Photographic Scavenger Hunt; Sparkle

Deb has decided to make this the last scavenger hunt for a while, as I guess we're all getting a bit busier with the holiday season approaching. I had thought about the topic over the last couple of weeks and had come to the conclusion I would have to take some photos especially, despite having 'masses' of photos on the portable hard drive, on various pen drives and also in folders in both computers. 

Maybe, I thought, I could take a photo of my one piece of clothing with some 'bling'...a tank top made out of black fabric with sequins over the front? Perhaps I could take another photo of the beautiful Swarovski crystal flower ornament that  my colleagues gave me as a retirement gift. I had photos of it but these photos didn't do justice to this beautiful piece... Well I didn't get around to doing either of these things....you know, the old 'shoulda, coulda, woulda' type of thing! lol 

Here are two of the photos that I took of my beautiful little flower last year...

Then I had another idea...take photos of the sun glistening on the waves during our recent day trip to the Gold Coast by boat. Well I did take photos but it maybe was not as sparkly as it was in real life. And then...

I was manning the parish's craft stall at our annual Christmas Markets on Saturday, when I noticed a bit of sparkle in a number of the goodies that we had for sale...so here are some pictures of 'sparkle' after all! 

Look at those sparkly haloes  there :-)

Some more 'peg' angels...

 Some lovely little girls' bags were made and donated by the daughter of 2 of our parishioners. Lots of bling here!

Close up of one bag...

All the bags lined up for sale on the table...

Close up of another bag's sparkle...

Why not visit Deb to see her sparkly photos? :-)

Meandering around Moreton Bay; our cruising continued :-)

After we left the Brisbane River we entered Moreton Bay; a huge bay named by Captain James Cook on his 1770 voyage up the east coast of our continent. This bay is quite sheltered due to 3 large islands that are parallel to the coastline, Bribie, Moreton and Stradbroke. Then there are another 297 islands that dot this region. Some are inhabited but many are not and our cruise would now take us past, between and around many of these islands.

The Tangalooma Flyer which goes between Brisbane and the resort on Moreton Island 

On the mainland side (starboard)  we cruised past Wynnum and Manly, Wellington Point, Victoria Point, Cleveland and Redland Bay communities.

One of the first islands that we encountered in Moreton Bay was the infamous St Helena Island on which was built a penal colony for the 'worst of convicts' who endured a pretty horrific life. Escapes were thwarted by the sharks that were very plentiful in the bay. It is now a National Park and does a 'roaring trade' with school groups' excursions. There are also night time tours which are said to be quite scary, lol! To land on St Helena, you have to be part of an organised tour and they are very strict about this. (the company whose cruise we were taking are a group that take tours there) Now it so happens that on board with us that day, was a ranger and he took over the commentary as we went past St Helena island.

The ranger tells us about the harsh conditions that prisoners on St Helena lived under

He demonstrates a beating with a cat o' ninetails  on the  volunteer crewman. (it was made of rope not leather and he didn't really hit him :-) )

Our boat cruise went between St Helena and Mud Island and to the left (port) we could see the huge white sand dunes of Moreton Island where the Tangalooma resort is and gradually we drew near North Stradbroke Island. North and South Stradbroke Island together stretched all the way to Southport so it was on our port side the rest of the trip.

As we came towards Cleveland we passed a small island known as Peel Island. This was originally the site of  a quarantine station but from 1907-1959 it was a leprosarium, for the isolation and treatment of people who had contracted leprosy.

As we neared the Redland Bay area, suddenly there seemed to be islands everywhere; Macleay, Russell, Lamb and Coochiemudlo Islands are just some of the inhabited islands in this area. The channel is very narrow here and is marked with the usual red and green markers. (green marks the right side of the channel and red, the left side leaving the harbour/dock etc))

Macleay Island

Wynumn/Manly in the distance

Russell Island's electricity comes via pylons from the mainland...

Seabirds having a rest...

Many islands are mainly under water and have mangroves...

A trawler we 'met' not far from Stradbroke island...

A lovely 'wilderness' near the mouth of the Logan River

The southern end of North Stradbroke Island and the northern tip of South Stradbroke Island...

A close-up of Jumpin Pin between the 2 parts of Stradbroke Island (originally this was one island)

 Here is a map showing the island of Moreton Bay down to the southern tip of South Stradbroke...

In the next post I'll share some photos taken as we sailed towards the Gold Coast :-)

Let's talk turkey...a bit of a drama in the vegie patch...

Bush or scrub turkey to be exact... Recently I wrote about having to put some trellis plastic around a garden bed to stop the bush turkey digging out the plants. Well, at that stage he was leaving the raised beds alone, but all of that changed in the last week or so. Each morning I would find at least one plant uprooted in the larger raised bed, and soil heaped up in mounds.

Then. on Tuesday morning of this week, this is the scene that greeted me when I went to water the vegetables. What a mess! This had been a garden bed with zucchini plants, thriving silverbeet plants and tomato plants. The turkey had 'raked' up leaf litter that was under the trees and shrubs on our back boundary and heaped it up in the raised bed. I tend to leave the litter under those trees as it forms a mulch for the trees but also provides cover for the lizards that live in our yard. 

The leaves were also mounded up at the end of the bed...in the photo below you can see the tradescantia plants that have been uprooted. These also grow under the trees at the back. DH and I picked up all the leaves mounded up outside the bed but it was a losing battle...when we weren't in the yard the turkey resumed mounding up leaves. He even started raking up leaves from my neighbour's macadamia tree  as well as scratching out any fallen leaves in amongst my bromeliad  bed under the jacaranda tree. DH and I decided that next morning we would buy some chicken wire to protect the garden bed.

pots, plants, twigs, fallen branches...all got raked towards the vegie garden bed

In the morning though, DH announced that he was going to contact 'Peter the Possum Man' a company that has permits to trap turkeys and relocate them to bushland. It was expensive but DH had decided that it was the way to go... So a young man came with a cage...which he placed on the 'mound' built by the turkey

He showed us how to 'set' it and explained how the trap was to be used. It had to be monitored at all times...if we went out we had to shut it. Now I wondered HOW the turkey could be enticed into the cage...what 'bait' for example??? But it was simple and ingenious how it all worked. The young man showed us how to slide a mirror in the back end of the cage...

Lol! Look there's another Maria !

The turkey sees another turkey and goes to investigate...and as he steps towards the mirror, the door slams behind him. We were shown how to take the mirror out when the turkey is trapped and turn it to the blank side and slide it back in. Then to help the bird calm down the young man left a knotted sheet to cover the cage. The young man then headed off to his next job and we went inside so the turkey would come back to his frantic raking. Within 10-12 minutes he was caught. Unbelievable!

We rang to say that the turkey was in the cage and eventually he was collected. His new home is bushland out Ipswich way...he should find plenty of leaves to scratch up there. I've lived with bush turkeys all my life but one had never chosen my yard for his mound before. It's said that that once they do that, you can never get rid of them or their mound. (The males build the mounds for the lady turkey to lay her eggs in. The heat of the mound incubates the eggs for eventual hatching, so we could have ended up with dozens of them next year !!!) 

More of 'Cruisin' down the river...'

So to continue with all the sights we saw on Monday...

Firstly, this photo that DH took, just as we passed under the Gateway Bridge...a very interesting perspective I think...There are now 2 bridges; the duplication was called the Leo Hielscher Bridge...still the Gateway to me lol! 

 The next photo shows the cruise ship terminal. Apparently the really big cruise ships can't come into Brisbane as they don't 'fit' but we still get lots of cruise ships visiting just the same.

A bit more of the cruise terminal area...

A smaller ship docking...

 A few weeks ago DH and I went to Fort Lytton. The photo below is of the fort area from the river...

DH's has a telescopic lens, so the photos below get us a bit 'closer' to Fort Lytton 

A gun emplacement from WW2...

When I wrote about Fort Lytton I mentioned that for a number of years the land the fort is on was owned by Ampol and then Caltex Oil Refineries. This shot shows the now, Fort Lytton National Park, dwarfed by the Caltex Refinery. 

Another 'zoom in' on Fort Lytton...

These storage tanks looked like they covered a number of hectares on the north bank of the river...

Looking back up the river...the Gateway bridge is barely visible...

We're getting closer to the mouth of the river...

Looking south here I spotted a large building. It is Nazareth House which is in Wynnum a southern bayside suburb of Brisbane. I had never imagined I could see Wynnum from the Brisbane River.

 Nazareth House was originally a 'Boys Home' run by the Catholic Church. We found out on our tour of Fort Lytton, that older boys from this home were used as labourers on the building of the fort. It was been an aged care facility for quite a while now though.

I 'zoomed ' in on Nazareth House here,,,

This is an example of what is known as a supertanker...over 1000 tonnes.

This is an area of the port where 'robot' crane like vehicles unload and shift  containers. The tower-like building is where the robots are controlled by computer...

More ships being unloaded

The mouth of the river...

 In yet another post I will show photos of some of the islands that we sailed past as well as some scenes of the Gold Coast's Broadwater. We were in Moreton Bay all the time...this large bay runs from the Sunshine Coast down to the top of the Gold Coast.

Cruising down the river...

Last weekend Brisbane was hit by a series of storms but by Monday morning the weather was fine and sunny again. Which was just as well as DH had booked us on a day cruise, Brisbane to the Gold Coast. Normally we drive on the motorway to the coast (takes about an hour from our place) but this cruise took us down the river, and along the coast past 300 islands (most are small and uninhabited), mangroves, resorts and coastal settlements in a most leisurely and relaxed manner.
Our departure point was at Brett's Wharf which is on busy Kingsford Smith Drive in Hamilton.

Here's Brett's Wharf at Hamilton where we would board...

The very expensive houses on the other side of the road from the wharf...

Looking over the river towards the city...

 After waiting a little while, our cruise boat came along and tied up at the wharf...

Looking west towards the suburbs of Newstead, Bowen Hills and Herston...

Another view of the expensive real estate of Hamilton

We've started our cruise now and a City Cat comes in to the ferry pontoon

These are newer unit buildings in Hamilton, built on former industrial/mercantile land

Some older docks on the north side of the river...

Heading downstream towards the Gateway Bridge...

Behind here is the Mary Cairncross Drydock...it is still operational

This is the lovely Colmslie Beach (still Brisbane river though)

Raptis Seafood at Colmslie

Even more of Colmslie Beach

This is downstream from Colmslie...loved the reflections...part of the Port of Brisbane (P.O.B.)

Nearly at the Gateway Bridge...

Royal Queensland Golf Course on the northern side of the river

Some of the vessels on the left are ready to be called out at any time...

Picture shows some of the bulk handling facilities at POB plus a couple of pretty impressive boats!

As we cruised towards the mouth of the river, not only did we have a commentary and morning tea but also entertainment. The 'boys' have got their timing right...when there is no commentary Col, one of the crew plays his piano accordion. He expects people to singalong too ! lol

Next time I'll post photos of some of the ships loading and unloading at POB and then continue telling you about our journey through the islands.