SEAL ROCKS

Phillip Island is an Australian island about 140 km south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. Named after Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, Phillip Island forms a natural breakwater for the shallow waters of the Western Port. It is 26 km long and 9 km wide, with an area of about 100 km2. It has 97 km of coastline and is part of the Bass Coast Shire.

A 640 m concrete bridge (originally a wooden bridge) connects the mainland town San Remo with the island town Newhaven. In the 2011 census the island's permanent population was 9,406, compared to 7,071 in 2001. During the summer, the population swells to 40,000. 60% of the island is farmland devoted to grazing of sheep and cattle.

Seal Rocks is a group of rocky inlets along Phillip island's coastline. It is home to Australia's largest fur seal population, numbering around 16,000. The population peaks between late October to December, but it is possible to view seals at all times of the year. Seals eat squid, cuttlefish and small fish. They can dive up to 100m and have excellent underwater vision.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

IN ISOLATION

My thoughts are with everyone self-isolating due to the COVID lockdowns, wherever that may be, but especially so with those in the concrete jungles of the large cities...

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme.

COVID CURFEW

Lockdown No 6 of Australia's second-biggest city Melbourne will be extended, authorities announced today as the State's lawmakers struggle to quash a stubborn coronavirus Delta variant outbreak. Almost seven million people in Melbourne and surrounding Victoria state were scheduled to exit a four-week lockdown on Thursday, but state premier Dan Andrews said it would no longer be possible with case numbers rising by 92 overnight. It is the city's sixth lockdown of the pandemic, and includes a curfew, the closure of playgrounds and strict limits on exercise.

Melbourne now marks a cumulative total of 210 days of COVID-19 lockdowns since the pandemic began. Businesses that have up till now stayed open are struggling to survive with more and more closing down permanently. School schedules have been disrupted with many children disadvantaged by non-F2F learning. Many people have lost their jobs and livelihood. Relationships have frayed and families are struggling to maintain much-needed contact with loved ones at a distance. Hospitals are refusing to treat patients due for "elective" procedures and visiting loved ones in hospital is well nigh impossible. The psychological burden for many is proving to be untenable and people are cracking under the strain.

In the meantime, the vaccine roll-out has been bungled and the public has been confused and misled by mixed messaging from bickering politicians and public health "experts" who cannot agree on basic principles of epidemiology. Political games and opportunism are rife, while misinformed civil libertarians are putting themselves and others at risk by their reckless behaviour and vociferous baseless ranting. O tempora, o mores...

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

SPIDER

Came across this spider in the Parklands. Not familiar with it, any spider ID experts are welcome to tell us what it may be.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme.

WINTER LINGERS

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

CAMELLIA

These camellias are a reliable showy feature of our garden every year in late Winter/early Spring. The bush is compact and leafy and the flowers appear in large numbers and look quite spectacular.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

FROSTY

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the My Corner of the World meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

BUSKERS

Busking or street performance is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is practiced all over the world and dates back to antiquity. People engaging in this practice are called street performers or buskers.

Performances are anything that people find entertaining. Performers may do acrobatics, animal tricks, balloon twisting, caricatures, clowning, comedy, contortions, escapology, dance, singing, fire skills, flea circus, fortune-telling, juggling, magic, mime, living statue, musical performance, puppeteering, snake charming, storytelling or reciting poetry or prose, street art such as sketching and painting, street theatre, sword swallowing, and ventriloquism.

Melbourne has always had a lively busking culture, but now with the COVID lockdowns and restrictions, one is lucky to see some of these street performers somewhere. I certainly do hope that the end is in sight with this COVID pandemic, as our lives have been changed not only in major ways, but also in more subtle, but nonetheless quite significant ways.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

NATURE

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvellous." - Aristotle

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

COVID LOCKDOWN

We are on Day 17 of Lockdown N˚ 6 here in Melbourne, and as well as that we have a curfew in place from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. All this to control the spread of the COVID delta strain, which is causing a great deal of grief in Australia currently.

I took the rubbish out tonight and was pleased to see that people were mostly being sensible, with our normally busy road quite deserted as you can see.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme