Yes, I’m Still Here !!

This week I had an email from Old Bob asking if I was OK because there have been no posts recently. Here’s what’s happening.

There have been no posts because I haven’t been out riding much.

Reason 1 is the weather. After the coldest June/July for many years we had the warmest August ever but it came with strong winds and much rain. September has continued this with the occasional really cold wind from the south due to climate issues with the southern Polar Vortex. It’s not working as it usually does and is sending cold air much further north – so it’s not good cycling weather for old blokes.

Reason 2 is that I am having cataract surgery. The right eye is done and recovering. The left eye is done next week. During the recovery period it is important not to get wind in it!! While the Roaring Forties are roaring this is a bit tricky.

These two reasons plus a few other things are the reasons why I haven’t been out cycling much and, when I get out, why I am only travelling routes much cycled.

Anyway, while out there I have taken a few pictures :

The above picture was taken before Tasmania had a severe windstorm that blew to pieces many trees. This wattle survived but many eucalypts in the same area lost limbs and some were uprooted. Eucalypts are shallow rooted and when the soil is moist (as it is at the moment) they just fall over in very strong winds. we had gusts up to 130 KPH in our area and 100kph for prolonged periods. Our house has never vibrated in the winds before but the solar panels survived.

Photography has been interesting. I located a replacement battery for my aging DSLR camera. Finding it hard to get a real Nikon battery for it, the local “Every Battery” found a non-brand replacement. I haven’t used the DSLR for ages had found I had forgotten about the need to think about depth of field. The more recent cameras I have don’t worry too much about that – everything is in focus! So my first ride with the DSLR was not successful – very strange focussing missing the subject and highlighting the “not subjects”. Getting back into it makes me think more about the picture so that must be good. Right?

The sheep were feeding from one or more bales of hay rolled out to give them nourishment. At this stage of the winter there hadn’t been a lot of rain and pastures were being eaten down. Farmers were de-stocking and the abattoirs finally couldn’t take anymore. I am told the large round hay bales were fetching $2.000 $250 (revised after talking to more people!) each due to scarcity and very few could be spotted as I cycled around.

Since then the rains have arrived, grass has grown and paddocks seem filled with ewes and lambs once more.

The windswept emu was a good subject to practise focussing on the subject with the background emus and cattle not competing.

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So, yes, I will be getting back to blogging probably sometime in October. Who knows, I may start with another outing with the trailer.

’til then .. stay safe everyone.