A Sandy Beach Almanac



You've landed at Sandy Beach, NSW, Australia: Lat. -30.15331, Long. 153.19960, UT +10:00 – local map & zoom Google map. I live in a cabin on this beach, 25 kilometres north of the traffic and shops of Coffs Harbour, 600 km north of Sydney. My intention is to post observations of Nature and life within 1 km (1,000 paces) of my South Pacific home.

 

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Tuesday, November 29, 2005

An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow

An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow

By Les Murray

The word goes round Repins, the murmur goes round Lorenzinis,
At Tattersalls, men look up from sheets of numbers,
The Stock Exchange scribblers forget the chalk in their hands
And men with bread in their pockets leave the Greek Club:
There's a fellow crying in Martin Place. They can't stop him.

The traffic in George Street is banked up for half a mile
And drained of motion. The crowds are edgy with talk
And more crowds come hurrying. Many run into the back streets
Which minutes ago were busy main streets, pointing:
There's a fellow weeping down there. No one can stop him.

The man we surround, the man no one approaches
Simply weeps, and does not cover it, weeps
Not like a child, not like the wind, like a man
And does not declaim it, not beat his breast, not even
Sob very loudly --- yet the dignity of his weeping

Holds us back from his space, the hollow he makes about him
In the midday light, in his pentagram of sorrow,
And uniforms back in the crowd who tried to seize him
Stare out at him, and feel, with amazement, their minds
Longing for tears as children for a rainbow.

Some will say, in the years to come, a halo
Or force stood around him. There was no such thing.
Some will say they were shocked and would have stopped him
But they will not have been there. The fiercest manhood,
The toughest reserve, the slickest wit amongst us

Trembles with silence, and burns with unexpected
Judgements of peace. Some in the concourse scream
Who thought themselves happy. Only the smallest children
And such as look out of Paradise come near him
And sit at his feet, with dogs and dusty pigeons.

Ridiculous, says a man near me, and stops
His mouth with his hands, as if it uttered vomit ---
And I see a woman, shining, stretch out her hand
And shake as she receives the gift of weeping;
As many as follow her also receive it.

And many weep for sheer acceptance, and more
Refuse to weep for fear of all acceptance,
But the weeping man, like the earth, requires nothing,
The man who weeps ignores us, and cries out
Of his writhen face and ordinary body

Not words, but grief, not messages, but sorrow
Hard as the earth, sheer, present as the sea ---
And when he stops, he simply walks between us
Mopping his face with the dignity of one
Man who has wept, and now has finished weeping.

Evading believers, he hurries off down Pitt Street.

This was an extraordinary double rainbow -- triple with the bridge. I took 70 photos around Coffs Harbour, following the rainbow in my car, with the camera on the wrong setting. By the time I finally got it right, this series of four pix was what I got. A nice young Japanese man with no English language was also in awe of the sight, had also had left the traffic to be a living human being beneath a rainbow over a rainbow bridge and not go home unmoved. Probably some passing drivers thought we were mad, some envied us and some didn't form an opinion.

The Japanese man accepted my signalled request that we swap cameras in camaraderie. To record an unusual moment. With my camera he snapped me and with his, I snapped him. We both smiled and shook hands and knew each other instantly in a very deep although ephemeral way, and I ran back to my car in the rain. If it had not been so hurried, we might have photographed each other with our own cameras, but the rain was starting to fall and the best moment was already enjoyed anyway. Thank you, sir.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Log on sand in wind

Log on sand in wind
Log on sand in wind,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

On November 16 I showed a vid of the dancing sands of Sandy Beach. Today, before an electrical storm hit at about 3pm, the sands were roaring from the opposite (north) end of the beach, taking all that sand back whence it came. It's a constant to-and-fro life for the sand here, and fun to watch.

You might like to view another Dancing Sands vid (almost 7 megs). It's only taken from my digital camera, as I don't own a movie camera, but I think it shows how beautiful the movement is. Please excuse the shakiness ... it was very windy on me.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Tarantula

Tarantula
Tarantula,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.
I like living close to Nature, but not much closer than this. Fortunately, this spider is a perfectly harmless tarantula. This fella seems to enjoy this library book, 'Henry Lawson By His Mates' as much as I do.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Black beetle

Black beetle
Black beetle,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.
I don't know the real name for this fella outside my door. Until I do, I suppose Black beetle will do. He is harmless enough, but makes a hissing noise when he's in a tight spot.

Fisherman

Fisherman
Fisherman,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.
It was overcast for much of the day, but warm enough to enjoy wetting a line.

The Man from Ironbark

ClickNot many paces to the west of The Ponderosa, which is in Sandy Beach Drive (the signpost says Sandy's Beach Rd but no one calls it that), you will find Ironbark Rd.

There are a number of ironbark species in Australia, although not so many in Sandy Beach, where the streets are named more for the trees that people carted out of here than for the ones they left. Ironbark is a fine eucalyptus (gumtree) and is sorely missed.

As a salute to the Men and Women of Ironbark, I present herewith that famous and funny 1892 poem by Banjo Paterson,

The Man from Ironbark

It was the man from Ironbark who struck the Sydney town,
He wandered over street and park, he wandered up and down.
He loitered here, he loitered there, till he was like to drop,
Until at last in sheer despair he sought a barber's shop.
"'Ere! shave my beard and whiskers off, I'll be a man of mark,
I'll go and do the Sydney toff up home in Ironbark."

The barber man was small and flash, as barbers mostly are,
He wore a strike-your-fancy sash, he smoked a huge cigar;
He was a humorist of note and keen at repartee,
He laid the odds and kept a "tote", whatever that may be,
And when he saw our friend arrive, he whispered, "Here's a lark!
Just watch me catch him all alive, this man from Ironbark."

There were some gilded youths that sat along the barber's wall.
Their eyes were dull, their heads were flat, they had no brains at all;
To them the barber passed the wink, his dexter eyelid shut,
"I'll make this bloomin' yokel think his bloomin' throat is cut."
And as he soaped and rubbed it in he made a rude remark:
"I s'pose the flats is pretty green up there in Ironbark."

A grunt was all reply he got; he shaved the bushman's chin,
Then made the water boiling hot and dipped the razor in.
He raised his hand, his brow grew black, he paused awhile to gloat,
Then slashed the red-hot razor-back across his victim's throat:
Upon the newly-shaven skin it made a livid mark -
No doubt it fairly took him in -- the man from Ironbark.

He fetched a wild up-country yell might wake the dead to hear,
And though his throat, he knew full well, was cut from ear to ear,
He struggled gamely to his feet, and faced the murd'rous foe:
"You've done for me! you dog, I'm beat! one hit before I go!
I only wish I had a knife, you blessed murdering shark!
But you'll remember all your life the man from Ironbark."

He lifted up his hairy paw, with one tremendous clout
He landed on the barber's jaw, and knocked the barber out.
He set to work with nail and tooth, he made the place a wreck;
He grabbed the nearest gilded youth, and tried to break his neck.
And all the while his throat he held to save his vital spark,
And "Murder! Bloody murder!" yelled the man from Ironbark.

A peeler man who heard the din came in to see the show;
He tried to run the bushman in, but he refused to go.
And when at last the barber spoke, and said "'Twas all in fun --
'Twas just a little harmless joke, a trifle overdone."
"A joke!" he cried, "By George, that's fine; a lively sort of lark;
I'd like to catch that murdering swine some night in Ironbark."

And now while round the shearing floor the list'ning shearers gape,
He tells the story o'er and o'er, and brags of his escape.
"Them barber chaps what keeps a tote, By George, I've had enough,
One tried to cut my bloomin' throat, but thank the Lord it's tough."
And whether he's believed or no, there's one thing to remark,
That flowing beards are all the go way up in Ironbark.

The Bulletin, December 17, 1892.

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Saturday, November 19, 2005

Find flotsam at low prices

Bottle on Back Sandy
Bottle on Back Sandy,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Today Back Sandy (the beach south of Sandy) is as littered as I have ever seen it. If everyone removes just one or two pieces of garbage, it will be fixed in no time. But I admit I couldn't bring myself to remove this Robinson Crusovian relic.

The advertising at flickr is word sensitive, and the ad next to this picture, when I looked, said "Find flotsam at low prices" Funny world we live in.

Dune in wind

Dune
Dune,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.
The sand dune at the south end of the beach never fails to have some beautiful patterns. Doesn't it just make you feel like getting in a climate-changing vehicle with big tyres, the wife and kids and start ripping it up?!

Friday, November 18, 2005

Ants in hibiscus

Ants in hibiscus
Ants in hibiscus,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.
After the rain, the ants are dining out in a hibiscus flower, four paces from Esmeralda the Computer.

Flower

Flower
Flower,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.
I can't remember what this flower is called. George, I think, or maybe Lesley.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The dancing sands (vid)

Yesterday was hot, about 32 degrees, or well into the nineties in Fahrenheit. As will often happen on the coast of New South Wales at the end of a hot day, a "southerly buster" came roaring up the coast and quickly dropped the temperature to 19.

Often a buster will head north and there isn't much wind following. This time, however, it had a long tail and a turbulent wake and all day today has been wild and woolly. One Sandy Beach phenomenon on windy days is the dancing sands, and I took a short fillum to show the effect which is not easy to describe and harder yet to photograph. The Dancing Sands movie file is about 9.5 megs, public domain, and not for hotlinking, thank you. The stills camera I used doesn't do it justice but I hope you enjoy the waltz.

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Bearded dragon digging for dinner: Movie

dragon_dig
dragon_dig,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.
It looks like the unleashed dog owners have left Mother Nature at least one Bearded dragon at Sandy Beach. This beardie was oblivious to my approach as he dug for a Ghost crab. If I were a dog he would have had more than his picture taken. See movie: 6.6MB .MOV file. Public domain film but please do not hotlink.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Masses of soldier crabs

Masses of soldier crabs
Masses of soldier crabs,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.
Updated: 3:00 PM EST on November 15, 2005
Observed At: Coffs Harbour Mo, New South Wales
Elevation: 16 ft / 5 m

90 °F / 32 °C
Partly Cloudy
Humidity: 23%
Dew Point: 57 °F / 14 °C
Wind: 9 mph / 15 km/h from the NNE
Wind Gust: -
Pressure: 29.74 in / 1007 hPa (Falling)
Visibility: 22.0 miles / 35.0 kilometers
UV: 6 out of 16

I went for a quick flaneur on Sandy at lunchtime today, low tide. And the words of the song came to mind: " ... you wish your tired feet were fireproof". It was pretty hot for this time of year, but at least the crabs were enjoying it.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Questionnaire for Northern Beaches

Click to enlarge


According to the 'Sandy Beach ... Matters' newsletter (and if you're a reader of that fine periodical and new here, please see the post below for the welcome I posted a few days ago), "Councillor Joass is asking for community input into creating 12 projects of importance for the Northern Beaches".

The newsletter has a little form on which you can suggest things that Council might do, and guidelines on how to submit it (eg, at Sandy Sue's Shop). Keep reading for a very simple solution.

As the correspondence shows, Coffs Harbour Council seems to have little or no intention of grappling with the pressing problem of cars illegally and dangerously using Sandy beach as a road, even though ratepayers could end up with major and expensive lawsuits if a death occurs simply because Council keeps ignoring the issue.

Council expects us to be vigilantes

I have almost but not quite given up hope of getting a response from Council other than their extraordinary suggestion to me that some kind of vigilantism should be done to solve this major safety and ecological problem. Vigilantism? Yes, because Council's officer has suggested that it's up to locals to solve the problem, when by law, Council must enforce the State laws (and council regulations). If you ask Council what they are going to do about the problem, they tell you what you should do. This simply is not how the laws are meant to operate in a democracy.

"Yes, the plan was exceedingly simple ...
but, unfortunately, so was Bullwinkle"

The solution, of course, is inexpensive and simple -- so simple, in fact, that a child of five could grasp it ... and then, with patience and words of few syllables, explain it to the entire Coffs Harbour Council at a single sitting.

The solution is far, far cheaper than paying for rangers to patrol constantly, or forking out millions in a lawsuit -- this is a lateral thinking solution that I propose. All that is needed is a gate, or one of those small vertical devices that folds down to the ground when unlocked with a key. Legitimate beach users, such as boat launchers, rangers and so on, could be provided with keys. As an angler myself, I know that almost all anglers are responsible people and am sure that most of us would gladly pay to have a key cut if it stops Sandy Beach being a Demolition Derby each Summer.

The suggestion is that if Sandysiders simply put on the questionnaire (preferably in first rank):

"Please get cars off beaches"

then someone at Council might get the idea ... if ideas are not taboo there, as it seems. So, please grab the newsletter, or contact Councillor Joass (Council contact details here) and help make beautiful Sandy Beach what it always was before the petrol galoot bully cars ... a beach, not a road.

Here's another urgent one to put on the questionnaire: "Replace unsafe Sandy Beach fencing" (read more -- still pointedly ignored by the Australopithecines on Coffs Council).

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The first WHAT of Spring?

What did Wilson stumble upon last night? Read on.

Phenology, the study of the times of recurring natural phenomena, is always a thing of fascination to me. Matter of fact, that's what A Sandy Beach Almanac is all about: amateur Phenology. I'm like the phenologist mail carrier except I don't have a mail truck.

Hearing the first cicada of Spring brings me as much joy as I suppose the Englishman experiences at the first sound of the cuckoo after the bitter cold departs. In Sydney, if you hear a cicada before about October the 12th (the earliest I have ever heard one, as far as I recall), not only does this indicate you are observant, but it might tell you something about the climate.

When I smell a strong aroma of the sea, it usually tells me that in four or five days time there will be a lot of annoying flies around, because when the air is strongest with maritime fragrance, it usually means there is a lot of seaweed washing up on the beach. Stranded seaweed means stranded barnacles, and stranded barnacles means soon there will be maggots and then flies. Charming, is it not?

Being a calendar freak as well as a bit of a Nature buff, I love to note when the agapanthus buds swell and to guess when they will bloom into those big, star-like flowers. Again, in Sydney, you can generally be sure that your Star of Bethlehems will be ready to grace your Yuletide celebrations; here in Sandy, they have been blooming for two or three weeks, because we are further north and in a warmer clime.

Watch closely in your garden and neighbourhood for little changes in those recurring natural phenomena, because, as the Wikipedia article on Phenology says, many such occurrences are very sensitive to small variations in climate, so phenology is useful in the study of climate change. And there is a whole lot more besides that we can learn. Plus, amateur phenology (and I am very much an amateur) is a great hobby that grounds us in our local environment and opens our eyes to part of who we are as human creatures. I highly recommend the life of the amateur phenologist.

There is a yearly phenomenon that lasts for some four or five months in many parts of Australia. Last night, with the moon half full, was a very good time to observe this annual wonder. I set out at around nine at night, uncertain that I would be blessed to see it. Then, just 1,500 paces from The Ponderosa, I had that uncanny sixth sense that I was getting close, so I walked softly lest I disturb this wondrous thing that marks the season at Sandy Beach.

Suddenly, as I came over the hill and past the trees, I saw it, in all its glory. Quickly but gingerly, as quietly as a marsupial mouse, I took my camera from my knapsack, and turned on the battery power in my pocket so the noise wouldn't disturb any nearby creature. I took careful aim, but there was some movement -- whether of my hand (as I trembled at the sight for which I had waited since March), or of the phenomenon itself, I cannot be sure -- and the consequent photograph is a little blurry, like most of those of Bigfoot, and the elusive Australian Ground parrot. But last night I did manage to capture and record an image of that early-November to late-March phenomenon of Australia, Nativitatus illuminatensis.

Would you like to see? Click for the photo.

UK Phenology Network :: Scribbly Gum (Aussie amateur Phenology) :: Google Phenology

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Saturday, November 12, 2005

Grasshopper

Grasshopper
Grasshopper,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.
Two paces from my door, three from my computer. He's about 7 or 8 cm long.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Peewee outside my door on table

This guy visits every morning. (More about Peewees here.) The doorway is about a metre from Esmeralda the Computer, so I watch his comical antics most mornings. Apparently he can't see me as it's so bright outside, and he jumps at his reflection in my glass door quite often.

Welcome to 'Sandy Beach ... Matters' readers

Gouldian mice
Gouldian mice,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Welcome, fellow Sandysider, reader of our local newsletter. You must have seen my little ad, and it's good to have your company. This site has been going for about a year, mostly with international readers so it's great to have some more locals join us.

I'm currently writing an historical novel (glutton for punishment) so I regret I haven't been posting here as often as previously, but you'll find plenty about Sandy Beach in the Archives, linked from the sidebar at left, above the black cockie.

So please bookmark this page and pop in regularly because 'A Sandy Beach Almanac' is a continuing project and it won't be long before the #&^Xx@!! novel is finished, or I neck myself, whichever comes first. And I do post items here as often as possible. And feel free to drop me a line! Your input into the site is welcome. (Same goes for overseas and other readers, of course.) Enjoy your stay and I hope you'll have a good surf around and let others know we're here. Many thanks, neighbours.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Crab hole at my door

Crab hole at my door
Crab hole at my door,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.
Well waddya know. Looks like I have a Ghost crab as a pet, living between the fishpond and my door. As my door is one-and-a-half paces from Esmeralda the Computer, I keep glancing across to see if I can see him or her, but no luck so far.

Ghost crabs are plentiful around the beach; less so on this side of Sandy Beach Drive. More on them here in A Sandy Beach Almanac.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Now for the tsunami

I swear I felt two earth tremors today at about noon, about one minute apart, and so did my neighbour and someone in Coffs Harbour, about 25km away. Yet there's been nothing about it on the ABC Mid-North Coast News, which is pretty unusual.

I went outside immediately after the first shaking of my place, and when the second hit I could clearly see windows shaking as though someone was rattling them extremely hard. I've been through a few earth tremors before and this was no different from those.

Update, Saturday Nov 5: A reader from Coral St has advised that today's Coffs Coast Advocate says that it was probably not a tremor but a military jet breaking the sound barrier. Just great.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Black cockatoos



This was as close as I could get to some Yellow-tailed black cockatoos (three or four altogether), who led me a merry dance for half an hour along the beach today. I was walking to the shop for some teabags when I heard their inimitable screeching, and rushed back home for the camera. The images will embiggen a bit if you clique them.

Did you see Mars? Check it out in the eastern sky while it is still big. Supposed to be the closest the planet will get for 13 years, or something like that. There's something on it today at the Almanac's Universe page, if you're quick. I put a new clock on that page recently and it seems to keep OK time. :)

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