Picture(s) of the day....

[myglaren]

Great granddaughter happy with her presents.

[Rp0thejester]

I hope he had a lawyer so he knows fully what he signed up for......a life of.....

[CitroJim]

Great granddaughter happy with her presents.

That is magical Steve

Mine with her aunt Sian

And trying on a new hat!

Note the matching jimjams

[Armidillo]

Took these last night from my son's balcony in Port Macquarie. We were only just up to Christmas Pud as the light faded and a storm went around us.

[CitroJim]

Wow! Awesome Alec! That lightning reminds me of the amazing electric storms we used to see over Darwin

[Armidillo]

Meant to post in Picture of the Day

[Armidillo]

So a couple of photos intended for this thread have finished up in Jim's blog (mea culpa).

Anyway, we are visiting the middle son and his family in Port Macquarie, which is on the coast, and seems sub-tropical after Armidale. They have the wildlife to match!

[xantia_v6]

I have moved those posts to here (just above).

[Armidillo]

Thanks Mike!

In the (no doubt brief) absence of Neil, here's one to keep things going as Boxing Day draws to a close. Car ferry on the Hastings River (Port Macquarie) at sunset. I have had to tweak it a bit to make the ferry visible, as the light on the water was fading, despite the lurid glow from the cloud. There was a pelican, but he/she didn't feel inclined to be part of the composition.

[mickthemaverick]

I'm sure Neil is enjoying a Christmas break somewhere good, meantime I found some spare time today:

MTMO

[CitroJim]

Leaves and muddy trail running shoes yesterday

A busy washing machine later too...

[Armidillo]

That's really quite an interesting image Jim! Would they be mainly oak leaves around your feet? Your shoes appear to have mud/water resistant toes and sides, whereas mine are all mesh upper. Yours look ideal for the kind of treatment they are currently getting!

Here's one for the grandchild club - oldest grandson doing a flip in the pool (assisted by his father, my middle son). Might have been sharper if I'd remembered to use a faster shutter speed!!

[CitroJim]

That's really quite an interesting image Jim! Would they be mainly oak leaves around your feet? Your shoes appear to have mud/water resistant toes and sides, whereas mine are all mesh upper. Yours look ideal for the kind of treatment they are currently getting!

Yes, they are oak, there's lots of oak around these parts Alec... They grow almost like weeds so the climate and soil conditions must be perfect for them. I have several large oaks near my house and most of their leaves seem to end up against my garage doors in late autumn and early winter!

Those shoes are proper trail shoes and have lugs on their soles for grip and soles that rapidly drain any water. You get wet feet but not squelchy feet if that makes sense... Run through deep water in pure road shoes and they soak up water rather than actively draining it. Running then feels like you have a couple of sponges on your feet

Those shoes above are my light trail shoes... I have heavy trail shoes with bigger lugs on their soles..

And a warm welcome to the grandchild club Can't beat getting them really confident in water... You have a potential future triathlete there

[Armidillo]

Photo taken yesterday - hopefully I can be forgiven for a 24 hr delay.

We are staying in a caravan park as our son & daughter-in-law don't have much room for us. Lots of wildlife, including flying foxes (fruit bats), although because they come at night I haven't "snapped" one of them. This was spotted where my wife had earlier seen a wild creature:

It is of course a snake skin, shed by a growing snake that just needed room to move. My wife and one of the grandkids had seen a snake in that garden an hour or so earlier. She reported it to camp site management, who seem to take a "live and let live" philosophy - as long as the snake is not in one of the cabins, just treat it with respect.

[myglaren]

Had to venture out last night and took these.