Sunflower backlit

We have been growing sunflowers from seeds in our backyard and this is one of them with the sun lighting up the petals from the front. I love sunflowers, they automatically put you in a good mood, just looking at them.

Maddy in action

As a true "Blues" supporter Maddy wears her Carlton jersey underneath the local Footy Club jersey (see previous images). In this session she decided to show off her Carlton outfit instead.

Heeere!!! Kick the ball to meeeee!!!

Maddy against the boys

Australian Rules Football (AFL) is one of the biggest sports in Australia along with Cricket and Rugby. Football is a "winter" sport and everyone is eagerly awaiting the footy season to begin in April. Kids learn to love the sport at a very early age and strongly support their team by all means.
This morning we went to watch our 7 year old niece (the one with the ball) play football - nearly the only girl in this male-dominated sport - but she kicked some serious butt!
I'll be posting some more action shots of the kids playing football in the next few days.

Windmill & dam on farm

This photo was taken a little while ago on a farm near Toodyay, a small country town, about 80km North East of Perth.

Map of Margaret River Region

On this map you can follow up the places where we went to on this last trip.
Distance from Perth to Margaret River: ca. 280km.
Distance from Busselton to Augusta: ca. 80km.



















Here you can see the southern part of the Margaret River Region highlighted in green, compared to the rest of Western Australia. You will automatically come to the conclusion that WA is a bloody big country as we say here in OZ.

Hit by car

This very unfortunate kangaroo was hit by a car and will soon be completely consumed by other wildlife and thousands of insects. Sadly a lot of kangaroos get killed this way, but once the animal jumps in front of an oncoming car, the impact is unavoidable. At first I wasn't quite sure if I should publish this photograph as the corpse looks rather grotesque and it might offend some viewers. But then again death is part of life and therefore dealing with death to some extend should not be excluded from our lives.

Lush Green Fields

Wood Pattern and Tree Trunk

Bull Ant going walk-abouts

This bull ant is about 3cm long and is climbing up a tree in Boranup Forest. This photo has been taken with the Canon IXUS 70.

On the road again...

These kind of gravel roads are very common in rural Western Australia. This one here is about to be turned into a proper bitumen road for better safety.

Beachside vegetation

Storm on the water

Welcome to God's Farm

Cattle in the paddock - Cowramup WA

Windmill in the paddock

These kind of windmills are very common in the West Australian countryside. The mills are used to pump ground water up and to supply it to livestock.

Skull close up

Still not sure what this could be. It does look like a small cow though. Maybe a calf? Any suggestions?

Animal Skull

Walking through the bush you can discover all sorts of things: Trees, leaves, rocks or you could even stumble across an animal skull, like we did. I presume this could be a skull of a cow. Not sure. Maybe you know what it is? (You can click on the picture to enlarge the image. Same goes of course for all the other ones!)

Rocky Scenery at North Point, Gracetown WA

Square Rock