Prince Edward Park

 When Liz goes paddling at Woronora, I usually take the opportunity to do a bit of trail running, but today, Easter Monday, is a rest day post the Sunday long run, so it was more bushwalking than running. When we work out how to fit two canoes on top of one small car I may join her on the water - it really is stunning landscape.

I need to find out what these lumps in the trees are called, and the first cause of them; students always ask me when I take them bushwalking and not

 being able to answer damages my reputation for omniscience. I don't think you can make out the white cockatoos that were entertaining themselves in the vicinity, but I swear there is one behind that trunk in the left foreground.

I don't quite feel that I've caught this picture as I wanted; the sunlight which makes the spider's web so strong an image in reality has to be shielded from the lens and the lack of exposure control on the phone camera makes it a bit dark.

But it's not too bad. What you also can't see is that the spider is actually weaving the web as this image is being shot - the hole in the middle is diminishing quite quickly. Almost certainly a golden orb - I saw plenty of other mature webs by the side of the path.

Another failed photography challenge; again, shooting into the sun. These "red" leaves - as seen by my eyes - are actually dead brown leaves

 rendered almost phosphorescent by the sun, but the camera doesn't reproduce the contrast that I saw in the scene. Probably with photoshop and a camera with more manual controls something could be done; on the other hand if 100% of a walk could be captured on "film", who'd go walking?

Spectacular rock formations, in a low key way. Sydney sandstone is everywhere, north, south east and west - I don't know what makes some parts of it more resistant to erosion than others. The path through here is concrete, which is not the style of the big national park walks; I wonder if they represent an older approach to bush tourism, or the difference between a council seeking cost-effectiveness, and a forestry department seeking minimalist intervention. Could easily be both of course. The concrete was what I - knowing nothing about the topic - consider "old-fashioned, by which I mean heavy on road-metal aggregate, which I see in the older footpaths around the inner city.  Newer pavements wear quite differently.

There's probably a book to be written on pipelines in Sydney. There was a time when they were buried (there's one running under the TVT along Wolli Creek/Bardwell Valley), and then there was a time when they weren't. Obviously a lot cheaper just to run them above ground. I'm thinking though, that probably they are now buried again, if any more are being constructed. I don't mind them - up to a point, I didn't enjoy crawling under one on the Manly run - because it

 seems foolish to pretend that there aren't actually people living in Sydney. The contrast between civil engineering and bushland is at least thought provoking. And, since the pipe itself is a kind of graffiti on the landscape, why shouldn't it in turn be inscribed? Really, there's a fantastic opportunity for a concerted attack of decoration here. Maybe I'll apply for a grant.

The banksia flowers are in a more open area, to the South. Again, the light hasn't really been captured as it is in my mind. If you were curious about trail running, this picture gives a reasonable idea of a typical downhill, although it probably

 isn't as rocky as it might be if we were in one of the northern parks.

Two pictures of Forbes Creek (possibly), which runs into the Woronora. In the picture to the right it's almost impossible to distinguish the reflection from the banks and the rocks of the ford; the picture below, downstream, is a simple 180 degree pivot - amazing the difference in the light in a matter of 20-30 metres. Well, the difference in light is in a way obvious given the difference in vegetation, but the sudden change in tree cover is unmotivated by anything I could see, other than the ford.

Easter Sunday saw me in Liz's new boat, at the Regatta centre in Penrith. You don't see me in a lot of boat pictures, but this particular boat is very persuasive. It's very easy to move through the water (my personal boat is a bit of a tub - for stability reasons), and it has a rudder for steering. It was a very warm afternoon.