i swam every day

i do love swimming and being in water but i so often enjoy it as i fear open water because of sharks (yes irrational i know) and am repulsed by public pools, so when mands and i stayed at a small resort in port douglas for our whatever-you-call-the-holiday-after-a-civil-partnership - i took great delight in swimming in the outdoor heated (unnecessary but lovely nonetheless!) pool at least once a day. and i didn't have to share it with anyone else at any time (well ok, mands a couple of times). it was absolute bliss to float on my back and quietly gaze at palm fronds and blue sky.

fig mug shot

i took this photo walking through the stunning world heritage listed daintree rainforest (135 million years old, the oldest rainforest in the world!) in far north queensland. the grouping of what looks like long vines is in fact a strangulation fig beginning to take hold on another tree. initially it takes hold in the top of the tree as an epiphyte and then sends its root system down the trunk into the ground, and it's all pretty much all over red rover for the host tree then, as the fig grows stronger, and its roots grow thicker (amazingly so), until it strangles and kills the original tree. we saw a very advanced fig where the original tree was completely gone inside the massive root system - there was simply a huge space where the original trunk used to be. aside from the story of the strangulation fig this photo invokes for me, i also really like it for the sense of lush green enclosure that a rainforest canopy creates - with the sunlight struggling to burst through at intermittant points.

gay flamingo

i set up the camera on the side of the pool on auto-timer for this happy snap so technically i did still take the photo. mands and i were in port douglas - where the rainforest meets the reef - on our 'honeymoon' after our civil partnership in august last year. we stayed for almost a week at a gay-owned and run (although open for anyone to stay there!) resort called the pink flamingo. it was fabulous! we had a villa with a private courtyard and an outdoor shower. there was also a resort cat called friday who was so cute. she'll surely be featured at some point :)