This will hurt me...

Underwater hello. Douglas-Apsley Waterhole, Douglas-Apsley National Park. February 2016. Stealing a Q and A again, this time the Garage Sale Meme . Is your phone right next to you, or at least close by? It’s switched off and in a drawer. What windows or tabs are open on your computer right now? Only Opera browser. Three tabs. Is your phone a touch screen? Yes, a Nokia Lumia. Who is the last person to call you? My wife. What was the last movie you watched? Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom . With the kids. What are you doing tomorrow? I’m thinking of climbing a mountain. Are you in a good mood? Pretty much. It’s early, though. Do you think exes can remain friends? It’s highly unlikely. Are you starting to realize anything? That things matter less than you usually think. Do you follow rules or break them? Follow. I am prepared to push against them if there’s an ethical blur. Are you currently looking forward to anything? Japan! We’re head...

Pretty beetle. Douglas-Apsley National Park, Tasmania's East Coast. January 2013. Q and A time! Sunday Stealing: The 5000 Question Meme, Part Two 26. Who has done something today to show they care about you? Ezra and Henry have been very good boys (thus far). 27. Do you have a lot to learn? We all have much to learn... 28. If you could learn how to do three things just by wishing and not by working what would they be? 1) To learn a bunch of new languages (German, Russian, French, Spanish, Japanese and Mandarin). 2) To be able to understand and explain the entire range of geological history. 3) To learn the full scope of the world's flora and fauna. 29. Which do you remember the longest: what other people say, what other people do or how other people make you feel? I'd like to think that I remember the action itself, but I suspect that what really solidifies itself in my mind is how the action made me feel. 30. What are the key ingredients to having a good...

Skinny dipping is possible.

In October of 1934, the First Front Army of the Chinese Soviet Republic, led by the inexperienced command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, was on the brink of annihilation by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's troops. However, the Communists escaped in a circling retreat to the west and north, travelling some 12,500 kilometres over 370 days. Moreover, the route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China. Ezra [above] recreated at least a small snippet of that long march in the Douglas-Apsley National Park.

Henry thinks that you can make a boat out of rocks. I reckon he's wrong.

Bug. Douglas-Apsley National Park, Tasmania's East Coast. January 2013. Another day, another bushfire(s). Why oh why are we forced to choose between pleasant swimming weather (plus bushfires) and miserable wet days (minus bushfires). I mean, really, it is so uncivilised ... The Skirt , Guillaume Apollinaire Hallo Germaine that's a fine skirt you have A fine skirt for a queen A cruel queen Let's feel the silk of it Silk from Japan And trimmed with wide lace made on no machine Your skirt's a silken bell whose double clapper Your legs have struck the passing of my fancies O Germaine now I ring it my breast heaving My hands press down upon your willing haunches Your bedroom O my bell is a fine belfry My hands touch silk and seem to tear my ears Those pegs are gallows on which skirts are hanging Those hanging men are dazzling my eyes Motionless as an owl the oil lamp watches