The Creek

Well it's Friday. So we're again at the farm. For more background on the farm check out the first post explaining it all here. We're in a different spot this week. A wet place. Especially for kids! Gumboots are the best foot attire...

At the farm there is a creek. It's just a little creek. It flows (nearly) all the time and the water at this time of year is lovely and clear. And very cold! We go there for bush barbecues (I see another post coming to explain our version of a bush barbecue!). Every time we go to the creek one of the kids ends up very wet. Funnily enough it's nearly always the same kid, they say there's one in every family, we know which one it is in our family. There are also a lot of rocks along the creek bed! They create great mini waterfalls and also irregular surfaces to clamber about on. We once found a tortoise nestled snug in the rocks, he was very shy and only showed us one eye after we sat and sat and waited for him to bring his head out again. He blended in so well his shell looked like a greenish, mossy rock too.

But even better for me, the creek has lots of spots to sit and take photos!

The creek has a busy history. In the gold rushes of Australia this spot was filled with (mostly) Chinese immigrants. They dug and washed many tonnes of dirt with the waters of this creek. When we walk the banks here we find remnants of their labour, channels dug above the water line redirecting water to washing/sluicing areas and lots of holes! Now this creek is part of a farm, it's all much quieter with just sheep and cattle wandering by and the odd kangaroo. There are fish in the creek but they are even more shy than the tortoise! The shot below shows a lovely little calm spot of the creek:

 

Interesting things still happen at the creek now though. It provides a different sort of gold now. Life gold, or richness. You see, when we go there our family slows down. We sometimes just sit, happy in the sunshine. We poke sticks into the fire under the barbecue. We take walks up or downstream and the kids always throw stones into the water. We move our chairs to escape the smoke of the fire and to chase the shade (or sun in winter!). We sometimes come home tired, wet and smelling of bush smoke, but we always come home happy!

On this particular sunny day recently some people wandered off upstream and found a very interesting tree root (photos further down), and our the boy became a superhuman with the aid of a long stick whilst clambering about the rocks (spot him if you can, he was wearing camo pants!). The creek creates all sorts of watery, rocky adventures for the whole family. What's even better is that it's all happening in the fresh Australian air  and everyone sleeps much better for it.

On this creek visit I decided to try out my shutter speed setting and try for a 'moving-water' shot. Here are some of the images that I kept (I deleted thousands!). And I must take the tripod next time! These are of the same little waterfall from the same spot. So to start we have the full waterfall...

Then the detail shot of a conveniently central mossy rock surrounded by cascading water.

Warning: Sunglasses required. Sorry! I liked the light in the flow of the water, somehow makes it seem surreal and mystical.

 

This next location was the source of the above seen group's gazing... they had found this little waterfall. The three of them were checking out the colours in the rocks under the water when they realised that there was more than rocks in this spot.

It was really cool 'cos sitting just below the water surface and 'growing' from one side of this rocky channel to the other (across the creek!) was a twisting tree root. You'd wonder what had made it venture across there. Rocks had banked up against the root and the rocky channel walls further add to the effect. The root was twisting around and created a hole, or whirlpool effect, and through it all the water flowed. Add in the sunshine. Plus the ripples in the water! Just lovely!

The last lovely thing to mention about the creek today is that it has great trees. Different to the other farm treescapes. Especially nice are the casuarina pines and the willows. I admit to having a slightly ulterior motive regarding the willow, Monday's upcoming post will have lots of willow in it and here is a sneak preview...

Well, it looks like we're off to spend some hours at the farm this weekend so we'll definitely be getting our share of fresh air. The wind is quite ferocious here today with a decided nip to it. A good day to stay inside with some willow to play with....! See you on Monday. Happy Weekend!