Wet Sundays

 It was wet down at Woronora (Burnum Burnum Reserve) this AM, and has been all week no doubt. There were a lot of fungi on the casuarina litter behind the car park. I had a bit of time to kill post run and pre the Liz return, so I tested the camera's macro abilities. It struggled in both of these to sort out the auto focus; the background seems to be winning. Still, call it art, who knows?

I don't claim to be an expert on fungi - neither of these are familiar to me (not that I pay that much attention to my feet generally).

It was wet for the running, too. I posted some shots from here a few weeks ago - so imagine those rocks with water on them. In fact, pretty much every path was a small stream, causing me to wonder which came first, the path or the stream, in fact, so I ran fairly gingerly. Plus the uphills are hard work; the ridges are very steep.

I've lost track of the rain. The rain gauge has overflowed twice. One night I had 9 pots out collecting the drips coming through the kitchen roof. Factory and office roofs over the city collapsed under the weight of the hail, so 9 pots sounds like an art house movie by comparison.

Saturday AM we had a respite, just enough to get the washing out on the line. And I managed to get out to the inauguration of a new parkrun, at Rhodes, on Canada Bay. The sun almost shone. It's a very nice flat course, roughly half in Bicentennial Park, next to the Olympic stadia, and the other half along the recently reconstructed edges of Canada Bay. My gym is in Rhodes, oddly enough, so I know the area quite well.

This whole area has been built by real estate developers; the land is reclaimed, some amount of toxic industrial residues removed. I was never here before then, so I can't tell you what industrial ambiance has been destroyed. I do know that there is a degree of racial tension between the Asian-Australian flat-dwellers and the European-Australian house-owners. It's a little disappointing that a nation of immigrants has so little respect for immigration other than their own.

Olympic Park looms large in the background - it's not pollution (today, anyway), it's cloud. The weather is the kind of humid where you can't be sure it's not raining. This shot was taken by the marshal at the turnaround point, so it's halfway. Hopefully I'm looking relaxed, but the resolution on the picture isn't up to the enlargement required to check. I did manage a "negative split" - out in in 10:07 and back in 9:58, by my watch. That's quite pleasing, I almost always start too fast.

Autumn footpaths - the day after the storm

Back lane in the threatened Victoria Rd precinct

 On the subject of industrial ambiance, here are some pictures I took last Sunday afternoon, pretty much the first day out in a week. I've been having 2 weeks off running, so I went out for a walk instead. Three of these are in the area tipped for re-development; but whatever happens, it can't be denied that the area does have existing charm. Plus, contrary to some of the propaganda, people. Two printing factories were open. Two recording studios. A couple of shops, and several food factories; a lot of the city & inner suburban restaurant food comes from here. I wasn't the only tourist, either.

The Red Rattler studio/theatre/concert hall was conducting its Sunday afternoon "refresh".pending the Sunday show. And the bowling club was open. although admittedly, not for bowling. But socialising continues even when the rinks are sodden.

Hailstorm - Shepherd Street

Hailstorm - look what blew in!