Daily walks with Maggie

We walk.

Photo of a red/brown dog on a red leash being walked down a residential street on a sunny day.

We check our pee-mail.

Photo of a red/brown dog on a red leash sniffing the grass at the base of a tree on a residential street on a sunny day.

We ask for a treat (when we’ve walked by another dog and haven’t reacted badly to them).

Photo of a red/brown dog on a red leash on the footpath of a residential street. The dog is looking back at its human expectantly.

We take a selfie. (Optional.)

Selfie of a man walking a red/brown dog on a sunny day. The man is wearing a black printed t-shirt, black hat, and sunglasses. The dog is sniffing a patch of grass next to the man.

Lovely day in Melbourne for a walk too!

Photo of a lovely looking residential footpath on a sunny day. There are picket fences to one side of the footpath and a line of trees on the nature strip on the other side.

Picnic at Donnelly Weir

Had a lovely afternoon with friends at Donnelly Weir in the Yarra Ranges yesterday.

Rebecca picked an excellent spot for a picnic, and the weather cooperated by giving us a a nice, cool day after the recent heatwave.

Group selfie of eight people in a wooded area.

Donnelly Weir has a picnic area as well – with a three-table gazebo, barbecue, and nearby toilets. It’s not too busy, either. Only one other table was occupied for part of the time we were there.

9/10 would recommend. But only because we had to drive across a shallow river to get to the car park, which not everyone and every car will be comfortable with.

Photo of a picnic area next to a weir in the middle of a forest. A weir is a small dam built across a river to control the flow of water. The picnic area consists of a wooden gazebo with picnic tables and benches, as well as a shared barbecue.

Weirs are always relaxing places to visit, and this one is no different.

You can’t get into the water here though. This spot is part of the rainfall catchment area that supplies Melbourne’s water supply (ie the water from here fills the dams that supply the city’s water).

Photo of a weir, which is a small dam built across a river to control the flow of water. The weir is located in a wooded area and has a log fence built to once side of it.

But that’s fine. You can still take lots of photos of the water :)

Photo of a weir, taken with the camera held out over the stone wall that’s been built to control the flow of water. Towards the back of the photo is is a small wooden foot bridge built across the river.

Both with…

Close-up photo of a weir wall that has water flowing over it. A long exposure effect has been applied to the photo, making the flowing water look smooth.

…and without the long exposure setting on your camera.

Close-up photo of a weir wall that has water flowing over it.

There are a couple of short trails you can wander down as well.

Selfie of a bald man, wearing glasses and a grey printed t-shirt. The man is standing on a walking trail in a wooded area.

But all you actually need to rest and recharge is to be surrounded by all the trees and birds and running water.

Selfie of a bald man, wearing glasses and a grey printed t-shirt standing in a wooded area. The man is looking down into a camera that is aimed towards the grey, overcast sky. Behind the man you can see the full length of the tall trees that surround him.

Not. Happy.

Melbourne’s recent, super-humid heatwave finally broke when several bands of thunderstorms rumbled through the city.

Maggie Does Not like thunderstorms. She ran to Nadia when the thunder started.

I responded to Nadia’s tweet with my own freaked-out-Maggie photo a short time later.

Close-up photo of a stressed looking red/brown dog underneath a desk. The dog’s ears are pulled back and its mouth is open, with tongue hanging out.

Fortunately, playing Midnight Oil’s ‘Diesel and Dust’ album rather loudly helped – with the music easily masking the ongoing thunder as the storm system rumbled along. [x]

Selfie of a man sitting on a chair in a carpeted room. Sitting on the carpet behind him – alert, but not scared – is a red/brown dog.

Annual Australia Open selfie 2022

What time is it? It’s time for me and Nadia to take our annual Australian Open tennis tournament selfie!

Selfie of a man and a woman sitting in the stands of an outdoor tennis arena. They are both wearing geeky, black, book-related t-shirts; sunglasses; N95 face masks; and blue Australian Open lanyards.

With the 50% capacity limits placed on attendees this year, we even managed to find a totally empty section of Kia Arena in which to take a slightly less pandemically themed selfie :)

Selfie of a man and a woman sitting in the stands of a large, open air tennis arena. They are both wearing geeky, black, book-related t-shirts; sunglasses; and blue Australian Open lanyards.

One more in our full “hot day at a sporting event in the post-vaccine era” regalia.

Selfie of a man and a woman in front of Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on a sunny day. The man and woman are both wearing black t-shirts, wide-brim straw hats, sunglasses, and N95 face masks, and have blue Australian Open lanyards around their necks.

Speaking of hot days, Nadia was reunited with her happy place at the Australian Open :)

A woman wearing shorts, t-shirt, sunglasses, large hat, and an N95 face masks walks up to a large fan that is spraying a fine mist of cool water onto people walking by.

Two trains, one level crossing

Two trains pass each other at a level crossing.

One train goes left-to-right…

Photo of a Metro Melbourne train going down the tracks at a level crossing. The photographer is standing only a short distance away from the tracks. The train is in clear focus, while the rest of the photo is artistically motion blurred.

One train goes right-to-left…

Photo of a motion-blurred, blue coloured train zipping down the tracks at a level crossing. The photographer is standing only a short distance away from the tracks.

Both photos were taken with a Pixel 6 Pro smartphone. The first photo used the ‘action pan’ camera feature, while the second used the ‘long exposure’ feature.

This stinks

It is stinking hot and humid in Newport today.

I mean that literally because food and garden waste bins in the city of Hobson’s Bay are being collected fortnightly instead of weekly. And so wide open, post-rubbish-collection bins with scrapings of rotting food in them are lying all over the place.

Photo of two large rubbish bins with their lids open standing on the side of a residential street. One bin has a red lid, the other has a green lid.

Over the last couple of years the Hobsons Bay City Council trained us to put all our food waste into our green bins via these kitchen caddies – without compostable big bags, which still aren’t allowed. Those green bins were then collected weekly.

Photo of a kitchen food waste caddy with printed instructions on the lid that tell you what is and isn’t permitted.

Now, at the height of summer, they’ve change the green bin pick-up frequency from weekly to fortnightly.

They knew this was going to be an issue so they launched a permitted compostable bag trial that we signed up for back in November last year. But they won’t send us those trial bags till February.

So now every fortnight our streets stink of rotten food. Fun times.

Photo of three rubbish bins standing and lying haphazardly on the side of a residential street on a bright sunny day. All the bins have their lids open, and one bin is on its side. At the bottom of the photo is a dog on a red leash being walked by the bins.

Pixel 6 Pro + trains

The down side of working from home during the pandemic is that I haven’t had the opportunity to walk around the city taking photos with my (still relatively new) Pixel 6 Pro phone camera system. Which is why you mostly get snaps of Maggie either at home or in and around our neighbourhood. So here are a few train photos I’ve taken over the last few weeks.

Here’s a long exposure of a V/Line train arriving at Southern Cross station. That was taken the last time I went into the office before my year-end break.

Photo of a train pulling into a platform across from the photographer. The photo is a long exposure, so the moving train has motion blur and is slightly transparent.

Here’s one of a train zipping along the tracks from Newport to Laverton stations. I’m really enjoying playing with the various motion photo features available in the Pixel 6 Pro camera.

Photo of a Metro Melbourne train running down train tracks behind a line of trees.

And here’s one of a freight train running down that same bit of track at the southern end of Newport. This time I’m making use of the zoom lenses available on this smartphone.

Photo of a freight train running down train tracks behind the tree line at the end of a residential street. The phrase ‘MULTI-FRIEGHTER’ is written on the side of a the khaki coloured boxcar that’s visible through the trees.

I expect to be going into the office at least a couple of days a week from early next year, so I’m looking forward to taking and sharing more photos then.

Christmas barbecue FTW!

All clear for the Christmas barbecue!

Photo of two rapid antigen tests lying next to each other on a counter. Both tests are showing a negative result for COVID-19.

The barbecue itself was a great success. This here is just a photo of the meat tray taken halfway through the meal. Not shown are the snacks, salads, vegetarian options, pile of haloumi, and desserts! :)

Photo of a tray piled with barbecued meats, including sausages, burger patties, cutlets, and ribs.

Thank you James for the barbecuing and Bec for the hosting! #ChosenFamily

Keeping an eye out

Keeping an eye on its owner while he’s stepped to Leroy’s Café to grab a coffee.

Photo of a black and tan French bulldog wearing a blue and white polka dot vest. The dog is tied to a pole with a blue leash outside a café. It is leaning to one side so it can peek through the door at its owner, who is inside the café.

Mango summer

Nothing quite like a bowl of cold, diced mango on a hot summer day.

Photo of a hand holding a pink and white bowl that’s full of diced chunks of mango.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When your fridge freezes your diced mango (because you inadvertently knocked the temperature dial to a higher setting) make mango milkshake.

Photo of a blue glass full of mango milkshake.

Pixel 6 Pro photos in the city

It’s been ages since I’ve ridden a tram. At least I got to see one when I went into the office today.

Photo of a classic tram turning into a street in front of some office building. Everything but the tram is blurred in the photo.

Zippy cyclist is zippy.

Photo of a motion-blurred cyclist exiting a curved bridge onto a paved, inner city riverbank.

Pixel 6 Pro long exposure

So the Google Pixel 6 Pro smartphone camera’s long exposure functionality is cool.

Selective long-exposure photo of a train passing through a level crossing. The moving train is the only element of the photo that has a motion blur effect applied to it. Because one of the long-exposure photos taken was from before the train appeared within the frame, the train in the final image appears to be semi-transparent. A white car has stopped in front of the lowered boom gate of the level crossing.

The more I use it, the more I like it.

Selective long-exposure photo of a train passing through a level crossing. Only the moving train has had the long exposure effect applied to it, so it’s the only object in the photo with motion blur.

Post-lockdown hotpot

Yay for post-lockdown catch-ups!

Had a lovely, delicious dinner at Panda Hot Pot with a bunch of friends. The food was good and the company was fantastic. 10/10 would recommend.

There was a line outside the restaurant for our scheduled sitting too. Nature is healing!

Selfie of a man and a woman sitting next to each other inside a large Chinese restaurant. Both are smiling at the camera.

Three steps back

A couple of months after I stopped needing to wear it, I had to pull out my puffer jacket to walk the dog this morning. With this current cold snap we’ve taken two steps forward, three steps back on our way to summer in Melbourne. *sigh*

Selfie of a man walking along a residential street. He is wearing a black t-shirt, black puffer jacket, and black cap (with a red trim).

Doggy street food

When you’re walking Maggie and she suddenly surges forward or pulls away, you know she’s found something to eat in the buffet that is our neighbourhood.

One in five times she succeeds. The rest of the time I pull her back quickly enough.

But now she knows that I know…

A red dog being walked on a lead in a residential neighbourhood sniffs at a patch of grass in the nature strip by the side of the road.

So these days, when I yank her to a halt (and she’s not still straining because Dammit. She. Is. So. Close.), she immediately feigns disinterest. Sometimes she even takes a small step in the other direction.

Then, the second there’s some slack on her leash, she lunges forward to grab the forbidden morsel. It’s a smart tactic that’s even worked a few times.

But now I know. And she knows that I know.

I’m curious to see what she'll come up with next :)

A red dog being walked on a lead looks back over its shoulder at the photographer who has stopped walking to take this photo.

I do occasionally let her grab a doggy street food snack, by the way. We have a primary school and three cafes nearby so there’s always fresh bits of sandwiches and the like strewn across our neighbourhood.

Finding and eating random stuff on the road is the highlight of her day!

Thunderstorm fringe

The thunderstorm itself might have missed our suburb, but at least we got to see the gorgeous cloud formations on the fringes of that weather system.

(Of course even this distant thunder managed to freak poor Maggie out. She was a trembly dog all afternoon. *sigh*)

Photo of a completely overcast sky above the roofs of some houses. The sky is full of puffy, swirling clouds and looks quite dramatic.