Weather or not and the wonders of nature?

[OzEclipse]

It's just over 4 years since I semi-retired and moved out to the Young region. I took two years off during the "COVID" years then did my last stint of paid work from Sept 2022-Aug 2023. I'm in a retrospective mood. I've been looking back at the past 4 years living out here.

One of the big advantages is that we get a lot of clear weather out here throughout the year but more in summer than winter. In Summer we get between 2/3-3/4 night s clear, in winter between 1/3-1/2 nights clear.

But located on the Hilltops here, I have a grandstand seat to some spectacular meteorological events as well as astronomical events and nature. Here is a collection of images I have assembled over the past 4 years, mostly captured straight off my front deck astronomical, stratospheric, and meteorological.

This post:
Fogs, supercells, star trails over lightning, rainbows. More to come in the next posts..

[OzEclipse]

Supercell, double rainbows, pyrocumulus, and ballooning season- spiders weave webs into large balloons, float in overnight and cover the lawns and vegetation with webs for one day. Then they gather up all the web and float away 24 hrs later.

[OzEclipse]

Bee, fog, rain moth, honey eater, eastern rosella, Friar bird, white cheeked honey eater, white collared honey eater,

[Matthieu]

Love the pictures, sounds like a great area to mix love of nature and dark skies without being too far from cities!

[Dave882]

Stunning shots Joe! Talk about a grandstand seat…those storm pics are incredible. And love the bee closeup too!

[Leo.G]

Absolutely beautiful images Joe.
I love the start trails over the electrical storm.
One of my own personal favourites I took some years back has a double or triple rainbow with lightning, Sadly shots from my yard don't look near as appealling as shots from your yard.

[OzEclipse]

Thanks Matt.



Thanks Dave. I have a good population of native pollinators too. I have a large tree that blooms in July/August...full of bees during bloom. The picture of the bee is on a basil flower.




Thanks Leo.
I bet from your yard, you don't have a 70km round trip to get a loaf of bread. Love living here but it has its disadvantages. Have to be very organised when I go shopping or I do without for a couple of weeks.

cheers

Joe

[leon]

Hey Joe some great images you have captured, love the storm ones especially, we could do with some of that rain, well done.

Leon

[Leo.G]

No but I do have a bread maker, I just have to go to the shops to get the dough mix and that's only a 5 minute drive at peak hour..
I lived in the region for 4 years and did quite a bit of travelling to some of the remote parts. I helped one of my TAFE welding teachers move some silos out at Quandialla, talk about remote living, I went out with him to do the designs of the cones because he didn't know how and another teacher suggested he take me along. He thought it was my trade, I'd only just finished the module on the designs a few days earlier. But I had a memory back then.

[OzEclipse]

Thanks Leon,
Wish we could have sent some your way. We had more than we needed last weekend, about 160mm in 24 hrs. It broke the banks of the creek, flooded the field and created a lake and cut of the bridge and easy access to Young. 2nd last image in the first series posted was last weekends carnage.





Leo,

I'm not as remote as Quandialla, they at least twice as far from Young as I am. But I usually keep about 30L of spare diesel, minimum 10L just in case I ever arrive back here late at night with a near empty tank.

The bread mixes and bread makers are very convenient and make beautiful bread but the mix has a limited shelf life.

Perhaps once a year, I run out of bread between shopping trips,]. It makes no sense to drive to Young to buy bread mix. So I keep and use plain flour, salt, water, and dried yeast in a loaf tin. Sometimes I add herbs to the dough other times just plain. Yeast has a limited lifetime. I keep sealed individual sachets of dried yeast in the fridge. Lasts longer like that. I activate the yeast with warm water and a half teaspoon of sugar. It's the only practical way to have ingredients available with long term storage.

Joe

[AstroViking]

Those are spectacular images, Joe. I'm really impressed with them.

If you were to enter some of them into a wildlife photography competition, I think you'd do well. Especially that one of the white cheeked honey eater launching from the bushes.

Cheers,
V.

[Leo.G]

I like damper, or did before I recently found out gluten was slowly killing me. If I ever recover my energy (any) and lose the abdominal pain I may try it with gluten free flour. The blueberry muffins didn't turn out so well.
Yes, Quandialla is quite remote, and hot, but any remote region such as yours keeping diesel handy is a great idea.
Though you do get the nicest skies and I bet it's currently quite hot?
I moved up there from Bexley in August 97 and the cool coastal breezes I was used to gave way to searing heat waves.

I'll have to phone my long term friend there and see how he's surviving, personally and his business (technology shop in town (Paul Davies)).

[OzEclipse]

Hi Leo,

It was 40C today, 37C yesterday. But with very low humidity ~40%, my evaporative cooling system keeps the house between 25-28C. Yesterday, had a BBQ with my neighbours on their back deck. Roasting hot. Today I've mostly stayed in. Tomorrow will be cool again.

Could be worst, 2 hrs west of here, Griffith & Hay got 45C/46C today.

Joe

[Derek Klepp]

Lovely shots Joe especially like the mono landscape and the bird shot with the blurred wings.Yes it’s good to sit down and appreciate places.And thanks for the scale shot on the insect.I live out of town a bit and am also lucky in that I don’t have to walk far to get a range of shots.
We are lucky to live in this country.Thanks for the pics and enjoy the semi retirement.
Derek