On Australia Day hail stones at Corrimal

Pelicans at Bellambi Lagoon

Cockatoo with bread

Cormorant holding his ground from an attacking raven

                                      Short and Sweet Illawarra Week Two 

There are a number of fine plays being staged on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th of September 2022 at the Phoenix Theatre in Coniston, NSW, Australia including Rest in Peace and The Tea Test. Some dramas some comedies. All well worth checking out.

  

The Rose is offered up as a mystery with a lively ghost.

Sparrows find food on the picnic area of Corrimal Beach, NSW, Australia

 Capertee Valley, NSW, May 2021

     Found in the heart of New South Wales, Australia, not far from Lithgow, Capertee Valley is a treasure for wildlife photographers and for those who want to get away, for a while, from big city living. There was once mining in the region but, when that petered out, so did the human population.

    

      In May 2021 I travelled to Capertee Valley with a group from Illawarra Birders. We were prepared for a cold May there since it is surrounded by mountains. It was surprisingly warm. There was dew on the ground of a morning and local creatures making the most of this dew.  

      Local spiders build elaborate webs to catch the morning dew.

I had never come across Babbles before. Fast, energetic birds.

Jackie Winters, birds that make a sound similar to their name, were easy to find.

Double-barred finches could be found of an afternoon where I was staying.

There were boobook owls on the prowl at night and a mouse plague to keep them well fed. 

            Talk to The Hand a Success

    At a small theatre, near the train station at Coniston, there was theatrical magic. It was Short and Sweet Illawarra Week 2. It ran from Thursday 2nd to Saturday the 4th of December. All these plays were expected to be shown earlier in the year but, thanks to the pandemic, that was not possible.

    Talk to The Hand was among the plays and, thanks to director Gabriela Gonzales and actors Matt Bonnici and Michelle Phillips, it got a lot of laughs. As a writer, I couldn't have asked for a better crew to bring my vision of hands that do talk to life. 

     One of the other plays that was staged I took a liking to was Clean Swap, a comedy about a street robbery that goes wrong. In it both Molly Turton and Johnny Chamberlain give great performances. 

      Another was Press Pray, about a woman seeking guidance in a church and encountering a call centre that drives her crazy. It stared Jasmin Shojai as the distressed woman and Toryn Biester as the prayer centre voice.  

     Socialite Networking I didn't take to Thursday night, but thought it ran really well on the Saturday. Set in the 1930s, it is about the rich and the want to be famous. It is a selfish world in which only fame matters. It starred Georgina Reed, Isabella Franklin and Tom Hadley.

      My sister, who saw Thursday night's performances with me, concluded that Spell it Out, starring Sally Evans, Ihaka Jones, Barbara Weir and Gabriela Gonzalez, was definitely worth a mention. The build up was slow but once it got going it was indeed great. It was about a woman who has the compulsion to spell everything out, a strange psychiatrist, a friendly nut job and a waitress  unhappy with her work.

       My only regret with the staging of Talk to The Hand is that it only ran for three nights. It would have been wonderful if it had gone on for two weeks. Even so, with three nights of very few empty seats, and an audience finding humour in Talk to The Hand, I did alright.

Water Dragon Swimming at Towradgi Creek

                           Spring is with Us!

With Spring comes an increase in wildlife and also also the desire of south coast, NSW humans to shrug off winter and get out and about more. Since many of us have had our two jabs that has become increasingly possible.

The shops are open for business and I have my government certificate saying I am two jabs bullet proof. I look forward to a meal in a restaurant and visiting friends I haven't been able to see live in a long time. 

Water Dragons can be found in waterways. This one was located at Towradgi Creek.

                         This one was found at a different part of Towradgi Creek. 

                         They may look fierce but they are harmless.  

Part of Fairy Meadow and not far from the shops, this is an excellent place to find wildlife including Black Cockatoos. 

Here we have a Sacred Kingfisher recently found in Corrimal. 

They are small and elusive. 

Sometimes all you see is a flash of blue indicating they are about.

 And sometimes you get lucky. 

A play worth seeing come December.  

A good holiday read if you like Science Fiction. 

 

Lyn is one of the best writers around.  

                          Spring 2021! 

On the South Coast of NSW, Australia! 

                 White Sulphur-crested Cockatoos are in abundance 

on the south coast of New South Wales. 

They are not, however, the only cockatoos around. 

           Black Yellow- tailed Cockatoos made an appearance 

at Fairy Meadow last Sunday. Their high pitched call is unmistakable.

 I got some nice photos of a couple of them eating. 

It is because of the wet weather there is plenty of food for them.  

                               Black Yellow-tailed Cockatoos are larger than the more common Sulphur-crested Cockatoo.

Spring also comes with its curiosities.

 This painted stone was found on the same bush walk at Fairy Meadow. 

At first it was mistaken by my companion for a strange, unknown bug.

 

In Corrimal yesterday I came upon a scruffy looking Kookaburra. 

There were also two Galahs to be seen. 

I got the impression they were nesting close by. 

                   Sometimes looking up you catch sight of a bird in flight. 

On this occasion it was a pelican.

      There have been less birds sighted by me this year than in previous years

 thanks  in part to the pandemic. 

There have been more foot and bike traffic than in previous years. 

                    It is understandable since everyone needs exercise 

and a lot of team sports

 have been cancelled.  

Galah at Bellambi Lagoon, NSW, Australia

 Photos Taken Years Ago with a Mobile Phone

Two Rainbow Lorikeets at Unanderra, south coast, NSW, Australia. 

 

Two Rainbow Lorikeets enjoying the water. Splashing about. 

Two Rainbow Lorikeets splashing about.

 Two Rainbow Lorikeets drying off. 

MORE ON ROD MARSDEN

Yours truly with a friend. My main activity aside from writing fiction is going out birding with a camera. 

Nowadays I have given up using a mobile for this purpose. I have a camera that fits neatly in my pocket.

 

I have been to the USA, Bali and New Zealand. 

I have novels out published by Barbara Custer through Night to Dawn. 

I am in a number of anthologies including Second-Hand Creeps. 

Censorship in the 1950s in the UK 

A book about the British reaction to comic books produced in the 1940s and 1950s.

 In the USA the main criticism was against Horror.

In the UK the main criticism was against American war comics.  

 

Bird balancing on a nail.

Unusual doves!

Noisy Miner

Gull taking a bath

Willie-wagtail on the loose.

Street art Wollongong style

Friendship Wollongong style