Sleepy Roos

Ahhh, its hard to be a kangaroo at Woodgate! These two were snoozing off in the morning sunshine against a house.

Sunrise Skies

Sunrise is a beautiful time on the beach - not too hot, not too cold, the light varies from ethereal fog when even the sounds of the waves are muffled and you can't see a soul along the length of the beach, to pale blue skies that brighten as the minutes pass to become cloudless azure skies, to sunlit clouds that shine with a rosy glow and rays of light streaming out as the clouds clear. Even dim, cloudy mornings that completely obscure the sun (mind you these normally clear by mid morning) have their own steely beauty.

Holiday Rental Special for February and March 2011

Woodgate Beach First National Real Estate have put together a fantastic offer for February and March:

Catch the end of summer at the beach and get 7 nights for the price of 4!

Given the absolutely awful time Queensland has had over the last month or so (with floods and cyclones) we need to kickstart people into coming to visit Woodgate Beach, which hasn't been hit by the floods or cyclone so is still quite pristine!

If you think you might be interested, give them a call on 07 4126 8000 or go to the website at www.wbre.com.au. And of course, we'd love you to stay at our house :)

A sign of holiday time

During the first week of our stay this time, it co-incided with the Queensland school holidays. This 'look' - the railings decorated by brightly coloured beach towels, cozzies (1) and rashies (2) was a common sight then!


1) Cozzies - Aussie slang for "swimming costumes
2) Rashies - slang for 'rash vests' used for surfing or just sun protection!

Birds at Woodgate and an Award!

Eagles (above) and hawks are a common sight in rural areas and Woodgate Beach appears to be no exception. I snapped this fellow early one morning above the beach. The only other birds I saw on the beach itself were gulls - many were doing high speed dives into the water and some sort of sea bird could be seen bobbing out in the waves most mornings having an early feed.

There are many other birds just back from the shore though - butcher birds, minahs and kookaburras were seen frequently. Others seen occasionally were bush hens (black with red) and ibis'. Heard, but not seen was the storm bird. Apparently it is an all black bird similar to a crow with a mournful call - that often rings out at night when its quiet, so its hard to miss. Obviously, as its name implies, its supposed to be warning of coming storms.

The kookaburras were in full song at times throughout our stay as well. I'd heard as a young child that a kookaburra's song meant rain was on its way and was informed by a local that this prediction was more accurate should the kookaburra laugh before dawn. I taught my girls the "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree" song that I recall learning in kindergarten at school back in the late 60s. Their talent is definitely not in singing in tune, but we had a good turn at singing in rounds - something they apparently don't do in school any more!



Before I go, I must say a huge thank you to Annie at My White Homestead who visited this blog and bestowed upon me a Stylish Blogger Award! Thank you so much Annie :)



As part of this award I need to reveal seven things about me and pass this award on to three other stylish bloggers :)

OK, to the "reveal":

*I find our holidays at Woodgate Beach totally energising. I'm up early every morning, I exercise every day and I love the quiet that only the beach can bring. Hubby on the other hand, collapses into a heap and either sleeps or reads all day ;)




*I eat far too much chocolate ... in any form. Its best if it's expensive and rich. But, really, I'm not THAT fussy. If its chocolate, it's usually good!



*I hate gardening. I love nice gardens and I wish it happened by magic. Unfortunately it doesn't and every rose and fruit tree in my garden is hardy, drought tolerant and obviously really wants to live (despite my apparent disregard).



*I have a soft spot for Matt Damon. He reminds me of hubby... honestly!



*I have no vision bigger than about the size of a table. Sad but true. Hubby has the grand/big visions and he could picture our house and its style perfectly. I couldn't and was thankfully thrilled when it came out beautifully :) My vision on a smaller scale is great though - rather fortunate considering I make jewellery!



*I left the nest at 17 1/2 when I'd finished high school. My dad gave me $500 cash, organised an apartment for me to rent and a part time job, patted me on the back and wished me luck. Sounds like tough love, but it worked!



*My first apartment was in a block of art-deco flats and the whole building had an air of faded elegance. My next door neighbour had lived there since the 1940s and rarely stepped out of her door. I used to go there and listen to her stories regularly. She was quite the woman about town in the 40s and had the most amazing collection of hats - a couple of which she gave to me. One was a little navy velvet evening fitted cap/hat with peacock/blue sequins and the other was a black horsehair sweeping number with black velvet. I think I still have them locked away in a trunk somewhere - I must try and find them!



Now to nominate 3 other bloggers with the award :

The wonderful A Refocused Life - always gorgeous, inspiring photos!

Amanda at Small Acorns - she has the most fabulous boutique in NZ and her photos make you want to go there, right now!

And the incredible Heidi of 101 Cookbooks who doesn't only give you recipes, she feeds your soul with her outlook on food and her mouthwatering photos.

Dolphins!

A few years ago I recall seeing dolphins in the ocean near the beach, but I got extra lucky one morning on this stay. I set off on my morning constitutional along the beach at around 5.4am and the sea looked particularly pretty with the sun glinting off the really quite bright blue sea. I set off northwards along the beach. I often concentrate on the waves and sand but this time I cast my eyes further afield and was rewarded with the sight of dolphins!

They were a few hundred metres away but easily recognisable and were gently heading south. I decided to walk along parallel to them and turned around. Miraculously my camera that had not worked a few minutes earlier came alive and I was able to TRY and take some shots. As my camera is just a point and shoot though, I took 70 odd photos in the direction of these lovely creatures before they became too far away to keep attempting shots. A few shots have the odd fin visible but an extraordinarily high number were of the sky. LOL. This group had 4 dolphins, one of which was a youngster going by its size. A further two dolphins could be seen even further out.

I decided to turn around and got about halfway back to where I started when I looked to the waves and saw two dolphins no more than 10 metres from me in the first breaker. As it was a relatively high tide, the dolphins were in pretty shallow water and a few times I saw them squiggle pretty hard keeping going rather than getting grounded! I turned south again and followed these two for quite a while before they speared off eastwards and into deeper water.

These two provided such delight - there really is something mesmerising and uplifting by these wonderful beasts. For the most part they just glided, surfacing occasionally and sometimes blowing water out of their blowhole, so I mostly saw just their fin, however they were that close you could see the jagged edge of the back of their fins and their smooth grey skin . One in particular turned towards me through the wave and then turned south again, getting lifted up by the wave and highlighted by the sun through the water (see below). The two even raced around each other when they must have found some tasty little fish.



By the time I left the beach an hour and a half later there were quite a few people on the beach and I could see another couple of dolphins a few hundred metres north, doing their job of mesmerising more people.

Sunrise Sands

In high tide, the sands are often a small sliver that is well used and churned up from previous days feet. But the sands come into their own when the tide is low and receeding.

Wet and shining the sand takes on the hue of the sky like this marvellous blue and pink image. Mother nature is such an artist! In the early light the drier sand takes on a perwinkle blue - purple hue. As the sun gets higher the white-beige sand of a normal day appears.