The House(s) of Fran_mart

 Some photos around town.   I start with  the construction site formerly known as Commonwealth Park.  It is a mess,  and the bloke I spoke to was unsure when they'd finish but hoped before the site is set up up for the next Floriade.  Resign, Sally Barnes, for this annual fiasco.  Oh - she has resigned, but apparently for being old, not because of poor policies. The Grey-headed Flying Foxes are back in numbers. An interesting crane being shifted around.  The driver is on the end of the jib travelling backwards! Another crane: this one removing the site office from our facade removal project as they have finished  after about 18 months. Jobs I wouldn't like - an ongoing series.  I have spoken to these folk in the past https://franmart.blogspot.com/2019/04/in-memory-of-window-cleaner.html and they are mainly rock climbers keeping in shape and earning a few $$$ while doing so.  They are also young. A couple more window cleaning ph...

 The basic calculation for this trip was when the Mazda would reach 20,000 km and thus need its second service.  A twist is given to that by wanting to book the service 4 weeks out to ensure I get a courtesy car for the day of the service.  So it was set for 11/7.  It has been annoying that something in the car system has been set so that it gives warnings about service interval and oil change every time the car is started once I passed 10kkm after the last service/  I was able to blot it for a while but that has now come back.  GRRRR. A second calculation came about with the price of diesel.  Using the petrol spy app (even though the Mazda uses diesel) showed the price on Thursday 6 July to be 209.9 c/l in Mallacoota - ripping the community off? no, no  not us - 178.9 in Cann River, 185.9 in Bombala and 168.9 at Costco in Canberra.  The Mazda suggested we had a range of 450km and it is about 370 km to Canberra.  So the decision was...

 The business today was going to the Western Treatment Plant (WTP) near Werribee.  I am not sure how big the place is, but its huge.  We often do 60 km on the tracks in there.  Today started off with what could be called Average weather.  Possibly a step down, to Ordinary.  It was still raining when we left our accommodation in Rosslyn St.  The first image is Spenser St, but the small camera didn't like the low level of light: at 0800 hrs it was still barely light. I think these next images are somewhere over the Westgate Bridge but still manky. The rain stopped just before the the Point Cool turnoff, but the temperature still hovered around 8C. It was good to get Bird of the Day done with early.  These 3 Brolgas were seen from Point Wilson Rd, before we actually got into the Plant. We got a few birds in the T-section ponds but it was so unpleasant out in the wind we didn't get out of the car.  Touring the Western Lagoons a highlight was a fl...

 We had to get the car serviced and various other ACT chores so headed for Canberra on 1 November - the day of the Donkey Derby.  Whether related to that or not we didn't know but there was a lot of traffic on both the Princes Highway (to Cann River) and the Monaro/Snowy Mountains Highways the rest of the way.  We had expected a lot of rain, but that didn't happen.  Evidence of recent falls was in the amount of water in the Genoa River a little South of Bombala. The Bombala River, at the dunnies in Bombala, had a good flow but was well below flood level.  As there is a large catchment area upstream (to Brown Mountain, at least 40 km away) this can gather a lot of water quite quickly. No dramas on the drive to the apartment.  It was inteestnig that at one point we crossed with a convoy of about 6 original (ie BMC) Minis and a little later about 12 Porsches of various designs, again in a convoy. On the Wednesday Frances had some business so I took myself off ...

 Excuse the boring title but that was all I could think of.  Dawn on Sunday gave a nice view of Mount Ainslie to the North. The light also revealed interesting marks on the window.  I assume these are bumpers on the swinging stages as the guys remove and replace the cladding.  Probably not a good idea to wash the windows until the cladding project if finished. Our morning walk started with a pretty Magnolia in Glebe Park. Passed through an alley in Reid (notable for the signs about dog poop)  .. .. and past some good topiary in a garden in the Northern section of the suburb. Frances returned to Lifeline Book Fair while I went for a walk to Justice Robert Hope Park.  Few birds around but it was good to get three species of Acacia in flower in one image.  I think they are A. ulicifolia; A. baileyana and A. melanoxylon . Bad news for the local frogs! A flowery street scene in Watson.  Note that the heads-up display on my windscreen shows the 50kph li...