Refresh Me!
Curtis falls, Mt Tambourine.
Rainforest sights are soul nurturing.
(okay, NOT the leeches and ticks, but they are such a tiny percentage of the landscape! 
)
Softly, Softly..
It rained a few days previous to our girls weekend adventure at Mt Tamborine. The faint hearted among my friends refused to walk to Curtis Falls with me because of the increased likelihood of being eaten up by leeches on the way. Leeches are gross. Ticks are not much nicer, and there was a sign warning of them (as if you can see and avoid!) at the start of the walk.
But Bloggy friends, it was worth the risk. (I can say that with a sense of the cavalier now that I have come through the ordeal unscathed by any blood sucking parasites… )
Life is richer for seeing a waterfall. :-)
…and you can always carry salt 
Follow the Path
A line of trees is a bit like an old building, or.. old letters, or.. any of those other things I can’t go past. No idea why I like them, I just do.
Romeo and Juliet
Ever watched butterflies court? I feel privileged to have intruded on this pair. Must be a male thing, though, that such a hairy, old, beat up specimen as this one, has perfect confidence in his ability to charm that unblemished young thing on the leaf.
Bear Love
Technically, I was right out of my league shooting these. Low light in the foreground, bright sun behind, fast action… and behind glass. So, she’s a little grainy, but I liked this one.
Who’s at Home?
It’s a possum.
He’s right where he belongs*.
He is in an old termite nest, high in a gum tree. Last year it contained nesting kookaburras. I dearly wanted to peek in then, never having seen baby kookaburras, but kookaburras have deadly beaks.
The possum, however, could be mild-mannered. So I dragged, with the help of my intrepid mother, an extension ladder across the paddock at her house. She very bravely tried to steady the ladder while I attempted the necessary acrobatics to get a shot using manual focus – which of course means no hands on the ladder. It is a very wavery business when you are at the upper limit of a tall ladder, and the ground is a long, long way away.
After I took the shot, I told my Mama that I was going to try to touch the bundle of fur facing me. I had no idea how it would respond, so gave Ma strict instructions that should the camera and I come tumbling down in a hurry from our great height, she was to catch the camera. Being the sage woman she is, she told me in her most enduringly patient mother voice that it would make more sense to pass the camera back down before bearding the possum in his den. Mothers are so practical. :)
The possum took the petting with good graces. I’ve always asserted that possums are very high on cute factor.**
*By definition, “belongs” means anywhere but my ceiling!
** When they are not living, or worse, dead, in my ceiling.
Resist. or get dirty.
This shot, with its imperfect focus, is not .. perfect. But see that wildly distorted background? I was hanging out the window of a 4WD while it was bouncing and sliding down a gully on a washed out mud track. It happened that the butterfly was on the wing beside us, and I couldn’t resist going for a shot.
Have you been four-wheel driving in the mud and wet… with the window down?
Don’t.
Not even if a butterfly keeps pace and you have an irresistible urge to shoot it on the fly.
‘Night, ‘Night.
These bees are all boys. They don’t sleep in holes, as the girls do, but cluster on a branch over night. While most of them held still (just a few restless souls among them) it was no place for a tripod, so I had to use a flash. The result is that you can’t see how delightfully blue their stripes are.
They hang on to the branch by their jaws.
