This will hurt me...

Coming in to land. Seven Mile Beach. October 2011. All I can muster is, "What would Robbie Burns say?" To which all I can reply is, "Mah god! that is indeed a body enormoos metal spyug up thaur in th' lift!" To a Mouse, On Turning her up in her Nest with the Plough , Robert Burns Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie, O what a panic's in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, Wi' bickering brattle! I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee Wi' murd'ring pattle! I'm truly sorry man's dominion Has broken nature's social union, An' justifies that ill opinion Which makes thee startle At me, thy poor earth-born companion, An' fellow-mortal! I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve; What then? poor beastie, thou maun live! A daimen-icker in a thrave 'S a sma' request: I'll get a blessin' wi' the lave, And never miss't! Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin! Its silly wa's the win's ar...

Little planes zipping about give the kiddies and I such pleasure. We see them here and there, and it never fails to amuse. I snapped this little bloke re-enacting the bombing of Guernica just outside our backyard! The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner , by Randall Jarrell From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. Authors note: "A ball turret was a Plexiglas sphere set into the belly of a B-17 or B-24, and inhabited by two .50 caliber machine-guns and one man, a short small man. When this gunner tracked with his machine guns a fighter attacking his bomber from below, he revolved with the turret; hunched upside-down in his little sphere, he looked like the foetus in the womb. The fighters which attacked him were armed with cannon firing explosive shells. The hose was a s...

One of the exciting things about a visit to Seven Mile Beach is the aeroplane landings. Any visit longer than half an hour, and you're guaranteed to see a jet come in to land. It really is the bees knees.

While we were recovering from our spot of Great White Shark wrestling down at Seven Mile Beach, Ez alerted us to the impressive sight of an aeroplane coming in to land. Of course, I had the camera ready at hand and snapped the 9 am QANTAS flight from Brisbane as it came down to land at Hobart International Airport [no international flight since 2001], which is conveniently located just by the beach. If you squint, you can just about spot crooked NSW cop - is their any other kind? - Roger Rogerson headed south for his holidays. Careful with the massage parlours down here Roger, the bikie gangs run 'em, and they don't like the fuzz!

So here I am in the skies above a fresh Hobart summer's morn. I quite like the top photograph, the geometric lines of the wing and pastoral beauty of the sun-dabbled land below is a subtle mix of images that I do like very much. Photos taken from a plane are rarely successful, in my experience, so I was quite happy with the way that that these ones turned out. This second image is an aerial shot of Cambridge, the location of ‘Hobart’ airport. Apologies for the brevity of the post. It is a bloody madhouse here today, and when you’re the boss (and believe me I feel so grubby saying that), every bastard wants a piece of you!

So, those canny readers who spotted my blue in Tuesday's post deserve a pat on the back. Indeed, the photograph featured a building and not a river , as advertised. An easy mistake to make, and one that I am sure that you will understand! Tricky things building and rivers. The message that we should all take away from this is that even the best make mistakes , especially when they are rushing and very, very tired. SO this photograph I present this morning was hurridly taken on my way to Canberra on Tuesday. I say that I was on my way to Canberra, but actually, the plane was heading to Melbourne. Then I sat in an airport for an hour, got on another plane, and that one took me to Canberra. That is a nice example of the importance of Tasmania to the major airlines in Australia, you cannot get a direct flight to the nation's capital! Despite this, I have a little photo essay to come of the journey, but don't be afraid, I emerged unscathed!