Mike has decided he can justify reactivating his Flickr Pro account. In celebration, below are some photos of his that I've always really liked. They were all taken while he was still in Australia.
None are Photoshopped, because Mike hates being "all fiddly."
Above is Emma, my sister-in-law. She's a beauty therapist, and the reason I like the photo is because it looks like she's in charge of the day spa on the Enterprise. Which is totally a compliment.
Mike always shakes his head when we go to zoos or pet shops and there are parakeets (budgies) and cockatoos for sale. To him, this is like if we went to another country and they were selling pet grackles.
Update: Mike says these are sold as pets in Australia. The reason he always boggles is because they don't seem zoo animals. But anyway, they do run around wild in Australia, which is supposed to be the interesting part.
Western Australia is known for its black swans, but I'm rather smitten with the cygnet.
Who knew Australia could be so foresty and lush? This was taken in Gingin, an hour north of Perth.
This orphaned joey was being cared for at an apiary near Gingin.
Their eyes! Look at their eyes! Scariest sheep ever.
The next five photos were taken at Mundaring Weir, a dam about half an hour north of Perth. I really like the third photo, which shows the old railway line that can only be seen when the water gets low. A nearby plaque reads: "If the water level is low enough, you can see the sleepers from the old railway line that was used when the original dam wall was built. Raising of the weir wall, completed in 1951, resulted in water covering the line which had become redundant in the 1920s."
There are also some stairs, which people used to get into the water for swimming and boating. (No longer possible today, as the water isn't as safe... or perhaps they just didn't know better back then.) I think Mike has a photo of them somewhere. (If you're into this sort of thing and want to see a slideshow of all of his Mundaring Weir photos, click here.)
Down in the apple country of Donnybrook, they have roadside stands for apples that run on the honor system. Amazing.
The two Pacific Black ducks that liked to make Mike's pool their home. Mike's mom reports that they are still living there (in winter) and seem fine. They do have a (charmingly) pesky habit of trying to come into the house, though.
When I first met Mike, I was surprised that he was down on koalas. I think he called them "mean and stinky." He's denying this now, saying, "I don't hate them, I'm just not hot for them." Maybe he's bitter about all of the people who call them koala bears; I don't know. I just know he ruined the whole cuddly image for me.
I like this koala picture that Mike took at the Perth Zoo because it's from back, and I always reckoned that my tailless cat Phros looked a bit like a koala.
But remember. Paul McCartney is wrong. It's not a koala-type bear. It's just a koala.
(But it is a cute little koala-type B-side.)
Mike took both of these flower photos at home. Remind me again why he lives with me out in the desert? With no rain nor flowers nor Milky Way?
Oh yes, it's the hamsters. The one thing you can't get in Australia. That must be it.
This camphone photo of the inside of a movie theatre doesn't look like much. It's one Mike sent to me while waiting for Revenge of the Sith to start. The last Star Wars movie - this was a big deal to nerds like us. And this is how he and I used to have to share those events.
I'm glad Mike was willing to give up trees, kangaroos, black swans, and cockatoos for awhile to be with those dwarf hams. They're pretty glad, too.
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