This will hurt me...

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?

I can just picture the scene: "Come on Jimmy, we got git out o'wise dis dang dere queer's funeral al'ready be over!" "Jus' hang on one dang dere minute Jessie. I ain't got all them perves and mis-cre-aints down yet". "Shee-ait come on boy, y'all only gone down and dang miss More-MONS!" "Wait up... wait up... AND... MORE... MONS... DONE!" I happen to think that this is a very interesting hit list of people to loathe. One day I shall draft my own inventory and see how they compare. In particular, I very much like how Mormons appear to have been added as an afterthought. I am not sure which would sting more, being at the top of a "I Hate List", or being relegated to an addendum. For now, let me just say that I don't like "racists", but I have no problem with "people who talk to animals more than god". And although my own personal "ankle biter" can get annoying at times, he doesn...

I wish that this was my photograph, but it isn't. It is an aerial shot of the city of Pripyat , in the Ukraine. You may not have heard of Pripyat, an abandoned city in the ' Zone of alienation ' in northern Ukraine, near the Belorussian border. It was home (amongst others) to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers. The city was abandoned in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster, its population had been around 50,000 prior to the accident. That's what makes this photo so spooky to me. It is not often that you can see a city where one day, 23 years ago, everybody just upped and left. It must be an eerie experience to wander through the streets today. I found this image at a website titled simply "Pictures from the sky" . If you are into impressive photographs, give it a click and check out some more stunning images.

I've gone with another evening photo, this time of the traffic as I was walking up Davey Street on Tuesday evening. I am sort of annoyed that I've gone with this one, as I had another thing in mind today, but didn't take the shot. You know that it is a sad state of affairs when you see what could be a great photo of a bunch of little kids mucking around in the park, but stop yourself because you're worried that someone will 'get the wrong idea'. The world really is stupid sometimes.

Who knew baseball had such a rich and varied tapestry of names? This guy today was apparently quite good (he's in the Hall of Fame). Even better, he had the mustache to match the name. I'm a firm believer that much of the distaste for the current Australian cricket team directly correlates with the demise of the moustache. AB, Boonie and Merv, come back!

Here are some trees across the road from us. My guess would be some sort of eucalyptus, but that's pretty much exhausted my knowledge of the eucalypt family! This one was taken yesterday morning on the way to the bus stop, with the sun very low just peeping over the hills that lay behind our house giving off a very warm morning light.

Went for a walk yesterday along the river's edge with Henry and Jen, and spotted many birds lurking around looking for some tasty fish to eat. The picture today is of three Black-faced Cormorants . Also known as the black-faced shag (fnarr-fnarr), there are so many of these fellows hanging about that they give their name to the next bay up from ours, "Shag Bay". And don't the local teenage boys just love that!

There is no need to go to work today because it's Good Friday, so I've dug into the thousands of photos we've taken over the past year to find one to put on the blog that might reflect life in Hobart. I've chosen this one taken in November, on a warm Saturday afternoon spent shifting a very large pile of rocks from one side of our garden to another, only then to decide that I didn't like the way it looked and shifting them back again. All great fun, I can assure you. Anyway, Henry spent most of the time in a observational capacity, offering a little advice here and there. I offered him the shovel to help out, and took this picture of him contemplating a life of manual labour. I think that it was at this point he decided that 'benevolent dictator' might be more up his alley!

Today’s photo was taken on the Tasmanian Parliament’s front lawn at around 7:50 am this morning. It’s a nice brisk day, and there were very few people about. This is only about a few hundred metres from work, so no need to detour to find some colour! The building itself was completed (primarily through the use of convict labour) in 1840 and is a pretty good example of a Georgian Colonial style. The structure is made of sandstone and was originally intended to be the Customs House and architect's offices. In April 1856 alterations were made to accommodate the new bicameral Parliament. Aside from the political intrigue that takes place within, the lawn serves as a nice place to sit and eat your lunch or read a book, especially now that they've stiffened the laws around public drunkenness (unless you're an esteemed member of the opposition!)

I've been visiting many blogs over the past few weeks from all over the globe and admiring photographs that people have taken of their home towns, so I thought I'd take the camera in to work today and see if I could find something worth taking a picture of. Much like my "Journey into work" post of a few weeks ago, I was once again drawn to the waterfront!

I’m not going to lie to you, I like penguins. I especially like it when they gather in large groups.