Diane receives a great complement

As we are travelling to the US in June, I decided I need a new video camera, a HD (high definition) model as I have been filming in standard format in the past. So today we jumped in the car and trundled off to Photo Continental at Mount Gravatt, one of the leading equipment retailers. There we asked to see Andrew, the manager who is married to a former teaching colleague of Diane's. He sold Diane her Canon EOS camera last year. 


While he was talking to us, he mentioned that together with Sharon, his wife, they had been looking at Diane's blog recently. He said to her, 'Diane, I am very impressed with your photography, some of the pictures on your blog are amongst the best I have seen, and believe me, in this job, I see a lot of pictures every day'.


For once, Diane was speechless. Unfortunately I didn't have my video camera with me to film that.


I personally think he is right, here is one of her photos from Canada:

Early morning in the fog by Diane Bohlen

The Cats are Back

Great News, The City Cats are back


Most of Brisbane's CityCat and CityFerry services have resumed yesterday morning following last month's devastating floods.

Fifteen of the city's 23 ferry terminals are back online, after many suffered major damage and some were washed away during flooding on January 13.

The Brisbane river services employ about 180 operating staff.

The first upstream CityCat service departed from Apollo Road at 5.25am yesterday, while the first downstream service left the Guyatt Park terminal at St Lucia at 5.40am.

Services are expected to run every 12 to 13 minutes for most of the day.

The beloved City Cats are sailing up the Brisbane River

People are very happy to see the Cats back in service

Quite a sight, the flotilla of City Cats returning

The Cats in single file

Pictures taken from Brisbane Times - Read More

We discovered Termites in the garden

Diane reported on her blog some time ago, that we had termite stations installed around the house in the garden. Well it was time to check them and sure enough, we discovered one of the station was invested with the critters. So on the phone to the pest control chap who came out to place some stuff in it that will eliminate the pest. Unfortunately when we opened the lid the first time, they got frightened and most of them ran back to their nest. But we've been assured that the stuff he put into the trap will attract them again so they'll come back and carry the stuff back to their queen and hey presto no more white ants. (So we hope)

The man opens the station

You can still see some of the termites that didn't get away

The poison is added and the lid replaced

The first pictures emerging from TC Yasi

Pictures are now emerging from the cyclone ravished areas in North Queensland. When Yasi hit, it hit big.  The worst-affected areas included Mission Beach, Cardwell, Tully, Innisfail and Silkwood.  Hundreds of thousands of homes lost power, hundreds lost roofs or sustained other heavy damage.

And there was the human toll.  One man has been confirmed dead. Now, as far north Queensland begins its long road to recovery and as a weakened Yasi continues its march inland, the reconstruction will begin. Here are some pictures I recorded from the TV.

TC Yasi made Landfall

Tropical Cyclone Yasi crossed the coast at Mission Beach, just north of Cardwell, between Cairns and Townsville around midnight last night as a category 5 cyclone. The forecast path shown below is the Bureau's best estimate of the cyclone's future movement and intensity. There is always some uncertainty associated with tropical cyclone forecasting and the grey zone indicates the range of likely tracks of the cyclone centre.


Early reports indicate that in the township of Tully, 90% of buildings have suffered major structural damage. The good news however is there has been no loss of life reported so far.


The DESTRUCTIVE CORE of Yasi, with gusts in excess of 125 km/h, will weaken as it continues to move in a west-southwesterly direction. Yasi is SE of Georgetown and will be near Mt Isa tonight as a tropical Low.


DAMAGING WINDS, with gusts above 90 km/hr, are occurring along the coast and extend inland to Georgetown and Hughenden. They will extend further west towards Richmond and Julia Creek during the day.

TROPICAL CYCLONE FORECAST TRACK MAP OF TC YASI - 7.00AM 3/02/11 

This is a picture of Wavenhoe Dam, Brisbane's main water storage dam, in January, showing just how close we came to a much larger disaster.

In comparison to May 2007 when Lake Wavenhoe looked like this

This tree trunk is usually under 8m of water

We are in Sydney, visiting the family

Here is young Fox, a little excited to see us. Had dinner with all the family last night. It was great to see them all.



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