The blog of Thomi

Shell, sand

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:33 +1000

This shell is a deadly brown-nosed conch shell (Strombus letalis), found only on two beaches in the world, both at the southern tip of Argentina. Even a nick from the creature's stinger will kill an adult human in around 15 minutes, usually in searing agony. Only one victim has ever lived long enough to record the sensation, and it was likened to "a red hot firebrand being forced up my nose" (roughly translated). Yipes. And if that isn't enough, the conch has the unusual ability to spit its venom up to 30cm. Guess who cursed their decision to only bring a lens that topped out at 70mm! And the final kicker? There's no anti-venom, since local medical professionals are reluctant to go near these things, and it's not deemed important enough to pay for outside help (they only kill one person every few years or so).

Flower

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:10 +1000

On a trip to Adelaide last we, my diminutive partner and I headed up into the Adelaide hills, whereupon we found a winery. I know, strange, huh? Anyway, we went with it, and discovered it had quite a nice garden, with some quite lovely plants. I had a field day (no pun intended), and so here's a flower I found, hanging upside-down from its parent plant. I thought it was kinda nice.

Carrots

Wed, 30 May 2007 12:28 +1000

Carrots! Is there any vegetable more orange? Possibly, but frankly I don't want to know it. Carrots are the business.

Church light (number 6)

Thu, 24 May 2007 11:23 +1000

At a wedding recently, I cast my eye about, and found that most people weren't looking up much. There was a great deal of looking from side to side and all around, and a small amount of looking down (mostly women looking at other women's shoes), but not much looking up (unless you count "up" as in "up the bride's dress", which is really hard because it was so long, and possibly inappropriate at a wedding anyway). So, I looked up, and this is what I saw. It's not fancy, it's not flash, but it's what I saw, and I saw it with my own two eyes.

Colourful fern meet water, water colourful fern

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:07 +1000

By popular demand (thanks Bodhi) here's the colour version of the previous image. I hope it's everything everybody thought it might be. If it's not, I'm sure you'll let me know about it :-)

Ferns meet water, water ferns.

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 22:48 +1000

This is just a simple little shot of some ferns and water, but taken at a top secret, can't-possibly-reveal location. If I did, my in laws' favourite nature spot would be given away and swamped by trendy tourists out for a cheap thrill. And my life isn't worth that, so I'll keep quiet about the whole thing. Suffice to say, the area is rather nice, with lots of natural type stuff about, greening up the place. Very pleasant indeed.

Penny's Lagoon

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:48 +1000

It's a lagoon that belongs to Penny, methinks. Although she (he?) doesn't quite know what to do with her table and chairs. They're in the water.

Lilly on the table

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:13 +1000

As the title so imaginitively suggests, this is a photo of a lilly that was on our dining room table recently. I like lillys.

Whimsical beach thing.

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 10:47 +1000

Like the title suggests, what I've captured here is a whimsical scene of nothing in particular on a beach. Just some sand, sticks and footprints, and a bushy thing sticking over the top of th dune. It's kind of Zen though.

Glenelg jetty at sunset (again)

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 23:01 +1000

Remember that other photo of mine of that jetty at Glenelg? (here if you can't remember) Well, here's another one. Taken with the same, super-wide angle lens too, not that you could tell. Wide angle can be cool. Lucky this picture is of a jetty though, people tend to look pretty strange when shot at 10mm (16mm equiv on my Canon DSLR). My wife did not find those photos at all flattering. Words were spoken, gently. Files were deleted, quickly. Peace reigns once again.