Flo hasnt been out of Manly in a long while so we went for a sunday drive and I took her to a few of my favourite places around the North Shore…

This guy has some great images…

More of his images here.

Some other great images from the JPG Oceanography Theme Challenge here.

After the hottest november in 150 years in Sydney, it has got VERY cold the last few day…

“Sydney has shivered through its coldest June day in 27 years, with the mercury plummeting to 4.7 degrees in the city.

Not since 1983 has a colder June temperature been recorded according to the Bureau of Meteorology.”

Rest of report here.

We braved a snorkle for some exercise and I actually thought the water wasnt too bad…turns out it was 16 degrees, a good 8-10 degrees warmer than the air temperature!

The southern hemisphere winter snow season has begun this weekend at resorts in Australia and New Zealand, with both having pretty good opening days… We are planning a trip down to the Aussie resorts although I dont have high expectations as the resorts are not very high and apparently get VERY busy…they have also had the highest average lift prices in the world for the last few years…

This was opening day 2009 – View from the top of Cardrona looking towards Wanaka:

We have got in to a good habit, usually at the end of the day, of walking round the bay from Manly to Shelley beach and snorkling back again. Every time is different – sometimes the u/w visibility is great, other times the swell is pounding through, sometimes the walking route is packed with people, other times it is just us…but its always a really good experience, helps me relax and makes me feel more connected to nature and where we live…

The first big winter storm swells have been rolling through…

I went out to the Bower on the point as the swell had a lot of south in it and that’s the least southerly protected part of Manly bay. However it is a pretty sketchy right hand break coming around the point – you definitely dont want to go left – and all the waves end in a rocky boulder boneyard…

There were about 10-15 surfers and a bunch of body boarders in the 6-8ft line up…I saw plenty of great rides, a couple of guys getting barreled, some monster slams, and one body boarder lose his board and have it smashed on the rocks…

When I’m lacking inspiration and feeling like there are far too many things wrong with the world, I like to go trawling the web for images to reinvigorate my creativity…

Loving this work from Jeremy Koreski on Vancouver island…

INCOMING!!