Rock 'n' ripple

Rock 'n' ripple,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

I love the action of the receding waves ... in the water, not in my hair.

Another view of yesterday's cloud

This evening's storm at Sandy Beach 2,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

This evening's storm at Sandy Beach

This evening's storm at Sandy Beach,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Good storm this evening, eh, Sandysiders?

And now a cicada!

And now a cicada!,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

I'm getting quite a few visitors tonight ... because of the heat.

Christmas beetle

xmas_beetle,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Christmas eve. Right on time.

Merry Christmas to Sandysiders and visitors

Click to embiggen

Current Conditions
Updated: 12:00 PM EST on December 24, 2005
Observed At: Coffs Harbour Mo, New South Wales
Temp: 102 °F / 39 °C
Partly Cloudy
Humidity: 16%
Dew Point: 59 °F / 15 °C
Wind: 8 mph / 13 km/h from the NW
Wind Gust: -
Pressure: 29.73 in / 1007 hPa (Falling)
Visibility: 22.0 miles / 35.0 kilometers
UV: 11 out of 16

Local weather

Looks like it'll get hot soon; it's only noon. :)

Merry Christmas to one and all. See you after the break. Drive safely.

Another view of Santa's Cave

Another view of Santa's Cave,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Santa's (fridge) Cave

Santa's (fridge) Cave,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Merry Christmas to subscribers and visitors. (Click.)

Gannet plunging film

If you would like to see a short 9.5MB flm of a gannet (or maybe a tern?) plunging into the Pacific in front of the same dawn I posted a pic of here yesterday, click here before Christmas (when yousendit.com will remove it as they only keep items for seven days). It was a lucky shot, best watched enlarged but not full screen.

Dawn today at Sandy Beach

Dawn today at Sandy Beach,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Rainbow with birds and island

Rainbow with birds and island,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

This was rather a nice snap, I think, of an interesting scene at Sandy.

Wave and cloud

Wave and cloud,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

I took this a few days ago. I was enchanted by the wild and ragged shapes of the wave, cloud and tree horizon, yet with a flat surface of sand in the middle.

Ripple

Ripple 3,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Cronulla: Only people can stop John Howard's mob

Now that racist violence has broken out in Cronulla (southern suburb of Sydney), Australia's reactionary Prime Minister John Winston Howard must be made accountable by the citizens.

We can not expect the media to do it because of the high concentration of media ownership among Howard-supporting conservative owners. (According to Reporters Without Borders in 2004, Australia is in 41st position on a list of countries ranked by Press Freedom.)

The first thing he must do is publicly condemn John Stone (former treasury secretary and National Party senator) for his article 'Some will not integrate' and Stone's statement: "I am thinking of founding the Queen Isabella Society" -- referring to Isabella of Castile, the notoriously cruel ruler of Spain who, with her equally horrendous husband Ferdinand, created the Spanish Inquisition, ordered 150,000 Jewish subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion, expelled Muslims, and so on ... Read on at the Blogmanac

Tagged: australia, cronulla, racism, islam, muslims, human+rights, muslim

Jeff the Coffs Council gardener

Jeff,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

This is Jeff, who is a good sport and allowed me to snap this Christmas-tide photo. Jeff works for Coffs Harbour City Council and the street roundabouts which he is responsible for are a delight to local residents and visitors. He is also well known, in five minutes chatting with him, three people driving by called out a "gidday" to him. Thanks, Jeff! And season's greetings to all.

Another shot of yesterday's storm

Clouds Sandy Beach yesterday 2,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Clouds Sandy Beach yesterday

Clouds Sandy Beach yesterday 4,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Or are they UFOs?

We've had a hot week, with temperatures in the high thirties, or about 90-100 Fahrenheit, most days. Yesterday this storm came by at about 1.30pm, with some great lightning, but it by-passed Sandy Beach itself.

Spider wraps beetle

Spider wraps beetle,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Two paces from Esmeralda the Computer, a big lady Orb-weaving spider wraps an equally large Christmas beetle. If you would like to see the great little film I took (14MB) of the wrapping, I will send it by www.yousendit.com on request.

Never eat anything bigger than your head

Never eat anything bigger than your head,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Hello, breakfast! A garden skink about to be wrapped and presumably eaten. Thirty minutes after I took the pic, the spider had dragged the lizard up about 50 cm higher in its web.

Cruel and unusual

At 6pm it was 29 °C (85 °F). At the south end of the park there were a lot of flags in the ground and about 30 young men running and passing footballs to each other. I don't care what they've done, this seems to me a very harsh punishment.

Moth flying, spider, Moon, Venus

Moth flying, spider, Moon, Venus,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

What a magnificent night at Sandy Beach tonight! The air is warm, still and clear and blazing with thousands upon thousands of stars. This snap sort of looks like the Southern Cross in memory of yesterday's anniversary of the Eureka Stockade, December 3, 1854. But it was a spider, the Moon and Venus, and a passing moth, photographed in the laneway next to The Ponderosa.

You can see what's happening in the night sky by clicking the weather 'sticker' in the left-hand sidebar on this page, any time. Then there's a link to what's going on above our heads.

By the way, while I think of it: The baby swallows I showed here in October are now extremely cute and flying around Sandy Beach. If you see them, say hello.

Dawn at Sandy Beach

Dawn at Sandy Beach,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Looks like a nice day ahead.This was at about 5.45 am and although they're almost invisible, there are some fishermen in a boat in the picture, headed towards the sunrise.

Social Calendar

Hymenoptera

I don't feel so bad that I don't know the species name of the 747-sized wasp that stung my left earlobe yesterday, making it sore and itchy today, because I just read that there are 12,000 species of Hymenoptera in this country -- too much to memorise.

Fortunately, I'm right-eared.

Ka-BAMMM!!!!!!

Sandy Beach and Woolgoolga completely black out for four hours whenever more than seven residents use hairdryers or try to cook an evening meal at the same time (and isn't Macca's in Coffs Harbour thankful for the extra burgers sold!).

So I think we all must be lost in wonder today that last night's electrical storm did little more than cause the lights to dim half a dozen times, as well as washing a gully in at least one of the sandy footpath entrances to the beach, plus a few grey hairs for the residents and pets. I needed a dose of RelaxaTabs washed down with a jug of NervoCalm after one lightning bolt last night that seemed to explode like a US Army multicultural goodwill greeting somewhere about halfway between my subsconscious and the washing line.

To all the Sandysiders who, like me, have just come down from the ceiling following last night's thunderclaps: hold onto your lightning rods, 'cause here she comes again!