The Big Blog
The not so Lone Pine
[above] Veritable platoons of "Lone Pines" are raised at the Yarralumla nursery in CanberraIncredibly there was a second pine cone that made its way back from the Gallipoli battlefront in Turkiye to Australia, this one sent by Lance Corporal Ben Smith to his...
12 November 2024
Will the real Lone Pine Please stand up?
Lone Pine is synonymous with the terrible tragedy that unfolded after the landing of 16,000 Anzacs at Gallipoli, Turkiye, April 25 1915. On the hill above what is now known as Anzac Cove, there stood a prominent Turkish Red Pine tree (Pinus brutia) which used...
7 October 2024
The Circle of Oaks
At some point around 1840, or just before, someone planted a ring of some 14 pedunculate or “English” oaks around a spring in the Adelaide hills at what is now known as Gumeracha. A name thought to be derived from Umer-acha, a word used by the local Peramangk...
28 September 2024
A space to work
A photographer is someone who takes photographs. Everyone’s a photographer, especially in today’s smartphone universe. The number of images available on the net at the touch of an icon will soon be measured in light years instead of illions, or perhaps not...
30 May 2024
Patience and the moon
A friend asked me the other day about my photography, whether I just took photos of anything that came along, or whether I planned photos ahead. The answer is that they are generally planned well ahead, sometimes years, may years. I have ideas in my head for...
18 April 2024
The Mentor of Mambray Creek
This gentle giant of a redgum tree stands earnestly in the middle of the campground at Mambray Creek in the southern Flinders Ranges of South Australia. It reaches up cathedral like, open to the sky on a series of broad flat pillars. The size of this giant...
7 February 2024
Niugini Diary - 2012
Success chasing a Common Sandpiper Friday 20 January 2012 BNE airport en route to Kimbe, West New Britain PNG - People here seem a lot more casual than in Adelaide, maybe it’s the weather, or that there are a lot of “islanders” about. Strangely the Air Nuigini...
11 February 2023
The Chapel Oak
The Chapel Oak is one of Europe's most treasured trees. The history of its salvation is tied to it being renamed the Temple of Reason during the French Revolution.
15 July 2022
HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY
Since it's Australia Day today I thought I would return to my 2016 Australia Day Theme of signs of Australia. Firstly, HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY to Australians and those that might be feeling a bit Australian. I don't get too excited about Australia Day, usually...
26 January 2022
The tree that outlived St Francis
There is a story that this tree in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, grew from a branch that St Francis had thrown on to a fire in the year 1213. Surviving the fire, the next morning St Francis decided to stick it into the ground, from whence the tree grew. This story...
25 July 2021