December 2007

31st December

Swimming in the dam on a hot hot News Years Day

Happy New Years everyone. It's a hot one here in Victoria - 39°C here in the Otways. It's now 7pm and we are down to 36°C, but we got a light sprinkle of raindrops, so the humidity is through the roof.

27th December

View from the top of the Red Rock volcanic maar crater complex, looking
toward Lake Corangamite (at to right).

Lake Corangamite
& Red Rocks

I visited a friend's property near the west shore of Lake Corangamite. The lake levels continue to drop. It must be beyond 4x the salinity of sea water by now. In previous years the water was a milky white. Now it's started to go pink. Lunettes on the eastern side were formed thousands of years ago when the lake dried and saline sediment blew from the lake bed. It will happen again I think before the dacade is out. Glad I don't have a farm there!

Sweet Bursaria (Bursaria spinosa).

Sweet Bursaria

I was visiting some friends near the eastern shore of Lake Corangamite. They've been revegetating it for the last 15 years. This tree is an ancient Sweet Bursaria (Bursaria spinossa) and is a remnant of the original Stony Rises Woodlands that prior to the arrival of Europeans cloaked the lava flows that characterise the region (interspersed with wetlands, lakes and grasslands). The property is now a haven for birds, lizards and a little clan of black swamp wallabys.

23 December

Cactus

I went to a party at a friends place one night last weekend. A cactus had flowered that day; the first time she has seen it do so in years. So we had a go at photographing it with the help of a torch and setting the camera ISO to 3200 (i.e. a ridiculously fast 'film' speed.) Turned out quite nicely I think.

8th December

Trigger Plants & Native Bee

I've wanted to catch this for a long time. Trigger plants (Stylidium gramifolium) are fertilised by insects. The petal arrangement resembles the wings of an insect, and the flowers possibly send out a scent that excites some insects to attempt to mate with them. When a bug stimulates the centre of a flower, the flower's anther column flicks over, whacking the amorous visitor with a puff of pollen. When repeated with another flower, the unwitting Romeo cross-fertilises them.

Look closely, you'll see it happening.