All play and no work

Very pleased to report Phil finally caught a fish before having to leave and go back to work in Sydney. A little tailor, quickly barbecued and shared. Magnificent tasting, so fresh. 

A new dawn at Diamond Beach - heralding new beginnings such as my practice opening, with five people booked so far, so that's a good start. It went well last week, except in the technological skills area. I'm not quite across the new EFTPOS/Medicare-refund machine and I'm still learning the practice software package. I have managed to generate some receipts and some reports and entered some case  details to the database. But it's a bit pathetic that my biggest worry is "will I stuff up printing this invoice?" rather than "what is my case plan for this patient?" So not quite all play and no work for me. But I no complain.

We harvested our entire finger lime crop, one finger lime. Here it is split down the middle and acting as a prosthesis for Keir.

It went to a good cause, as accompaniment for Wallis Lake oysters shared with Marg and Keir, who are staying for a few days. Longer, if we can get it to keep raining. They are on a camping trip with their camper trailer and the more it rains, the less appealing that prospect is. We've been doing walks and swims and an embarrassing amount of empty wine bottle production. They are a bad influence.

I'm having a rock-collecting phase. I've collected a bowl for my coffee table at work, plus two whoppers for door stops. Isn't this one a cracker? Look at those colours.

Marg and Keir are both musicians, among other things. Its been lovely hearing the instruments  getting a work out.

Today we did a new walk we hadn't done before, starting from the rainforest at Red Head, traversing Shelly Beach, then the rocky headland south of Diamond Beach, up the wooden staircase and back through Seascape via the koala corridor to our start point at Red Head. Wonderful. Here it is in pictures.

No fun was had on this walk. None. It was a serious exercise.

Beautiful rock pools at the northern end of Shelly Beach.

Drifts of dried kelp, sponges, shark eggs and bleached wood, lying on rounded beach rocks. You could hear the rocks tumbling in the water with each wave.

Sponges everywhere.

Thousands of little barnacles stuck to rocks washed onto Diamond Beach, just near the landcare site.

The koala corridor is fenced and gated to keep out dogs and other predators. We didn't see any koalas, but there were some spectacular birds and flowers.

Later, we went to Manning Regional Gallery in Taree where there was an art opening to which we had been invited in our capacity as FOGs (Friends of the Gallery, not Foolish Old Gits, thank you). These openings are always events with lots of food and wine. That may have been part of the attraction...  This photo shows a New Guinea sculpture accompanying the exhibition of Frank Hurley photos taken in PNG in 1923. Its claim to fame is that the large donger you see is removable. In case any missionaries were around, you see. The rest of the exhibition was less graphic but very enjoyable. The opening was of the work of two local artists - some wonderful pieces inspired by the Antarctic and some rather disturbing sculptures featuring dismembered and reconstituted musical instruments. The musicians were confronted.