While we have been away, Brisbane and various other parts of Australia have suffered massive flooding.
Apparently 90% of the country’s wheat crop has been destroyed as well as countless thousands of people homes and livelihoods.

Check out some more incredible before and after photos here

Move the mouse across the images to see the before and after shots.

My new step dad Guy owns a 300 acre ranch in northern California called Lowecha. The name means Eagle spirit and the land is near the area in which the last surviving Mewok indians lived.

Guy has pledged to never develop the land and keep it as untouched as possible.

There are some huge ridge lines, rivers and valleys as well as massive thousand year old Redwood forests. It is also right next to George Lucas’s ranch and is reputed to be the inspiration for the Ewok characters and where the Ewok scenes from Star Wars were filmed.

There are mountain lions in the area and bob cats as well as plenty of deer.

We went out for some long hikes and a bit of racing around in the 4wd buggy…I love it out there.

Note the 180 days in prison for shooting the sign – enforced by the Hicks gun club…

(continue reading…)

Flew down to Melbourne for a minute for work…no time to shoot the city (or really even see it) but shot a few on the flight down…

Flew straight over Canberra so got to actually see the wheel shaped layout that I was driving around last week…

Dug out some of the unedited footage from my little digicam of our jet boating trip in Queenstown for Flo’s birthday last year and put together a quick edit.

No colour or exposure correction but got a new version of Final Cut Pro so need to get some practice as I plan to pick up a 7d soon.

Some of the footage is pretty shaky (especially the first few shots!) but then we were doing a lot of bouncing around and 360 spins so always needed at least one hand to avoid getting spat out the side of the boat (no seat belts!)…

Ahh life can be pretty up and down sometimes…(like now)

High and low, ebb and flo.

Can life be like a suspension bridge?

Anchorred/supported from many different points but still hanging free?
Watching life flowing by??
Sometimes overloaded but still holding up?
Usually stable but increasingly creaky with age?

OK stop there…..

Some friends built a raft and sailed off down the river…

We went to the bridge about 15kms away to meet them but they never showed…hope they just got delayed rather than sunk…!