nicolaoutdoors » Melbourne

Heron in the City

nicola — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:31:22 +0000

A white-faced heron landed in our garden. Very pretty until it ate our Shubunkins.

Sunday Afternoons

nicola — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 02:44:16 +0000

The Yarra River had been flowing from it’s source in the Yarra ranges through Victoria and out into the ocean for a long time before Melbourne grew up around its final stretches. Now it winds it’s way through the Eastern and Inner suburbs under roads and railway lines, flowing out though the docks into Port Phillip Bay keeping company with cyclists and runners, rowers and paddlers.

Grey Headed Flying Foxes

nicola — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:10:47 +0000

It’s been so warm in the day that we have been waiting until dusk to go out and get some exercise so a walk along the Yarra at sunset is perfect, especially when you get to see such a spectacular sight…

I find bats cute – kind of like a teddy bear in a nylon cape – but I know many people are scared of them or believe them to be filled with diseases. Certainly, with the numbers of flying foxes currently flying around Melbourne, it’s hard to imagine that they are endangered, but Flying foxes are currently classified as threatened. Due to deforestation in Queensland and a greater food supply in south eastern Australia (orchards and gardens filled with fruit trees!) Grey Headed Flying Foxes have migrated down south. Initially they settled in in Melbourne’s Royal Botanical Gardens but were discouraged until they relocated as they were causing destruction to the rare tree species established in those gardens. For several years now, there has been a stretch of river, complete with a path and viewing platforms from which to observe them at Yarra Bend Park. This summer the numbers are in the tens of thousands and sunset brings the spectacular site of the colony waking up and filling the sky with wings as they move out to feed…

Add an Avo

nicola — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 02:33:21 +0000

When we first moved in, there was a lovely green tree with broad, healthy leaves in the corner of the garden. We had no idea what it was. After some months, I was standing in the garden looking up. I saw an avocado. It (slowly) dawned on me that the lovely tree also contributed to our garden bounty. The total tree count is now 8. Apricot x2, plum, avocado, almond, lime, olive and a ‘native frangipani”. The olive has not started to bear yet and the frangipani is not edible, but all the others crop heavily.

This year has been a BUMPER avocado crop, but I can’t tell you why as it has had the same treatment every year that we have lived here. I know that they tend to crop heavily every other year and that it can help, especially in warmer climates, if there is another avocado close by. I know they like a sunny sheltered spot, but some protection from strong sun. It looked like it would have cropped heavily two years ago in 2009, but after “Black Saturday” when temperatures hit 46C in the city, all the young fruits turned black and fell off.

Earth Garden

nicola — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 02:24:06 +0000

On the first Saturday of every month, there is a food-swap at Smith’s Reserve where locals go to chat about compost and gardening and also exchange their garden excess. A few months ago we met Sue Jackson, a writer who took great interest in our efforts in quail and beekeeping. This fortunate meeting eventually transpired into a magazine article for Earth Garden!

Feedback from this article told me that people we interested in hearing more about our garden exploits. Since these are also outdoor activities (though much closer to home than usual) I thought I roll them into this site in between other adventures!

January Diving

nicola — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:43:03 +0000

A couple of dives in the bay on Sunday. Saw a new nudibranch, which makes us happy.

It much much colder at depth that I expected it to be. January should be hot. Well, maybe not hot but the water should be more than 17C.

Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour 2009

nicola — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:16:47 +0000

For 11 years Paddy Pallin has been bringing the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour to Australia. This year there are 23 nights in 10 locations. This week (June 10th – 13th) there are four dates in Melbourne, which means it isn’t quite as crowded as previous years. If you haven’t been before, then go along to the RMIT Capitol Theatre on Swanston Street before it ends. I went on Tuesday and, though not being 100% sold out has reduced the atmosphere a little, it is still great night that left me feeling inspired and excited about the coming seasons. There are also prizes to be won each night from World Adventures, Australian Geographic, MSR, Petzl and Paddy Pallin.

Not all the films selected for the Banff Film Festival make it to the World Tour. Only the best sequences from eight of them are edited down to a program that can be shown in one night. All the movies were enjoyable and there was representation from enough mountain sports to please most people. Unlike previous years, however, most of the movies were not festival award winners. I think only one of the eight movies shown received a special award so I’m not sure how and why they have chosen the content they have. I’m not complaining about what was chosen for the program, but I wish that it was possible to see some of the winners, since these movies don’t usually get widely distributed. A list of award-winners for 2008/09 can be found at the Banff Centre.

This year the line-up is:

Under the Influence (USA, 12 minutes)
Directed and produced by Todd Jones, Steve Jones, Corey Gavitt
Skiing and snowboarding in relentless powder in Jackson Hole and incredibly steep spines in Alaska
www.tetongravity.com

Papiroflexia (USA, 3 minutes)
Directed and produced by Joaquin Baldwin
www.pixelnitrate.com
An animated tale of a man who reshapes his industrial world into an environmental wonderland using origami.

99 Days on the Ice (France, 52 minutes)
Directed by Jean-Gabriel Leynaud Produced by Patrick Villeneuve, Karsten Kjaer
www.sombreoandco.fr
A couple, who first met at the North Pole, cross the (rapidly melting) Arctic from Russia to Canada on foot.

The Red Helmet (USA, 6 minutes)
Directed by Tyler Young Produced by Dave Barlia
www.outdoorgames.org
A young boy finds a red helmet in the forest, through which he experiences kayaking, BASE jumping, climbing and other mountain adventures.

Daily Strips (France, 6 minutes)
Directed and produced by Dominique Janiszewski , Claude Adam
www.ridetheplanets.com
A mixture of animation, skiiing, snowboarding, speed riding, mountaineering and BASE jumping

The Last Frontier — Papua New Guinea (USA, 18 minutes)
Directed and produced by Trip Jennings
www.epicocity.com
Explorations through pristine forest and intact indiginous cultures to find the source of a river deep in a cave system and to kayak it back to the ocean.

Seasons (Canada, 25 minutes)
Produced by Jamie Houssian
www.thecollective.com
Some of the world’s best moutain bike riders share their training techniques, mental and physical challenges through the course of a year.

The Sharp End (USA, 17 minutes)
Directed and produced by Peter Mortimer, Nick Rosen
www.senderfilms.com
A group of elite American climbers, guided by locals, experience some of the scariest climbing in the world in the mountains between Austria and the Czech republic

Banff Mountain Film Festival on tour – 2008

nicola — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:17:03 +0000

I watched these movies last night. Awesome as always – the movie highlight of the year!

Melbourne Boat Show

nicola — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 02:44:31 +0000

But water is fun to play in and on. And the fact that the bay is likely to be polluted and full of diseased, toxin-laden fish did not stop the massive 2008 Melbourne International Boat and Lifestyle Show at docklands this weekend.
We rode our bikes through the city on Sunday and went to gawk at the insides and outsides of luxury multi million dollar cruisers right down, humble fishing boats, inflatable catamarans and water-police boats. I even found the boat I want to buy (one day).
It was a really beautiful day. Unfortunately on the way home my bike wheels made too much contact with the tram-tracks on Smith Street and I made too much contact, at much too fast a speed for my liking, with the asphalt. So I am bruised, scraped, stiff and sore today. But no more than that. I thank my falling practices for remembering how to avoid broken wrists and necks and my strength training routines for good core body strength so the impact was not too big a shock.

I will however, be using a bathful of precious water to soak away the grit and aches. It’s medicinal, I’ve only had a couple of baths in the last few years and we use our grey water so I shan’t feel guilty, nyah!

Banff Mountain Film Festival on tour, 2007

nicola — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:41:34 +0000

Last night we went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour. It was awesome. This is a trailer with bits of the movies we watched :) – There is a boring advertising/sponsors bit in the middle of this but I love the sequences at the end so much ….