Not living in the British Isles, pictures of your own area.

[AndyID]

Just slightly South (47.6N) of Sarthe but 9 hours behind at 4PM today. The lake surface is approximately 2,000 feet ASL.

 

 

View from the top of our back "garden". 83F at the mo then down to 56F overnight.

 

(The black thingy on the left is the chimney for the wood-stove in my workshop. Looks like it's needing swept )

[SRman]

On a more mundane level, my OH and I went out to get some hardware items from Bunnings a few days ago, still under partial lockdown conditions. As it was lunch time, we went a few hundred metres further down the road to pick up some of our famous (locally) Rolf's pies and some coffees, then took them another 100 metres around the corner to Wurundjeri Walk parklands to sit and enjoy them. We were joined by some of the freeloading local population.

The birds are purple waterhens (correction: swamphens), which are quite common on the east coast of Australia and also in the far south west.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2021 by SRman
Adjusting spacing

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, SRman said:

Rolf's pies

An unfortunate name.

[Ozexpatriate]

Central Oregon during the Memorial Day weekend (end of May):

The snow-covered volcano on the left is a ski resort.

[monkeysarefun]

Just hazard reduction burning but brings back bad memories of December 2019...

[SRman]

6 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Central Oregon during the Memorial Day weekend (end of May):

The snow-covered volcano on the left is a ski resort.

 

Is that Mount Hood? I know that was the one visible from everywhere in Vancouver WA when we stayed with my wife's sister there. Or Mount St. Helens?

Edited June 19, 2021 by SRman

[Florence Locomotive Works]

 

Our back garden in February of this year, at the time it was -8 degrees in US temp outside, so pretty cold. 
 

 

Entering the tunnels under the Gathering Place into downtown Tulsa.

 

 

Frozen fields a few miles north of Tulsa, January 2021.

 

 

The back garden without 8 inches of snow, in the winter.

 

Said garden in the summer.

 

Douglas

Edited June 19, 2021 by Florence Locomotive Works

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Said garden in the summer.

 

 

When will you start laying the 5" track?

[faulcon1]

Here's two views taken from the railway land which is over my hedge. The hedge is to the left of the thin tall wooden power pole. The second is of a train on the railway line. The grade is deceptive but is actually 1 in 33. 

[faulcon1]

An English YouTuber called HubNut said that Australia does long straight roads very well and so is this the type of long straight road he may have had in mind. This was taken from my dash cam and is between Hay and Balranald in south western New South Wales

[J. S. Bach]

Long and straight in west Texas:

 

But occasionally obstructed:

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

 

When will you start laying the 5" track?

If only Andy, if only…

 

 

Although personally I would do elevated 2.5 inch gauge as it’s a bit easier to carry!

[faulcon1]

Not all roads in Australia are long and straight or bitumen either some are dirt or gravel like this road between Coramba and Dorrigo.  I met some "grey nomads" on this road and they were flabbergasted that I was driving my low slung road car on this road. They said to me "oh no we're going down a dirt road so we must have a big 4x4 because that's what big 4x4's are for. They were in a Range Rover, Landrover Discovery and a Toyota Landcruiser. A complete waste of money all them if this is the sort of roads they bought them for. For those in the UK this is not someone's private driveway, this is a main road without human habitation. 

 

Then deep in the forest is the Coopernoock Creek (not stream)

 

My little car which has been all over the states of New South Wales and Victoria and has also been over a fair amount of Queensland. Next is to take it to South Australia via Victoria.  

Edited June 19, 2021 by faulcon1

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, SRman said:

Is that Mount Hood? I know that was the one visible from everywhere in Vancouver WA when we stayed with my wife's sister there. Or Mount St. Helens?

South of Mt Hood in the Cascade range. It is Mt. Bachelor. Broken Top is to the right (north). Behind the hill are the Sisters.

 

I have a (slightly) obscured view of Mt. Hood from my home.

 

Mt. Hood is on the right of this shot, also from Central Oregon.

Mt. Jefferson is the closer peak.

 

Edited June 19, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[faulcon1]

Then if we go far to the west away from Sydney we come to charming little towns like Hillston which is on the Lachlan River, very low at this time in March 2020 due to the drought. But the residents of the town weren't worried as they sit above the huge Artisian Basin which covers below ground 1,700,000 sq km and has twice as much water in it than Sydney harbour has so the local councils sink a pipe down into it and extract the water, purify it and deliver it to all the homes. So whilst people in Sydney were on water restrictions, Hillston wasn't. This was taken on a Sunday afternoon with all the shops shut including the local supermarket so the town was dead. The time was about 7pm daylight savings time.

 

The other photo is of the main street of Cobar in far western NSW and this is a mining town 265km up the road from Hillston. The building on the left is a former hotel where accommodation was on the first floor and the bars on the ground floor now repurposed for shops.  It took me three hours to drive from Hillston to Cobar and it felt odd putting my right foot back on the accelerator not having had my foot on it for the last three hours as I was using cruise control. Speed limits on the two lane roads out there is 110kph or about 70mph but one can go much faster if one wants to for there are no police out there sitting by the roadside with a speed camera as the traffic (such as it is) is just too few and far between. Temperature was 18-20 degrees so very pleasant, but in February (our summertime) temperatures out there can get over mid 40's and up closer to 50 degrees and that's not pleasant.

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, faulcon1 said:

An English YouTuber called HubNut said that Australia does long straight roads very well and so is this the type of long straight road he may have had in mind. This was taken from my dash cam and is between Hay and Balranald in south western New South Wales

 

I believe the motorways in the UK are only supposed to be straight for limited distances. The idea is to stop people falling asleep.

[AndyID]

31 minutes ago, faulcon1 said:

 

Then deep in the forest is the Coopernoock Creek (not stream)

 

 

 

I think I could manage that in MrsID's Jeep Wrangler but I'm not allowed to take it "off-road"

[monkeysarefun]

33 minutes ago, faulcon1 said:

Not all roads in Australia are long and straight or bitumen either some are dirt or gravel like this road between Coramba and Dorrigo.  I met some "grey nomads" on this road and they were flabbergasted that I was driving my low slung road car on this road. They said to me "oh no we're going down a dirt road so we must have a big 4x4 because that's what big 4x4's are for. They were in a Range Rover, Landrover Discovery and a Toyota Landcruiser. A complete waste of money all them if this is the sort of roads they bought them for. For those in the UK this is not someone's private driveway, this is a main road without human habitation. 

 

Then deep in the forest is the Coopernoock Creek (not stream)

 

My little car which has been all over the states of New South Wales and Victoria and has also been over a fair amount of Queensland. Next is to take it to South Australia via Victoria.  

4 wheel drives have made everyone soft.

I remember a letter in the Sydney Morning Herald a couple of years ago from someone saying they'd bought  a Volvo 4wd because some of the boutique wineries they liked to visit had gravel driveways.

 

Not like in  our parents day - this was a commercial for a standard family sedan back in the 70's. (Sorry it's a Holden, faulcon1)

 

[Nova Scotian]

I used to be on a search and rescue team on Canada's east coast. Invariably people get lost in the middle of nowhere... Fellow volunteers were always a bit surprised when my Mazda5 turned up at the bottom of a rutted logging road they'd driven their pickups and Wranglers down. Had to be careful though, it had one of the lowest ground clearances of any car I've driven. It even towed out another vehicle that was stuck! A FWD vehicle that's front heavy and on blocky touring type tyres can have surprising grip.

[AndyID]

Looks like a cross between a Vauxhall and an Opel

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Looks like a cross between a Vauxhall and an Opel

There's a reason for that! (General's orders. General Motors that is.)

[monkeysarefun]

3 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Looks like a cross between a Vauxhall and an Opel

But do vauxhalls and opels of the 70s pull these sort of prices though!

 

[faulcon1]

9 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

4 wheel drives have made everyone soft.

I remember a letter in the Sydney Morning Herald a couple of years ago from someone saying they'd bought  a Volvo 4wd because some of the boutique wineries they liked to visit had gravel driveways.

 

Not like in  our parents day - this was a commercial for a standard family sedan back in the 70's. (Sorry it's a Holden, faulcon1)

 

back in the early days the ABC had a program called "Torque" and it's presenter was Peter Wherrett and he was not complimentary on the HJ Holden He basically said it was a 1950's chassis with a whole new set of cloths. He must have been a Ford man because he liked the 5.8 Litre XC Fairmont even though he said the 5.8 litre motor was only useful if you were towing a caravan 40 feet in length.

[monkeysarefun]

Spooky, I refreshed my screen after posting the Holden Monaro screen shot just now and rmweb has given me this ad!

[faulcon1]

Here's two encounters with animals on the road that I've had. The first was in the Snowy Mountains region and the second was just outside Rugby. This is not Rugby in the UK for it didn't have a railway and it took 90 seconds to drive through and I think it would take more than 90 seconds to drive through Rugby in the UK. At Rugby in NSW you could also count the number of residents on two hands. It isn't a big place. The second photo they're not cows but bulls of various ages. They're both feeding from the roadside growth something many rural local authorities allow farmers to do especially in times of drought. Although the paddocks next to the road the sheep are on look to have good growth the farmer who owns the sheep may not own those paddocks.