steel wok*

YT: Honey?

WP: Yes dear? *crap, what does that idiot want now?*

YT: I need to check my tags. Do you know where they are?

WP: ??????????? *????????????????*

YT: You know, my hunting tags.

WP: I'm totally clueless with this one. *can't he EVER let me work without some dumbass conversation?*

YT: I just need to make sure it's the right time of year for this.

WP: For what?

YT: Well, I need to season the wok!

WP: *SOB*


********************************************************************

And on a final note... If none of you ask where I got or why I use the fraze "don't swoon ladies, I'm human" then I'm just gonna... ummmm, errrrrr, KEEP USING IT!

So there.