The House(s) of Fran_mart

 We approached this with a little trepidation as it would be our first go at a Victorian Border Control.   This was made a little more tricky as my printer (in Canberra) has gummed up, after not being used for a year, and only did half the black and white business.  And it wasn't the black!  So we were relying on the copies of the permits emailed to us: another innovation. The departure was fine: as always I was concerned as to whether I could fit the mountain of stuff into the Jetta and as usual it just swallowed it all.  Off we went. All was fine, although I did notice that the quite heavy traffic coming towards us was coming in pulses: road clear for some time and then 20 cars in a stream  This smelt of road works in our future.  So it was.  A short distance after Bunyan we found the traffic stopped.  Here is the situation: We joined the queue at the maroon line and sat there for 17 minutes and 22 seconds.  It turned out they were resurfacing the road (blue line).  My guess is t

 It was a much nicer day than when Margaret led a walk here some years ago, with a maximum of 4 degrees and (I think she mentioned snow).  Today the temperature was mid 20s with lots of shade.  A good day to go for a row. Approximately 23 members gathered at the National Rock Garden for a stroll around the Lindsay Pryor Arboretum.  Sandra gave some remarks explaining the career of Lindsay Pryor which clearly justified him having an Arboretum named after him.  It appears that the Arboretum was planted to improve the view from the back of the Lodge. For some reason the nearest eBird Hotspot is called Barrenjoey Point.  Here is the route we followed: As we headed off a number of brown ground-loving birds were seen and originally identified as Australasian Pipits (and the ID stuck for this one.  On looking closely several of them were soon renamed as female White‑winged Trillers    Personally, I always find them a difficult species to identify, usually arriving at that species as the bird

 For some few months we have had a number of Geocon cranes with a foul red Geocon sign in front of our apartment.  Today they started to dismantle one of them  We were out when the process started but this gives an idea of the setting for the images to follow. You can sort of pick out the workers in this. The final stage appeared to involve kicking the bit to be separated. I have seen photos from NYC in the 30s of people eating their lunch in this sort of position. One of my friends, who was much involved in Rallying as an administrator, said he'd never be a navigator as he had an imagination.  I reckon this dude has a great future in the left seat. Ibid.  I am very relieved to see the safety strap.  (And very relieved that I didn't see one get used.) I have heard hammers referred to as the ultimate spanner. If a little hammer doesn't work, use a bigger hammer.  If you have both hands on the hammer, what are you using to hold on?   Having started to remove the bolt with the

We had intended to spend most the week of  11-17 January in Canberra but for a number of reasons, including our apartment being in the middle of a film set, we put it off so that we came up on the 17th.  Here are a few snaps. The first two are of the forest along Imlay Rd (around km post 20).  A year ago a lot of this would still have been smoking, so the regeneration is pretty good. An area getting close to km 40 I think, where a hillside, previously covered with pines, has been clear felled.   These are the White Rocks  The dunny here has not yet been rebuilt. This is the view from about km 55, close to the end of the road, were it drops down towards the Genoa River.  The clearing of pines in the distance had certainly started before the fires.  At the bottom of the hill on February 7 2020 there was still active fire (see images a couple of screens down in this post ). The rest of the drive was unremarkable, other than us both commenting on the relatively heavy traffic.  I don't