A cure for bad day ache
1. Take a walk on dusk down by the creek
2. Sit for a while
3. Listen to a dog bark, splashing in the shallows.
4. Watch a ghost white Egret stalk fish
5. Observe a Pied Oystercatcher pipe loudly as it takes flight.
6. Collect some nearby stones.
7. Throw the stones into the still waters, coloured and patterned by tide.
8. See ripples spread out, a bronze golden light surfing each crest.
9. Half close your eyes as the sunset red fades away to night
10. Let all the unwanted aches of the departing day drain away
11. Dream of all the things still worth living for just a short sleep away
12. Sunrise, golden light, long morning shadows
13. the Pied Butcherbird’s rich melodious call,
14. a single sun orchid opening in violet.
15. Feel thankful you are alive and experiencing this.
16. Dream with longings for peace and the dawn of a better day

 

 

 

 

Tonight’s sunset was good from several angles. The ocean gives me  an escape, peace and feeling of belonging heading into another week in the world of people, in which I often fear facing and feel too broken to be a part.

At the oceans edge I feel creative, talented- sane. I like to think that it is the real me, and I suppose that is not something I need validation of, it is a truth only I need to acknowledge.

Last week was good for me relative to the last few months, I am moving into a place of safety, where my thoughts have cleared to start focusing on what brings me joy.

I am getting right into Florence and the Machine. What the Water is gave me, is a song I really like.

The ocean is a place without the fear. It gives me memories that let me know that there is always the ocean, clouds and tides when everything seems bad. Things I want to see and hear.

A ghostly moon was rising, concealed partially by the thin clouds.

 

I watched the movie Loving Vincent on Saturday and enjoyed.

“I want to show by my work what this eccentric, this nobody has in his heart.

So I thought I would head down to see if I could get photographs of the baths at sunset. The baths face west. I wasn’t sure what the light would do, there was a low bank of clouds on the horizon. Then on sunset some really nice low rays snuck under and painted the clouds pink, and gave a nice reflections in the pool itself.

It was a windy afternoon and two children and their parents were flying a kite. I have had a bad week at work, but I feel a lot better after seeing this sunset. A fisherman patrolled the rocks, there were lots of parked cars enjoying the view.

500px is a confusing site. So I put this photo up last night, and it got only 38 likes and 90 views. I deleted and put it up this afternoon, and it has 45 likes and over a hundred.

Another photo I accidently deletwd had 61 likes, when I reposted it, it got just 46 likes.

 

A still evening  at Coffs Creek. I had fun throwing rocks into the creek and creating ripples. I liked seeing the rocks with oysters just under the surfaces, and the ripples themselves had a pleasing soft light on them as they expanded outwards. It was a good way to end a tough week at work.

 

 

A potentially monumental sunset, so I headed down to the Marina. The high clouds were moving south at a fast rate and by sunset they down towards Gallows Beach. I shot south east. The clouds were colourful and high but getting more distant and high. It seems that the clouds dictate the composition of my photos. I would have been better off at Gallows Beach

Two people walking down from the Muttonbird Island, which is a popular place to photograph the sunset.

This one has a crane on it that is being used to construct the northern breakwall of the marina.

Thursday afternoon had it all.

A build up mushroom storm cells out off the ocean at Park Beach. Cycling around its centre, drawing more clouds into its heart. Curtains of rain falling to the ocean and onto the hills of the Orara escarpment. An ominous build up of dark clouds from the south. A shadow looming over the Jetty.

Lightning and thunder.  A lady and her children were out swimming in the ocean, a paddle boarder and surfers, and I thought this storm looks pretty serious and I wouldn’t be out in it.

The storm headed out to sea, and for a short while a rainbow, a short arc of it disappearing into the rain clouds. And then the rainbow disappeared into the ghostly golden grey light. The sun an orb shining weakly through the clouds. And then hail began to fall, small at first, then larger and larger in size, hitting the bonnet of my car, so hard that the car actually bounced on its axles.

Storm approaching

It probably lasted only 5 minutes until the hail reduced in size.

The storm cell moves out to sea

I drove around the Jetty in the aftermath. The grass was covered in hail, steam rose above the cooled bitumen roads. Shredded leaves of trees from the Beacon Hill Littoral Rainforest lay on the ground. I spoke to a swimmer who had been hit by hail while in the water. Owner of utes scooped hail out their cars where it had accumulated. People emerging from the aftermath with a story to tell.

Hail on the grass

Hail on the Jetty

A line of hail deposited on the northern side of the Jetty

Then I head to Gallows Beach to photograph the sunset. The sand of the beach had divets where the hail landed, a bit like a sand bunker on a golf course.

After that came the lightning display as the storm went out to sea. A crowd gathered at Beacon Hill, exclaiming as the clouds lit up internally with each lightning strike. I tried ot photograph but it was a failure, the ISO was set to auto, so the camera tried to expose for the whole scene, the results were grainy and out of focus. I needed ISO 100, so the camera exposed for the lightning not the while scene.

So about 5 hours of fun.

 

 

 

 

This is what I want to see. Even if I never saw another human soul in my life I wouldn’t mind. The colour at the end of the day is worth living for.

And the old man rubs his failing eyes
And takes a moment to watch the view
From a window nobody knows is there
He can see the empty street below
He says, “I keep my life in this paintbox
I keep your face in these picture frames
And when I speak to this faded canvas it tells me
I have no need for words anyway…”
And he says, “I…
I am a man,
A simple man,
A man of colours,
And I can see
See through these tears,
Tears of a man,
A man of colours”

Man of colours Icehouse

 

The best sunset I have seen for ages. The drought has broken and suddenly there are more clouds around, and rainbows.

 

A better week for me, I actually had several good conversations with people. My new camera lens turned up. And I made it down to the Jetty for a rainbow.

A bit of a gloomy rainbow. I liked the bright red helmet and rain jacket on the child on the bike.