Monday, June 13, 2011
Walking on the Devils Nose
So today being the Queens Birthday, Chez Reynella went for a walk in Parra Wirra Recreation Park. We normally walk in the central and southern parts of the Adelaide Hills, so this little park was a delightful surprise.We walked to a rock formation called the Devil's Nose. Only 2.2 Km one way, but with SmallestOne and EnergeticFriend along (and EldestOne doing his best disaffected teenager impersonation), you don't want to go too far.
The walk is largely along a rocky ridge, with occasional splashes of quartz. There are stands of she -oaks, pale eucalyptus and grass trees, still flowering and humming with bees.The views are great, across rolling hills dotted with dramatic rocks.
Just .. don't decide "Hey it would be cool to walk down to the creek!", becuase, well, it isn't.
Labels: bushwalking, miscelaneous
Thursday, June 17, 2010
We Climb the Hill
"We climb the hill, the lollipop rock where we have lunch is at the top. When we get down to the cars we have cakes I made from the big box"MiddleOne is not the only artist in the family, but until recently he was the most prolific. Now SmallestOne is set to out do him (although MiddleOne and SmallestOne now engage inmutual strry drawing, where they both draw a long complicated story, usually involving robots, spaceships and explosions, on the same piece of paper).
This is SmallestOnes account of our trip to Montacute Conservation Park, as noted here. It is surprisingly accurate.
Today, instead of being in Melbourne for work, I'm at home with SmallestOne. After the medical hi-jinks on Tuesday, on Wednesday evening SmallestOne started an asthma attack. much administration of asthma medications and worried calls to the Bettdeckererschnappender weisle (who is in the back of beyoond for her work), SmallestOne asthma is controlled but I'm not going anywhere. At least he's doing lots of drawing while curled up in front of the heater.
Labels: bushwalking, home life
Sunday, May 25, 2008
A Walk in the Woods (Lobethal)
It was a perfect Autumn day, so Chez Reynella and friends decided to go for a bushwalk. We went to a little reserve up near Lobethal, the Onkaparinka St. John's Bushland Reserve.Although small, it has a variety ecological settings, wandering past lakes and some historic old mine sites. There wasn't much animal life to be seen, although the bush resounded with bird song, but there were lots of interesting planst though.
Stately gums with near white bark, grass trees, these lichen covered she-oaks, a host of pink flowers and some startlingly coloured fungi all enlivened the walk.
Sadly, the boys ignored most of it, when they weren't discussing "Lord of the Rings" strategy games, they were doing mock sword fights. Still at least they were out in the fresh air.
Labels: bushwalking
Monday, June 11, 2007
Just one of those weekends
We went to Naracoorte of the weekend, catching up with the Farm Cousins and Little Miss Just Walking. Being out in the country, I took along my small teslescope and camera to try and show the younglings Jupiter and Vesta, and see if I could get some decent dark sky shots of Vetsa.So of course it was couldy. First night out, I actually got to see an Iridium Flare through the clouds, pretty neat, but cloudy as all get out otherwise. Next night was clare while we were having tea, and playing table tennis with the younglings. It was clare as I set my telescope up. No sooner had I got Jupiter in my sights then "whoosh" cloud. Driving home the sky was clear, and we could see Venus beconing as we drove into Adelaide. Now, cloud.
At least we did some caving and saw some fantastic fossils to make up for the cloud. And lost of bushwalking.
Labels: bushwalking, fossils, Observational Astronomy
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Camping Moon with Added Venus
The crescent Moon next to El Nath (beta Taurii), Venus and Aldebaran (click to enlarge) on the evening of Saturday 21 April above the Stringy Bark campground, Deep Creek conservation park.We just had a wonderful weekend camping. I missed the Friday lineup of Antares, Venus and the Moon, due to traffic issues making us late to the campsite. But that night the heavens spread above us in an amazing Jewelled carpet. One of the most startling constellations was the Emu, an Indigenous Australian constellation that consists mostly of dark nebula. It stretches from the Southern cross to past Scorpius. Most people are unfamiliar with it, but when it is pointed out, the dark star clouds forever more form an Emu.
Saturday was a nice but strenuous walk down into Deep Creek, where wild seas meet an equally wild landscape. See the stereogram to the left I created of the headland (try centering on the pointy triangular bit in the middle then crossing your eyes, you may need to click to enlarge it).That night, tired but happy and scoffing down large amounts of spaghetti bolognaise, I caught the scene up the top with Venus, ALdebaran and the Moon (in the enlarged version you can just see the Hyades).
Then the clouds rolled in. I had the film camera set up to photograph an iridium flare, the clouds broke at the last moment ... and so too did the cable release of the camera. I held the shutter open manually, but I'm sure the image will be too wobbly to be of interest. That said, the Flare occurred just above Saturn, and was very good to see, before more cloud blotted out the sky at last.
Needless to say, I didn't get to see comet Lovejoy. But it was a wonderful weekend nonetheless.
Labels: bushwalking, Hyades, Moon, Observational Astronomy, Venus
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