early spring

The early Spring weather has been wild, since the opening of the Weltraum exhibition at Magpie Springs on Sunday. The gale force winds and driving rain have meant that I didn’t bother to take my digital camera with me on the early morning and evening poodle walks.

The walks were done quickly: we drove to a location, had a quick walk, then returned to the car before we get too soaked. The landscape is saturated from the rains and water is flowing everywhere.

Prior to the opening of the Weltraum exhibition the weather was calmer and some photographs were taken whilst on our  early morning poodle walks:

Depp's Beach
Depp’s Beach

I had been mostly photographing for the Littoral Zone project. This is what the daily photography on the poodlewalks has become now that we are living on the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula.   Continue reading “early spring”

After the storms

The recent stormy, winter weather has meant that our poodle walks have been mostly along the back country roads since they offer some protection from the wind. We have only infrequently walked along the coastline because it is usually windswept: battered by the south-westerly winds and intense rain.

The picture below is from one of the rare occasions during July that we ventured onto Rosetta Head. We waited in the Subaru Forester for the squalls to pass through, then we went for our walk around Rosetta Head keeping an eye on the incoming squalls coming from the south.

car park, Petrel Cove
car park, Petrel Cove

Whilst we were waiting in the Subaru for the squalls to pass I took some photos of the landscape through the windscreen of the Forester.
Continue reading “After the storms”

on the breakwater

Our poodlewalks have been very limited in scope and duration this last week.

This was due to Kayla’s surgery to remove the bones that were struck in her small intestine and stomach. She had to walk on a lead, and in the morning we walked down to the beach at Encounter Bay, out along the breakwater near the boat ramp and then back to the house. In the evening, I walked Ari and Maleko whilst Suzanne walked Kayla.

All that I could by way of photography in the morning was to photograph the rocks of the breakwater in the early morning winter light:

rocks, breakwater, am
rocks, breakwater, am

We were lucky to have a couple of clear mornings between the showers and squalls that have broken the warm autumn that emerged out of the prolonged summer period in March and that continued into the start of May.I gather that El Niño is now waning into its opposite phase, La Niña. Winter has been wet but not that cold.
Continue reading “on the breakwater”

moonrise over the southern ocean

Autumn has been quite warm this year with only a few days of rain that suggest winter is an approaching.

This picture was snapped on the evening before a sou’westerly cold front moved across the coast the next day. It was a mild and warm dusk and it was very still. People were out swimming, walking, fishing, playing at Petrel Cove, fishing and running even though it was dusk.

moonrise
moonrise

I was returning to the car park at Petrel Cove from a walk with Ari and Maleko just as the moon was rising over the southern ocean south of Rosetta Head, or the Bluff. I couldn’t resist taking handheld a snap.
Continue reading “moonrise over the southern ocean”

a hot and dry autumn

So far autumn—-that is March and April—in southern Australia has been hot and dry with very little rain. It feels unseasonably warm in the sense of the temperatures being above normal. Presumably, the current spike in warm weather is happening partly because of the El Niño that spread a pulse of warm water across the Pacific Ocean in 2015. That El Niño is now dissipating, spreading the warmer water around Australia, raising temperatures.

surfer+fisherman, Petrel Cove
surfer+fisherman, Petrel Cove

These warm temperatures—-there is heat in the sun at 9am in the morning—that is caused by a dissipating El Niño is happening on top of the background of global warming. What we are seeing and experiencing is a continuous process of global warming that is superimposed on to the natural variability. Long term that means longer heatwaves, greater droughts, less water and rising sea levels for southern Australia.
Continue reading “a hot and dry autumn”

Mad March 2016

If it is autumn on the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, then it is still summer in Adelaide. So I discovered when I walked the city taking in the various Magic Object visual art exhibitions in this years Adelaide Festival of Arts whilst I waited for the Subaru Outback to be serviced.

I was more than happy to return to the cooler temperatures of the coast after spending several hours walking the city in the 36 degrees heat with its high humidity, due to a low-intensity heatwave that has hovered over south-eastern Australia for the past week. We have early autumn temperatures in the mid-to-high 20s on the coast.

Rosetta Head
Rosetta Head

It’s Mad March in the Adelaide with Festival, the open access Fringe and Womadelaide.

Continue reading “Mad March 2016”

early summer morning walks

The Fleurieuscapes exhibition at Magpie Springs opened on Sunday 17th January.We had a picnic lunch in the grounds of Magpie Springs with friends before the exhibition opening. A good crowd was in attendance for the opening and the atmosphere was convivial and summery. However, as I don’t expect to sell much work from the exhibition, I will be paying off my photography master card for most of this year.

Kayla, Heysen Trail
Kayla, Heysen Trail

Whilst preparing for the exhibition Kayla and Ari and I walked along the Heysen Trail in the morning to avoid the crowds on the beach. Then Ari and Maleko and I walked along the beach in the afternoon. We stayed away from the Heysen trail in the late afternoon because of the prevalence of the black snakes.
Continue reading “early summer morning walks”

amongst the coastal rocks

Kayla, Ari and myself were returning to the Mazda after an early morning photoshoot–a rockpool— along the coast near Kings Beach Rd. A photoshoot was a break from being more or less sitting in a front of a computer working on the Fleurieuscapes exhibition at Magpie Springs. The opening is on Sunday January 17th.

The tide was low and it was overcast so I could access some of the coast that was not possible during the winter. I had explored this part of the coast whilst on a poodlewalk yesterday morning and I decided to go back this morning, if there was some cloud cover.

2 poodles
2 poodles

People are still on their holidays along the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, so there are plenty of runners, walkers, trail-bikers and dog walkers on the coastal path between Petrel Cove and Kings Beach in the early morning. It is still cool at this time of the day and, as the coastal winds have eased, it is pleasant walking. Continue reading “amongst the coastal rocks”

along Encounter Bay

Now that the household is based in Encounter Bay, Victor Harbor with an young pup–Kayla–the poodle walks have changed. I do a gentle, meandering walk along the beach at Encounter Bay with Ari and Kayla in the morning and afternoon whilst Suzanne does the more strenuous Bluff and Dog Beach walk with Maleko.

dead tree
dead tree

This will probably change when Kayla can do longer walks–maybe in a few weeks–and then she can accompany Suzanne and Maleko. Continue reading “along Encounter Bay”

summer rains

Whilst the Sturt St townhouse in Adelaide is on the market and the various offers are being assessed, I’m down at Victor Harbor keeping the standard poodles out of the way for the open inspections and beginning the adjustment to living on the coast.

I’m using the time away from Adelaide to start to centre some of my poodle walk snaps made  in, and around, the Fleurieu Peninsula coastline into some kind of project. A low key or modest one.

Hindmarsh estuary
Hindmarsh estuary

The weather on the coast has been overcast and showery with strong south westerly winds, and we’ve usually ended up getting wet in the morning and the evening whilst returning to the car or house from the beach from the rain. It’s wet shoes, damp clothes and wet dogs.  Continue reading “summer rains”