This will hurt me...

Words on a page. Battery Point (walking to work). June 2013. The best thing about reading books while walking is reading books. And walking. The Wombat , Ogden Nash The wombat lives across the seas, Among the far Antipodes. He may exist on nuts and berries, Or then again, on missionaries; His distant habitat precludes Conclusive knowledge of his moods, But I would not engage the wombat In any form of mortal combat.

The boys psychologically prepare themselves for the Mother's Day Classic.

... [Groping for metaphor.] ...

Ezra's legs. Opossum Bay Beach, South Arm Peninsula. February 2013. Ezra reminds me of the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons. They knew how to kill... How to Kill , Keith Douglas Under the parabola of a ball, a child turning into a man, I looked into the air too long. The ball fell in my hand, it sang in the closed fist: Open Open Behold a gift designed to kill. Now in my dial of glass appears the soldier who is going to die. He smiles, and moves about in ways his mother knows, habits of his. The wires touch his face: I cry NOW. Death, like a familiar, hears And look, has made a man of dust of a man of flesh. This sorcery I do. Being damned, I am amused to see the centre of love diffused and the wave of love travel into vacancy. How easy it is to make a ghost. The weightless mosquito touches her tiny shadow on the stone, and with how like, how infinite a lightness, man and shadow meet. They fuse. A shadow is a man when the mosquito death approaches.

You might be surprised that it's been rather dry around these parts of late...

Who is that man?

Walking home from work. The Tasman Bridge (over the Derwent River Estuary). September 2012. Theme Thursday ? While I don't mind CONVERSATIONS, I can't help but feel that the inevitable disputes, arguments and (occasionally) scuffle ruin it for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a decent bloke, but when I'm ropeable, when I'm spewin', I'm as cross as a frog in a sock. One cross word and I am as mad as a cut snake. I like a yabber, but not with a galah. Fruit loops, dills and nongs normally get me to do me block. I give 'em a fair crack of the whip! If yer fair dinkum, you'll get a fair go. If you've got tickets on yourself, hooly-dooly, we'll have ourselves a blue on. I won't have ya playing sillybuggers. Rat bags can pull ya heads in. You can rack off. But usually they sit there like a stunned mullet with a shut gob. Sometimes they'll have a whinge, sometimes they'll go walkabout. That's right, they'll spit the dumm...

For some reason my children resent being taken on lovely Sunday morning strolls on paths of frozen mud in the dead of winter. Bloody soft southerners!

Henry takes Ezra's new umbrella for a stroll. I won't comment on the lad's supremely-wise decision to wear his Essendon FC jumper to last Friday's casual dress day...

As ever, Ezra leads the path of the righteous man...

It really wasn't that long ago that we were decked out in singlets and hanging out at the beach. It's all snow on the mountain and frigid southerlies at the moment. Beanie weather, with no space for singlets (unless it's underneath a shirt, jacket and raincoat).

Henry contemplates the concepts of Pflicht und Neigung (duty and inclination) and their relationship to each other. He was briefly thrown from the task when he stumbled upon a dead crab.

I'll give the two little blokes their due, when we were in Melbourne I reckon that they walked over 25 kilometres each!

I mentioned Long Beach Playground earlier today (a.k.a. the ' big park ')... Well, here is handsome Henry himself coyly strolling along that very walkway.

NEWSFLASH Handsome hunks stop traffic with dripping wet strut down centre of highway!

Plums? St Johns Park, New Town. February 2011. I don’t have anything, so here is a questionnaire. 1. Is there anything you wanted growing up from Santa that you never got? Probably a swimming pool, but it was always a tough ask. 2. Where is the best place you've ever vacationed? I enjoyed Germany and the Czech Republic very much. 3. Where is your favourite place to go when you need some time to yourself? Myself? Huh…? Probably a beach somewhere. 4. What is the current book you are reading, and your favourite book? As I type this, Victor Pelevin’s The Blue Lantern . I don’t have a single favourite book, but Catch-22 , Lolita , If This is a Man , The Tin Drum , Darkness at Noon , For Whom The Bell Tolls , Things Fall Apart and about thirty others make the short list. 5. What is your favourite element? Nitrogen is always good fun. 6. Do you believe in aliens from other planets and what do you think they look like? Well, logic would suggest that if it could happen on one planet, circ...

It might not be made of yellow brick, but adventure will surely follow! Howrah cycle track, November 2010. I wrote a poem yesterday. Let’s just say that it was inspired by real events. Very Important Meeting [Almost] the biggest of BIGWIGS I-Pads I-Phones I-Want I-Want I-WANT I-Can’t I-Won’t I-Don’t Put it on the agenda for next time. AGREED .

Sometimes a man just has to decide which side he's on , and march in that direction!

Ezra points out a blackwood tree amongst the gums. Tahune Air Walk, September 2010. I'm all about healthy kids, happy kids and confident kids. Part of the (not very-) secret to encouraging the HCC kids trifecta is through modelling good behaviour . Thus, when word went around my workplace that volunteers were required for the challenging and fast-paced game of Touch Football, the guilty part of my conscience realised that I might have the best (as in easiest ) chance to model good behaviour in terms of "engagement in organised sport". So, last night I had my very first game in the Southern Touch League (Division SEVEN ). Henry and Ezra (plus Jen) came along as cheerleaders and moral support. They were also useful in scraping me off the floor at the end of the game. The most important lesson that I learned is that my fitness levels could do with some improving. I also figured out - about three-quarters into the second half - that it is better to run diagonally than in stra...

Aren't you cold. Elizabeth Street in Winter. August 2010. Dolly birds draped about in bikinis. A standard response when you think "Winter in Tasmania". I am looking for ideas. I’m happy to trawl the ‘net for more, but I thought that I’d throw open the comments section for suggestions. What should I write about? Any questions that I should answer? Anything that you’d like me to photograph? The creative well is running dry, and my capacity to draw comics [you know who you are] is limited!