Nature

I'm finding that most people I meet don't care much for walking around national parks, or they see "hiking" as a kind of niche hobby. Some even think it's weird. People are into different things, but that still disturbs me.

14/12/24

14/12/24

14/12/24

This is our earth, this is what we've come from, what we've built our world on. Is it not important to connect with this? The earth that, one way or another, has nurtured us. I want to spread this love to other people.

14/12/24

01/12/24

It's important to have adventures outside. There's a feeling of realness to it that you can't get spending all your time in urban areas.

01/12/24

23/11/24

01/12/24

It's freeing to go for a walk and give up on keeping your clothes clean and your feet dry. As someone once told me - water washes away bad feelings.

04/03/24

21/04/24

Grey is the colour of cities. The colour of the concrete, the sky, and the monotonous lives of the people who live there. Some people really dislike grey days, but I feel like it's on those days when the world is more honest.

12/05/24

12/05/24

21/09/24

21/09/24

21/09/24

Put me on a mountain and I am a happy man. If you've never walked barefoot along a rocky creekbed, I recommend it.

21/09/24

21/09/24

30/09/23

21/03/22

7/08/22

7/08/22

30/09/22

21/03/22

22/06/24

22/05/24

26/01/24

13/01/24

2/06/24

07/09/24

Creeks are special places, they attract the life of a forest. Whenever I see one, I stop at it for a while, as if there is something to do there. Sometimes it's swimming but more often just staring at the water and enjoying its calm.

13/05/24

29/05/24

30/03/24

These photos are all from parks around Brisbane.

Looking through my recent photos I notice that the phone I got last year takes really long photos, and they're spoilt by shaky hands and aggressive post-processing. I had to get another new phone this year too, since 3g calls won't work anymore (which is infuriarating when 3g is the only option in the countryside!!). Sadly the new one has a camera that is even worse. So I plan to get a decent camera by the end of the year.

16/04/24

29/06/23

Three roads

10/06/23

All different

05/03/23

And yet the same

21/05/23

Strange that it's taken until now to upload pictures of this place. It was pretty, sort of similar to where I grew up.

12/05/23

I didn't live here long. It was lonely and I was under a lot of pressure at work.

12/05/23

Being totally alone, I found no reason to tolerate it. If I'd had a friend there, maybe I would have stayed.

05/04/23

05/04/23

Palm Cove is a place I didn't really appreciate while I was there...the palm trees were nice though. Will have to go back someday, but next time with company. Also a friend (?) showed me some other photos they took with a decent camera and now I feel kind of bad about taking all my blurry photos with a phone instead of something better. Oh well...they serve their purpose either way.

05/04/23

07/02/24

04/05/24

The experience of a city is so blurred. So much going on at any given time, places changing constantly. In the countryside it feels like the land remembers the past, but here I don't think it has a chance to keep up. Maybe I'll pick up the vibe with more time.

02/03/24

16/02/24

I changed the title of this page because I'm no longer living out in the sticks. I want to share photos of more subjects/settings than just forest.

24/01/24

Growing up in Queensland, Brisbane sort of looms over you your whole life as the big busy place where everything happens. I didn't think I'd end up actually living here.

18/02/24

I still don't think I'll stay here long. This place seems to exist in a bubble, it's not quite real.

29/12/20

Among the trees - you feel an overwhelming presence, you're being stalked by something out there in the cold. In your mind's eye it rushes towards you, pulls you through the undergrowth...but the moment doesn't come. The forest doesn't move.

3/07/23

Under the moon's light - just you and nothing else. The land becomes a void. No fear, there is nothing out there. For a moment, the world contains only you and the sound of a gentle breeze.

29/06/23

On the road - the land and sky tilt away before you. The sky turns dark and the land falls silent in awe. As if in response, a growing urge to fall to your knees, to freeze and rot with the landscape around you.

30/07/22

10/11/21

10/01/23

7/01/23

9/01/23

I should like Cairns, but I don't. Something to do with having little else to do besides go out to the esplanade and either walk aimlessly up and down, or stare at the sea.

7/01/23

12/09/22

24/08/22

It doesn't matter where you go, there will still be powerful skies.

6/06/22

15/02/22

14/04/22

These photos are from some of my favourite places around home. Plenty more still to upload. (I uploaded these shortly before moving north for work).

2/04/22

12/01/22

12/01/22

This nice looking place, is the end of a big drain in town. Looks really nice, apart from the blue water. A lot like a postcard picture. I think it's cool that even cities can have places like this tucked away.

12/01/22

13/12/20

13/07/21

I take a lot of photos. Most of them turn out blurry or have too much glare or shadow. It's a shame because out of the hundreds of photos I've taken, there's only a handful worth sharing. Anyway, there's something magical about water. Especially when you find it somewhere unexpected.

10/04/21

22/10/21

This is Chickweed. It tastes like lettuce, and would make a good lettuce substitute. I rate this 9/10 and would actually use it, especially in sandwiches. Sadly, the only patch around here is inside the yard, and gets trampled by my dogs.

05/10/21

This is Wood Sorrell. It tastes sour, but not as much as a lemon. I rate it 8/10, and while I probably won't use it in meals, it does taste good enough to stop and eat a bit.

05/10/21

Here we get into plants I was unsure about and spat out after tasting. I thought this was Fennel, but it turns out that it is definitely not. Thankfully I think it is Dill, another edible weed. Sadly I can't confirm this. I rate it 5/10, because it's very herby but still not bad. (It should be mentioned that some very poisonous plants, like Hemlock, resemble Fennell).

22/10/21

It would be great to eat more wild food, especially in cooking. I think the reality of wild foods is that most of them are mediocre vegetables. After misidentifying one, and possibly more plants, I don't want to take the risk anyway. I'll keep eating what I'm sure of though. To be fair, you can use some guides relatively safely. I used one from the ABC (who don't want to be sued because of accidents) that included pretty safe choices.

Other plants which I had hoped to find but couldn't include Cobbler's Pegs, Blackberries, Pigweed, and some succulent thing I forgot the name of. I decided not to try Mallow, Wild Spinach and Nettles. The first can be poisonous or edible depending on the soil, the second I couldn't be sure I had found, and the last is a bit inconvenient. In my area there is also cactus fruit, which taste nice but are a lot of trouble, and blackberry nightshade, which has berries that are edible when ripe but poisonous when they aren't. In general if it looks like a tomato, it's poisonous (solanums).

05/10/21

This is possibly Wild Brassica. Tastes like...brassica, but it's so small that I don't think it's worth eating. There is quite a lot of it though. 4/10.

24/12/20

01/02/21

23/03/21

03/09/21

03/09/21

The Wattles are doing really well this year. There are so many! I've counted at least 8 kinds, although there's only two pictured here. It;s also nice to see the peaches along the creeks flowering, I thought most of them had died during drought.

04/09/21

03/07/21

03/07/21

I finally explored the road on the other side of the mountain nearby (I won't say which, for privacy reasons). I was so tired by the time I got there, and someone has fenced off the road, so I didn't travel far along it. It was beautiful though, especially on a cloudy day. It was nice to see some Ironbarks that are still alive, but they still don't look too healthy.

03/07/21

03/07/21