The storm photos

Not sure where my brain was yesterday but I didn't put any photos from the cyclone up! Dave and I drove around checking the ocean out all the way up to red alert.
Looking back towards land from the marina while on blue alert

This is not even the top of the tide and there is no storm surge yet...I'm not sure the canal walls are quite high enough...

At Bundegi during Yellow Alert. We usually nose the big boat up to the end of that jetty and step down to the boat...tide was high and the waves higher!

Looking into Lighthouse Bay from an elevated overlook

Looking south towards the Lighthouse

View from the Lighthouse looking north

From the Lighthouse looking west - that's where I was meant to have a family portrait session...we postponed!

Hunter Access - right around and on this rock is where we do the photo sessions

Back at the marina a bit later in the day the waves were crashing over the retaining wall that runs along the entry channel...if you look closely you can see the channel markers sometimes!





On the other side of the marina where we launch private boats, things looked a little calmer. I am always surprised that people need to be told certain things, however:

We had the girls in the car with us and Tilly was revved up, as usual, so Dave suggested we let them out for a little run around. I wasn't quite so sure - no collars with us - but he said it would be fine. The girls had a good time exploring the car park, but Dora was over the rain and wind pretty quickly

MatildaLily, Devil Child, thought the rain was a hoot...but playing a game of Run Away from Dad Who is Getting Angrier and Angrier was da bomb!

In town on the way home we saw a few signs knocked down. I still don't understand exactly how it happened. This is the sign at the Visitor's Centre

This is the sign on the road to our house - it's completely blown over

Don't blink, you'll miss it

February is almost over already! It seems like every time we get to the end of a month, I'm surprised...and left with a list of things that somehow just don't get done.

Cyclone Nicholas was a bit of a non-event. We were on warnings of one colour or another for days; we even hit red alert for a while. Ultimately, the most damaging winds and rain came after we were given the "all clear". We had no real destruction until then - after the announcement we lost trees, pot plants, had some flooding...

The neighbors lost a big tree - they have since pulled all of that greenery out completely.

Most of the animals took the wind and rain in stride. No one was too excited to go outside and sleeping was high on the list of things to do.
Boof prefers the high ground on one of the bar stools

Lobo's pretty happy anywhere

Harry staked out the big chair early in the piece

Dora took advantage of some rare moments of peace and quiet to snuggle into her bed alone

You'll notice images of Tilly sleeping are missing...she doesn't like to go outside when it's windy or rainy so all of that energy gets let loose inside the house. Her distaste of inclement weather means we've also had some house training issues so I'm really glad we don't get it too often! She did manage to find some sort of fluffy bit of plant and wear it on her head

and she couldn't leave Dora alone for too long

and she can't let Dora get any extra attention...

Tilly has commandeered our little boat in the backyard. She's not very graceful on the slippery bottom, but once she gets there she thinks she is a bit of all that - especially after Dad's given her a pig's ear!


The morning after dawned with no wind but a lot of cloud cover. We took both girls to the beach for a run and a swim. It was gorgeous there and the shallows were teeming with rays and small fishes



Dave and I had a lovely walk and the girls ran amok, burning off a ton of built up energy. Dora had to have a little snooze on the way home

MatildaLily of course had to pester her until she gave up that side of the car. Dora wasn't thrilled and Tilly was just confused, facing the wrong direction.

She eventually figured it out, had a scratch and fell off the seat - I was laughing too hard to get a photo of that!

It was all too much excitement, and she curled up next to Dora for her own nap

I was contacted early in the week by Boeing Frontier magazine to do a photo shoot here in Exmouth for an upcoming article about their environmental impact plans as they are leading the way for the company. I headed out Friday morning with Jutta, an environmental officer, and we had glorious blue skies and hot & sticky weather for the session. We did several locations to illustrate the low impact of Boeing's operations: the beach, the Pier, the power plant. It was not only a nice session but I learned a lot, too. It's also given me an excuse to start trying out the new logo!



On the beach we were lucky enough to come across this crab with salt water bubbles all down his chest so we added a detail shot of him and a wide angle scene of the beach, too!


The afternoon turned even balmier and big storm clouds formed over the Gulf. We started to get some light rain as we were at the beach for another walk but the real drama came around 8pm. This is the view from our driveway to the west

to the south west

and back towards the house

We had some light showers overnight, but nothing serious and the driveway was already dry again by about 7am.
It's reassuring to see that the girls have taken this long week in stride

Cyclone Nicholas

Well, we've spent the weekend watching the development of Cyclone Nicholas and running around making preparations in case he decides to bring us some destruction. On Saturday night, things were looking pretty intense as the cyclone was predicted to be a Cat 4 and the predicted track brought it right to us

Yesterday most of the sites had the predicted track heading slightly west of us and the centre of the storm hitting us on the far side of the Cape. Better, but still room for lots of damage and mess. The supermarkets and petrol stations were crazy busy - what are people going to do with 20 cans of spaghetti, really? Many of those in tents and caravans made their way out of town, just in case. I guess the idea of hanging out in the dank, dark community building didn't appeal to them!

Some of the shop owners were putting up their cyclone screens and at the dive shop we made sure that our electrical cables and stock were moved to higher ground in case of flooding over night. We decided to simply shut the doors early and to keep closed Monday - can't believe there will be a lot of people wanting to snorkel or dive...of course, there will be as people will be bored!


Thanks to the Blue Alert, we had to put Concord back in the water. All that hard work taping and sanding, ruined. We wanted to wait until today to do it, but the trucks needed to put her back in had to be tucked into safety, too, so it was yesterday or never and we just couldn't take the chance.


I took the dogs to the beach in the morning - it was already windy, but at least that kept the flies down! We wanted to make sure we had a good walk just in case we were trapped inside for any length of time - Tilly has too much energy! Tilly thinks any vehicle that goes past is there for a game of chasey and Dora has started in again, too, so I now have our handy double lead at the ready! They are both very good about being tied together, though sometimes it's a tug of war to see who gets to carry the biggest part of the leash! I have them with their matching collars and it's too cute - too bad they won't cooperate and pose.



Dora played in and out of the water, but the waves were a little too daunting for Ms Til.

This morning, Monday for us, the track is not only further west, but also sees the cyclone losing power. We can only hope as it is still hanging out up north and course changes are always possible. You can check on the track at the Bureau's site...

The sky was an amazing brilliant red & orange when I first got up, but now it's just overcast and grey. We got a bit of rain last night, including one 5 minute torrential downpour, but our driveway and patio are already dry now. We could use the rain, but I won't be sorry if we don't get much - it creates so much mess!