This will hurt me...

Manjal Dimbi ( Mount Demi ), Mossman, Far North Queensland. April 2021. The Thursday Murder Club   by Richard Osman An enjoyable romp in the traditional English murder mystery form. Richard Osman has done a great job in conjuring up a rich and diverse group of characters with a keen eye for unsolved murders and plenty of time on their hands. The decision to set the novel in a retirement village allows Osman to give his elderly cast colourful backstories and useful skills required to both solve crimes and advance storylines. While it gets a little crowded at times, there's enough killing off of characters along the way to keep things moving and thin the herd! If you're after a spot of good old fashioned crime-solving fun with enough highs, lows, laughs and tears to keep one engaged, this is likely the book for you. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Shoes. Opossum Bay, South Arm Peninsula. February 2013. Wordless Wednesday.

They built this wall around the boxes. Bus stop on Campbell Street, Hobart. January 2011. Australia Day? BAH! All these flags everywhere… PFFT! In my day, we used to think the Australian flag embarrassing (what, with it being dominated by someone else’s flag . Mind you, I remain unconvinced by some of the proposed alternatives… As presented before me, I shall be backing the demand to replace this insipid attempt: …with this submission for a fellow with great form on the design front , Mr Ken Done: If one would permit me a few minor alterations, I would suggest knocking that blue down a touch (indeed, opting for Prussian Blue instead), and make the yellow more golden, (like the Crayola colour Sunglow ). Yeah, it’s a little like the European Union flag, but it’s a damn sight better than having someone else’s monstrosity plastered all over the place. Even better, not a kangaroo – nor the colour green – in sight!

What’s in the box. On the Derwent one Autumn morn, April 2010. Theme Thursday today, and I’ve finally made an effort. People love not knowing stuff. Actually, that’s not correct! People hate not knowing stuff; what they love is the challenge of trying to find out the stuff that they know that they don’t know. Inevitably, humans being humans and all that that entails, most people are frustrated and annoyed when they finally crack the code and solve the MYSTERY and find out the stuff that they knew that that didn’t know; the stuff that they hated knowing not knowing about, does not measure up to their expectations that their imaginations had set loose. Indeed, the MYSTERY around their lack of knowledge held an allure that reality just cannot match. Today’s photograph is a good case in point. Walking to walk a few weeks’ back, I spy (with my little eye) a MYSTER Y ious object floating out in the river estuary. Handily, I am usually armed with a camera with a trusty zoom, and thus e...

Henry has graciously agreed to offer up one of his photographs as fodder for an experiment in digital manipulation. This one has all of the hallmarks of great photojournalism. A body has been found, foul play suspected, yet no motive nor suspect to speak of. The police are at wits' end, and a keen amateur sleuth is called up to investigate, with little more than a magnifying glass, a stick and a keen sense of justice.

Eagle-eyed reader Sue liked the look of Friday’s photograph , but noted an oddity: "To the right hand side is what looks like a boat...and something else. To my aged eyes it appears to be a dolphin??? Or can it be the Loch Ness Monster on holiday??? Can you enlarge that section ( as you did with the picture in the park ) and enlighten us as to what is in the water there??? I'm just curious...." I have done as asked and uploaded the evidence below. Far be it for me to TELL you all what it is, but I think I know. Would anyone like to hazard a guess?