Brisbane, QLD


Friday, March 1, 2013

A WALK IN THE PARK 10

It was time to drag TOH out for another walk for some exercise. This was a few weeks ago, since then we have had rain, rain, rain. The forests are much greener now. I wish we could get rain and sun in smaller quantities and alternating through the year instead of hot, dry drought for weeks and then tropical downpours for weeks. Oh well thats life here in SE QLD. Anyway back to the walk.
This day we went to discover Kimberley Forest Park. We had been there before some years ago and we used a different entry this time. It is another patch of Eucalyptus Forest surrounded by the suburbs of Kimberley Park and Shailer Park. It is a 5 minute drive from home.

It was a well established gravel track winding through the eucalypts which sheltered us from the burning sun.

 I like to show you some of the different trees that we see on our walks. This one is the Spotted Gum. No prizes for guessing why. Wiki tells me its botanical name is Corymbia maculata but doesn't explain what causes the pock marks. The name sounds like a coffee which I think TOH would much rather prefer than a walk down and back up the steep hill we encountered.

I thought he would pike out at this point when he realised we would have to climb back up but no.........

He kept on hiking down and down. We reached the empty creek below and turned around and climbed back up.

I stopped to admire the lichen but .....

he was off on his home run, thinking about that coffee.

I caught up to him as we emerged from the forest into the quiet suburban street full of nice houses. Many of them have solar panels on the roof to make solar power and thus save money and the use of fossil fuels.

28 comments:

  1. How beautiful! Love all these photos, Diane! That quiet suburban street looks like a great place to live...those houses!

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  2. It's wonderful to have pockets of bush near the suburbs for people to enjoy.

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  3. At least you can drag him out ! I would need 2 elephants at least and still ... ! It must smell very nice in these woods ! Here too it's wet, not really raining but the humidity creeps under your clothes ! and it's cold !

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  4. coffee is a wonderful promise. One before the walk to charge the batteries and one for when you get back to relax with. I love the spotted gums .....

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  5. Diane, I always enjoy a walk in the forest. The Spotted Gum has a neat looking trunk. I know how I feel with the up and down the hills, but you do get a better work out going up. Lovely photos, have a happy weekend!

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  6. You must be very patient with your walking partner. Do you ever see something different than his back? But it is good to walk, we had been in for a week because of the cold. When we went out again we had a lot of muscular pain afterwards, ha,ha.

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  7. Another lovely walk Diane, it's been too hot over here for much walking of late, but once the cooler weather comes (wishing) we will have no excuse. It is wonderful to have bush walking tracks so close to suburbia. Solar panels are becoming extremely popular over here too.

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  8. beautiful trail, would love to walk it.. i like the shadows on the ground and the view down at the foot bridge.

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  9. Really cool close-up of the pocked tree bark. You are so lucky to have so many lovely parks and trails near your home! We have one trail a few blocks from us that my husband loves to walk because it follows the creek and we almost always see some sort of interesting wildlife. (deer, ground hogs, foxes, turtles, cranes, bluebirds, snakes, etc...)

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  10. I had to laugh at your "drag TOH out" comment. He is like a horse headed to the barn when his coffee is at the end isn't he? LOL Love that you at least got a couple shots off to share with us. Do you need to remind him it is the journey not the destination that counts? hahaha Love ya guys!

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  11. That looks like a great walk. Your comment made me laugh about the other half and his coffee, that would be me. A doughnut for Gregg. When we go to Huntley Meadows there is a Krispy Kreme Doughnut shop on the way home, too far away from us to go regularly thank goodness. But when we take our nice long walk we treat ourselves. Oh well!

    Thank you for the photography tip. We'll give that a go next time we take a photo of a moving target ;)

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  12. I must admit that I'm not fond of hiking up hills either, but I'm prou of TOH for hiking down to the creek and back up. This looks like a nice park. I would enjoy a hike there (hill and all!).

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  13. The spotted gum is interesting as it grows in our quite different climate too. I had a vague memory of what the trunk looks like, and it matches what I see here. http://anpsa.org.au/c-mac.html Yours looks a little different, but perhaps because it is a close shot.

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  14. After a nice walk, seeing such houses, just waw.

    Greetings,
    Filip

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  15. What a beautiful place to walk/hike. Reminds me of some of the mountain trails I take my dog Hiker on.

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  16. What *is* it about blokes who decide to join us on our walks but hate standing still for even a second to admire the view..???

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  17. Strange weather we have all had, Diane. Our winter hasn't been too harsh here --and we have gotten very little accumulating snow. But--we have had RAIN--lots of it...

    Seems as if you all are either VERY dry or have too much RAIN..... We need to have a talk with Mother Nature --and straighten her out... ha ha

    Glad you got hubby out for a walk.. SO important.

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  18. With rain and snow flurries here for a few days now I know what you mean about getting out - even in my own yard. :)
    Five minutes from home isn't far to go. I think TOH is secretly enjoying these walks. I know if I lived on that street I'd enjoy a daily walk.
    Thanks for the tree closeups. It's always nice to 'experience' nature in other parts of the world. Pretty little lichen as well.

    Thanks for your nice comment on my cardinal shot. The DOF was pure serendipity. :)

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  19. Such beautiful light & shade - and your close up confirms that almost nothing beats a gum tree artistically!

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  20. Sounds like you have to take advantage of the sunny days Diane. I see TOH is a camera carrier also!

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  21. Coffee heck, he was heading home to that new TV set ;>)!!!! Beautiful walk and very nice suburban homes there. (I actually used to like walking in different neighborhoods sometimes too, but we don't do that very often any more.)

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  22. diane,
    you do SUCH a great job on both telling us about the walking experience, and showing us wonderful photos.

    I certainly admire your skill with that camera. :)
    Have a great weekend.

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  23. Some bloody awesome photos of a lovely walk

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  24. I love where you chose to walk, great idea to be walking through the trees to shade you.

    The houses are stunning, what a brilliant idea to have solar panels. I wonder if we would even have enough sun here to justify converting... something I really should check into with hydro continually going up.

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  25. That is a beautiful trail. Thanks for sharing those beautiful photos.

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  26. Lovely Australian bush..nice to be able to go for a walk.

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  27. love the path and the trees and lichens you shared. while he trudges forward and you're admiring and capturing the details... :)

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