Ian from Sydney

Hi I A N
For your kindly visit and interest to my page.
For Your best wishes for our visit to Los Angles.
Goodbye and see You.Have a very nice time.

My sentiments are exactly the same as your's, Ian, re the weathermen; they're damned if they do & damned if they don't! Who'd be a weatherman they get worse publicity than dentists (which is where I've been this morning!) Yep she's my sister alright. My first sister & for 54yrs since 16th June! She's the pretty one, with soft curls next to me, also the one with the bucket in front of her face in the old photos. We have 2 more sisters, younger than our brother. He's no 3. A thorn in the middle of 4 roses or is it the otherway around!

Hi Ian, did the wild weather affect you ?Winter has hit with a vengeance.I like the pic of the Banksia [new to old all in 1 pic].

Thanks, Ian. You're very diplomatic!

Just looked in your flickr great shots of 'the lady in red. ' When are they removing her? I also liked the old man banksia.It looks like it's smiling.

Looking good. You are also able to save it as a smilie, and use it in the comments box. Now you have one there is no stopping you. You are able to copy any of mine that you like.

Hi Ian. I did you know Maureen is a supporting member now? We're going up the river this weekend so I hope it's not too wet, also hope the electricity doesn't go off because we have guests for dinner! Oh well there are plenty of candles, a good slow combustion fire, a little gas stove & a BBQ, so it should be OK. The guest are from further up the river so will be coming by boat so if the weather gets bad they may have to stay the night!

Hi Ian,
Dropped in to see your Anglesea shots. We are blessed with such a beautiful coastline in this country aren't we.
Thanks for all the scenery

Ian,, I loved your new photos of Sydney Harbor, you are very talented. Please take lots of photos in UK, I am English and was born and raised in London, I still get homesick at times even though I like Florida too.

Ian, as always, I enjoy your photos. I am going on a trip to Colorado in a few weeks and hope to get some nice photos. I never seem to have my camera with me when a photo opportunity comes up. I am going to have to keep it with me. With two boys, they are always doing something that should be preserved. (even if they don't want to remember!!!)

Ian, we are spending 2 nights in Estes Park which is on the edge of the Rocky Mountains. We are then spending a week in Steamboat Springs. The last time I was in Colorado was 30 years ago and I remember how beautiful it is. I was lucky enough to have parents that liked to travel. We did several cross country car trips when I was a kid. I am now able to do the same with my own kids but we are flying to Colorado. I can't spend days in the car with my 6 year old. He would drive us nuts. We are hoping in a few years to do some multi-state car trips. I grew up in Florida. My husband grew up in Maryland an Pennsylvania. We definitely want to head that way. I would love to be able to afford trips to other countries with the kids. Hopefully someday. In the mean time, we travel the world through the pictures on this site and then look on a globe to see where the country is. My older son loves geography, actually, he loves to learn.

Ian: Thank you so much for your concern and I assure I will keep in mind your advice. I drove through Loop Road, Turner River Road and Wagon Wheel Road - all of them go through Big Cypress Preserve. I keep my eyes on the ground for both snakes and alligators if I am near the water. I had a close encounter to the extent that I did not leave my car. All photos were taken through the window. I found a one eyed alligator that, not only is not afraid of humans, but I think it picked me for its next meal. As I parked the car next to a canal I noticed a small gator on the bank. I immediately noticed a larger one rapidly swimming towards where I had parked the car. The darned one eyed monster proceeded to scare the small gator and a second one that was approaching. When he had them on the far side of the canal he, again, swam towards the car. I'm afraid someone has fed it. I feel sorry for it as, if he mistakes a hand for a hand-out, the rangers will kill him.
Again, thank you so much for your concern! It shows you care.

Ian for visiting my page. I have lots of photos of our trips but unfortunately they weren't taken with a digital camera and I don't have a scanner. (My photos are not as good as your's, Kate's and eaa's anyway!!)I have been to Dundullimal a few times now and last time Kate was here we went and she took lots of photos so one day she might post some. I remember your photo of Dundullimal on the jigsaws a while ago now. I love your photos and you have been to some great places.

Hi Ian, how are you? thanks for your birthday wishes, hope all is well with you.

yes Ian, London was good fun. Hope you have a good trip to Europe and that we get to see some nice photos when you get back.

Ian, thanks for the nudge. I've wondered about the expression ''shaggy dog'' myself, but never got around to doing any hunting for its origins. What I've found so far is

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sha1.htm

and, of course (and although I don't trust it) Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaggy_dog_story

The best definition I've found is here:
www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/shaggy-dog-story.html

I always associated 'shaggy dog' with a long joke that ended in pun rather than a punchline, but that's just an instinct, not a definition.

Ian, thank you for your references to the origin of the Shaggy Dog name. I think you are correct when you say it is a long joke ending up with a pun. In fact, I think it is a long and rather tedious joke ending with some of the worst puns in the English language. I my view the expression 'a groaner' is fairly appropriate.

It would be interesting to see who agreed on what was and what wasn't a ''shaggy dog'' story. Maybe it's like p0rn0graphy...I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.

By the way, I'm sure it's just my imagination, but in that photo, is there a hand grenade wired just below that upper yellow blossom?

Ian, I see no hand grenade, but that doesn't mean there isn't one there. What you are probably seeing is one of the three stages of the development of the flower. The flowers are the bright yellow objects; to the left and slightly below the upper one is a mature seed 'pod' and between the two is a slender, yellow developing flower. The seed 'pods' are dark, hairy and fairly ugly-looking creations and have been used to frighten the young readers of childrens' stories. The most famous of these stories was written by May Gibbs and called 'Snugglepot and Cuddlepie'. She includes references to 'The Banksia Men' that used to frighten the heck out of me as a child.

Good to know, thanks.

Dang, Ian, what a classic. Mom had that record and I used to listen to all the time when I was a kid. 'Twas a time I knew all the words to it. Thanks for digging that one up. Brought back a lot of memories.

I re-looked at your pictures a while ago & was just about to comment when the doorbell rang! I'm back now!(obviously). I like looking through them! We had a good dinner on Saturday, had a great fire lots of food & wine! & great company. We actually had an extra course because our neighbour up there had left us a 'flood' pumpkin; it 'swam' all the way from Windsor! It was huge I could hardly carry it. I roasted a wedge of it with herbs & spices then blitzed it into soup. It was yummy! I've left you a bowl to taste! When we got back on Sunday evening I gave a few more wedges away to friends! I'm going to turn the last bit into more soup & freeze it!

Ian
thank you for the lovely birthday wishes for my 50th birthday celebrations. I have great memories to keep.
receiving messages from all around the world is very humbling. I love to send the messages to others, but receiving them is something very
special.
we share a lot here on site and I love the feeling of the huge 'sudoku worldwide family'. cheers
water of course

Hello Ian - sorry I haven't called in to pay a visit lately. I've just been doing the rounds trying to catch up with everyone and to play your You Tube at the same time. I've still got a record player that looks like that somewhere in storage.
I've almost finished my marathon painting job and will have new carpets laid Sat. week. It'll be nice to have the house back to normal.
I've had a cold for the past few days and left work at lunchtime today and spent the afternoon in bed. Now I want to stay up for awhile because I won't sleep tonight.
Cheers

Hi Ian. Inrteresting choice of videos. Red Ingle was a great comedian and songster. Interesting enough, my mother's older sister was married to a Fred Ingle (a missionary in northern Canada) who liked to claim he had a relative performing with Spike Jones. Looked like that record was an old 78 RPM. I still have some of those!

Just replied to you on my page! Oh well here's the copy/paste job! Glad you liked it, Ian! We had some last night after I cooked up the rest of the pumpkin. I threw some prawns in too. I've got 2 more batches of the basic puree in the freezer for another time!

Ian, I thought I would stop by your place and say Hi! Hope you're having a good day! Here are some flowers to brighten it! I like your son's picture of the bird, beautiful colors! I also liked your music video to 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.' Take care!

Hello Ian - I love the photo of the bird taken by your son. The colours are absolutely brilliant. Well done, Michael. (I hope I've got his name right)

Thank you for posting the Canadian anthem Ian. I posted thanks on Easy both yesterday and today, but wanted to do so on your page. I just watched the Snowbirds fly-by a while ago.

As to your son's photo, it's beautiful. He should submit it to National Geographic or something!

cheers Ian - you said your birthday was soon - when's the big day?

.. IAN ..

Ian, is it your birthday? If so a Happy Birthday to you i just looked at your pictures, they are beautiful. Looks like you have done some traveling. Again, I really enjoyed your pictures and those of your son also.

to you
to you
dear Ian
to you
Hip! Hip! Hooray! Hip! Hip! Hooray! Hip! Hip! Hooray!
Ian, I hope you have a wonderful day with your family and friends on your birthday. Save a piece of cake for me.

Cheers
Anne

Ian! Hope you have a great day!

ohhh Ian, you kept that one quiet!!! A very very Happy Birthday to you!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IAN

Wishing you fun, love and laughter on this one and many many more.


PS: Please say 'Hi' to Anne for me - and when you two plan your Vic sojourn for this year (if you do) please let me know

To you, Ian! Thank you, so much, for sharing all of your wonderful pictures with us. I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoy seeing them. I hope you have a great birthday!

hey Ian
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU..

Just have a look at this pic i took from the flight while coming back from US..
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/240/521096606_7a8aba291 d_b.jpg

appy, thank you for your birthday wishes, they are very much appreciated. For some reason I was unable to open your photo but I did take the opportunity to browse through your your photo pages and I was really impressed with the high quality of your photos.