This will hurt me...

Shag on a buoy. Constitution Dock, Hobart. July 2013. As you know, the Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (and RSS feeds.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning... Schools of economic thought explained as bumper stickers. The World Inside a Camera. Candidate Obama debates President Obama. A Point of View: Is democracy overrated? How does a nation heal itself?

A shag on a rock. Flowerpot Point, Blackman's Bay. June 2013. The Gift Of Stones , Jim Crace: A tale set as a small village of tool makers in the Stone Age is pushed aside by the emergent Bronze Age. Crace has created an evocative tale of the impact of change on ordinary people through the eyes of a couple of beautifully constructed characters. Lovely stuff. B+ .

Cormorant drying its wings. Flowerpot Point, Blackmans Bay. May 2013. Poems drawn from notes on a fridge? Whatever next! This is Just to Say , William Carlos Williams I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

Shag on a rock drowned tree. Coal River, Richmond. July 2012. A special treat for you today. Welcome to the Domingo Los Cinco Primeros! For this Dimanche , I've imported an internazionale flavour, yes a Rätsel ! Yes, it is Quinque Clues Elaborare Responsum! Are you up for it? Můžete vyřešit ? Czy na pewno ? Okay then... Hodiaŭ mi ne estas kie mi kutime povas trovi . Nire kokapena egin behar duzu . Je suis 1.058 kilomètres au nord de la maison . Wenn ich hier lebte, würde ich wahrscheinlich spielen Cricket für Australien . La gente qui pensa che sia l'unico posto da visitare, ma potrebbe anche non fare la top ten . Have you figured it out yet? Pone respondere elit.

Spread your wings. Bellerive Wharf, Bellerive. May 2011. Too much to do, too little time to do them. That is our theme for the year.

As Australian Pied Cormorant lurking somewhere between Frederick Henry Bay and Storm Bay one Spring morning. Clifton Beach, September 2010. The pain from my tooth means that you get a meme. A meme All about Me! What time did you wake up this morning? 6:07 am. What do you like most about yourself? An acute sense of loyalty and duty. What do you like least about yourself? My low threshold for imbeciles. Can you sing? I think so. I like to sing. Can you dance? Whether one can or can’t dance is such a subjective concept. I’m better than Elaine Benes, worse than Mikhail Baryshnikov. Do you smoke? No I don’t. I tell people off for smoking at bus stops. Do you drink? Very rarely. Can you swim? Of course I can. I live on island. I would be stuck if I couldn’t swim! Year you were born? 1977, mere days before Star Wars opens in cinemas… Favourite colour? Blue. More specifically, the darker shades of blue. Even more specifically, I like Sapphire . Sleep with or without clothes? I sleep as nak...

Shags on a rock at Hinsby Beach. May 2010. These fellows are the dreaded Black-faced Cormorant ( Phalacrocorax fuscescens ), also known as the Black-faced Shag . As you can see, it is a medium-sized member of the cormorant family. Noticeably, its upperparts , including facial skin and bill, are black, with white underpants . It is endemic to coastal regions of southern Australia, and feeds largely on small coastal fish is prone to feasting of the brains of pirates. Really. Shag, shag, shag, shag, shag, shag and shag. May 2010.

I was thinking about calling this photograph A shag with a little buoy , but feel the title A cormorant with a little buoy might be a little more appropriate, lest anyone confuse me with Bill Henson...

There's nothing finer than a shag in the shallows on a public beach! Here is a fine specimen hustling up some grub looking south from Howrah beach mere days ago. So yesterday you got LOVE, today you get HATE: 1. Most Hated Food: NUTS! Peanuts mainly. Not really a nut I know, but the list of things that can kill me is not a short one: peanuts, pine nuts, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pistachios, macadamias, and they are just the ones I know about! Vile, detestable things! 2. Most Hated Person: I can't just pick one. I generally don't like people who think and carry themselves as if they are learned or broad-minded when in fact they are as - if not more - ignorant, narrow-minded or judgemental than those they look down upon. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of such people. 3. Most Hated Job: Any job where you find yourself getting lumped with work that should be done by those being paid twice as much as you (and they're off eating cake...) 4. Most Hated City: T...

Here you can see a shag take wing on the Derwent. Yesterday we had an odd sort of a day. Lots of rain, started off cool but got increasingly humid as the day wore on. It was rather uncomfortable by late afternoon, with everyone sweaty and cranky. The icy poles didn't last too long after the were broken out. The above photo is mine, but I have a few others to share below that I can't claim credit for. It's a big country, Australia. Sometimes events in different states serve to illustrate that very well. Over the last couple of days, two stories have featured heavily in the news. One concerns the intense bushfires that appear to have killed quite a few people across the state of Victoria. As this photo courtesy of the ABC demonstrates, it must have been pretty unpleasant out there. The other story is happening in North Queensland . Heavy rains have caused some reasonably severe floods in a lot of areas. The photo below isn't of a fish farm, it's some cattle yards c...