Nature Archives - INSPIRING MAX

A : Australian National Surfing Museum

April 1, 2022April 1, 2022 inspiringmax

On our recent holiday exploring the Great Ocean Road and regional Victoria our first stop was The Australian National Surfing Museum. It is located in Tourquay at the start of the Great Ocean Road and Surf Coast. The museum is said to be the largest surfing museum in the world. And describes 100 years of Australia’s surfing history. I found this fascinating. Despite growing up on the coast I had no idea of the culture and history attached to surfing in Australia. This visit really put it in perspective for me.

I particularly loved the display of Gordon Stammers Storyboards. These are very quirky and fun to read. Each tells a funny story by runaway teenage surfer. He writes a letter to his parents on the front of the board. On the back is the response from one parent. They were so creative and funny.

At the time we visited it was hard to believe that the local beaches got the waves that were described in the surfing history of the area. Our experience on all beaches was flat surf. Bass Strait however has a history of being wild and untamed. Apparently it depends on the time of year. Personally I would love to see the big surf as described around the museum, in the hall of fame and on the historical surfing videos being shown. Easter ever year sees Australia’s biggest surfing competition held at Bell’s beach not far from the National Surfing museum. I think we must have traveled about six weeks early.

2022 A-Z Challenge: Recent Travels

March 31, 2022March 31, 2022 inspiringmax

Wow I can’t believe it’s April tomorrow. Where has this year gone? For me, over a month was spent travelling around regional New South Wales and Victoria in Truby. (Our Iveco and Slide-on camper). It was our first trip and we had a great time exploring our country and learning about the grey nomad lifestyle. Despite being nearly 60 most of the places we explored I had never been to before. We found many interesting places, history stories, hidden surprises and the amazing natural beauty of Australia.

Initially our aim was to travel the Great Ocean Rd one of Australia’s and possibly one of the world’s most iconic roads. It was truly breathtaking. For our remaining two weeks we made it up as we went along and had a ball. We drove over 4500 kilometres.

Whilst travelling I decided the best way to share my experiences is by again joining the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. This is a world wide blogging challenge that I first joined in 2015. It will be the fourth time that I have participated and each time I have grown as a blogger. The goal is to post every day in April except Sundays. Most people have a theme that connect their blog posts. This is only half of the challenge however. The other equally important part is to visit other blogs and connect through commenting. I love it and have meet some amazing people on my journey and am hoping to meet many more this year.

If you are interested in joining here is the link Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.

CMMC: FLOWERING GUMS CLOSE UP

February 4, 2022February 4, 2022 inspiringmax

Being the first week of the month Cee’s Mid Week Challenge is about exploring macro or close up photography. I like to think of it as getting up close and personal time. When deciding on what to photograph I was memorized by the large bushes I saw in the gardens as I was leaving the hospital. To my surprise, I walk along this path every day but hadn’t noticed these beautiful shrubs before. So I explored their beauty closely and to my delight saw that the bushes were in various stages of flowering. They truely were a sight to behold.

Not knowing what the plants were I asked around and was told that they are Mini Red Flowering Gums. ( Corymbia Ficifolia) They are grafted eucalyptus trees, native to Australia that grow easily and are hardy. Bees and nectar eating birds love to feed on them.

Do you have a favourite? Mine is the last one that also shows the bees gathering the pollen.

Thanks to Cee for hosting this challenge it is great inspiration.

An Australian Original

October 24, 2021October 24, 2021 inspiringmax

Today on my walk around the suburb my attention was drawn to an usual sight. A Banksia plant was displaying several stages of the Banksia cycle all at once. There are over a 170 species of Banksias ranging in size and shape, with all but one of them native to Australia. They were first discovered by and consequently named after Sir Joseph Banks when Captain Cook discovered Australia in 1770. They are a truly an Australian original.

The photo below shows the flower in bloom. This flower was one of the last for the season.

This photograph shows the cone after the flowers have dropped off. It is here that the seeds are stored in pods until opening up. For many Banksia species this is triggered by heat – bushfires or drying out.

I love the contradiction in this photo as it shows a new cone with pods developing as well as a dried out empty cone.

In Australia the dried out cone has inspired many craft and woodwork creations. However, in many ways their greatest claim to fame is being the inspiration for May Gibbs’s Big Bad Banksia Men in her Snugglepot and Cuddlepie books. The Banksia men were the villians. They were always out to create trouble. Owing to the commonness of the species, dried cone can be found everywhere so growing up every child could relate to them. I’m sure my family wasn’t the only one to create their own Banksia boys adventures.

Photo credit: May Gibbs books.

Gnarly Adventures

October 22, 2021October 22, 2021 inspiringmax

One of my favourite things to do in Australia is to go on a bush walk. I love communing with nature and getting away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Everytime I go bushwalking I am reminded of my childhood and weekends with my family. We would spend hours exploring different areas with dad pointing out and explaining even the smallest detail. Gnarly trees were always special and we would often stop and study them. I found them fascinating. The knots and growths of the old trees often looked like the tree had a face and was trying to tell us something. It is interesting how a group of people can look at the same gnarly tree and see completely different things.

The following gnarly tree photos were taken whilst on a long bush walk at Bundanoon in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. The walk was one of many in Morton National Park and didn’t disappoint.

Thanks to Cyranny for today’s Word Of The Day Challenge inspiration – Gnarl

Interestingly in Australia gnarly is also a slang word that has been used since the 70’s to mean very good.

Remembering Benjamin

September 8, 2021September 8, 2021 inspiringmax

Do you recognise the animal in the photo? For most of you I guess the answer is no because it has been extinct for 85 years. It’s a photo of Benjamin the last Tasmanian Tiger (Tasmanian thylacine). The photo was taken at Hobart’s Beaumaris in 1933 by Australian zoologist David Fleay. Originally in black and white the footage was colourised and released by the National Film and Sound Archive on National Threatened Species Day.

National Threatened Species Day is on 7th September each year as a tribute to Benjamin the last Tasmanian Tiger. It was the day he died back in 1933 and the species was declared extinct. I am so grateful to be able to see Benjamin in his true colours 85 years after his death.

This post was inspired by the Word Of The Day Challenge – Tribute. Thanks Melanie.

What A Difference A Week Makes

September 5, 2021September 5, 2021 inspiringmax

The photos above were taken last Sunday on my walk. The news had said that the southern swells and Spring high tides earlier in the week had caused major erosion of my local Merewether beach not seen in our area since a major storm in 1974. The 1974 storm was locally known as the Sygna storm after the Norwegian bulk carrier of the same name that ran aground on Stockton beach at the time. I was fascinated to see what everyone was talking about. Wow! I wasn’t expecting what I saw. It didn’t even occur to me that there were rocks under the sand. All the media reports about the erosion stated that history had proved that the sand would return by summer. The swells and the tides would put it all back again. No intervention needed.

While I had no evidence to go by I just trusted mother nature and didn’t think any more about it. Today on our lockdown walk as we had nothing else to do we thought we’d go back to Merewether and see what was happening. We were gob smacked. Merewether beach was back and beautiful. The photos below were taken this morning. They are from similar spots and of the same stretch of beach that was stripped bare last Sunday. We were also surprised to note that there seemed to be even more sand on the beach than before. It was also clean and yellow. Merewether beach had been Spring cleaned at no cost.

Thanks to Natalie for hosting #weekendcoffeeshare

Newcastle’s Fairy Garden

August 29, 2021August 29, 2021 inspiringmax

Today as we are still in lock down in New South Wales, I thought we’d share a takeaway coffee at a secret spot I only discovered last year. Newcastle’s Fairy Garden to my surprise is over 50 years old. I can’t believe I never heard of it as a kid even if then it was a private place.

Merv Moyle created the wonderland across the road from his house in the 1970’s for his children. Over the years he kept adding his new ideas to it until his death in his 90’s.

Imagine how special his children and grand children must felt to have their own fairy garden, complete with a fairy queen, animal friends, fairies and toadstools, not to mention the beautiful flowers and rainforest. As a child, I thought we were lucky as our dad had made us a cubby house. I am glad that it is now open for anyone to wander through and connect with your inner child at this magical place.

I hope you enjoyed our coffee and visit today. Thanks to Natalie The Explorer for hosting Weekend Coffee Share

Coffee Catch-Up # 35

August 16, 2021August 16, 2021 inspiringmax

If we were having coffee I would tell you I can’t believe how fast the last 3 months have gone. Life goes by so quickly these days. Today our takeaway coffee is from the café at Merewether beach. This is because Newcastle is currently in lock down so can’t have visitors to our homes.

It was a beautiful winter’s day out. We enjoyed watching the surfers and smelling the fresh sea air. It was also great to see the ocean looking so clear and clean. Here’s some photos we took to remember our walk.

If we were having coffee I would tell you about my latest favourite pastime. Buying second hand books. I love the thrill of the chase. They are everywhere and sometimes I am amazed at how new the books I find are. I have several authors I look for and based on them I have found many new authors. Most I am able to pick up for a couple of dollars however on our latest holiday, I was lucky and found many exciting titles for only $1.00. Needless to say, I had fun.

If we were having coffee I would ask if you have been doing a jigsaw puzzle during lockdown. I have. My latest puzzle is of the people skating on the frozen Rideau Canal in Ottawa. Its a beautiful puzzle that reminds me I need to go back to Ottawa in winter to complete this bucket list activity. Back in January 2015, when my husband and I were in Canada winter was late and the canal opened to skaters the day we arrived back in Australia.

If we were having coffee I tell you that today is both my 59th birthday and National Rum day. Ironically, my husband baked me a fancy birthday cake from scratch yesterday, while I was at work. His choice a chocolate rum cake. Imagine his surprise to discover this morning the rum day connection. Rum is also my favourite spirit.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I love wattle. It is the floral emblem of Australia. I am also blessed that it begins to flower in August. It is a bright yellow and pops up everywhere. Wattle never fails to bring a smile to my face.