Wednesday, February 17, 2010

A Picnic Lunch

Today the weather has been beautiful-the temperature was around 27 degrees Celcius-sunny with a gentle breeze blowing.
We decided to go for a picnic lunch down by the lakeside in the town centre.
Just as we arrived another couple were leaving so we headed over to the table that they had been using.
We sat and ate our lunch consisting of tomato-lettuce-cucumber-cheese-cold chicken-hard boiled egg-some cold leftover baked veggies and some potato salad and 2 slices of fresh hi-top bread washed down with a nice cold soft drink.
It was so peaceful and serene watching the ducks wading by and dragonflies flitting past.
When we were about to leave Stephen spotted this spiders web.
As it glistened in the sun it looked like a wire stretched up high between two trees.
We were amazed at the length of it so Stephen stepped it out and he reckons it was about 12 feet long.
How on earth does one little spider manage such a great feat.




I then noticed the spider rushing along the web and if you click on the photo the blurry blob in the centre of the web is the spider.




I noticed this tree trunk with lovely lichen and moss on it------------------


This is a tree root that has grown up above the ground and had then been mown over a long time ago by the the man on his ride on mower.
The design that has been created by the regrowth is beautiful.

Now for the ugly bits.
The table where we ate our lunch was a solid plastic type of material and some idiot had tried to set it alight-how I don't know but it it was all black and scarred.
When I took a closer look the residue that was left behind had formed an interesting pattern.
The blue is the colour of the table originally and the big cracks are the definition between each section of the table top.
The bits that look grey are really black but the sunshine made them look paler in the photo.



The destruction that some idiots leave behind makes me angry-not just because of the damage to the table but also the inconvenience that it causes when people go for a picnic luch.
Luckily I had taken a cloth which meant that I could cover up the offending ugliness so that we could enjoy our outing.





Ah--roll on Autumn which by the way is the most magical season in Canberra because when the city was designed they had the forsight to plant lots of beautiful trees that change colours in Autumn.
I know they then loose their leaves and make a big mess but in my mind it is all worth it.

6 comments:

Sandy said...

Great patterns.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

aahhhh...thank you for that post Doreen. Right now we're being snowed upon and I would SO like to be going on a picnic and see such a spectacular spider web.

Heather said...

You long for autumn - we long for spring. At least we haven't got ice and snow now, but there could still be frosts and it has been very grey, wet and dismal today. Glad you had such a lovely picnic. It's a sad fact that every country seems to have it's vandals. That was some spider web - I don't like them, but they are amazing creatures.

Maggi said...

Gorgeous textures there despite the vandalism involved. That spider has got to be HUGE for it to show up in a photo from so far away. I never have been able to work out how they get a web across a huge gap, the only thing that I can come up with is that they hitch it up to one end, walk over to the next point, climb up and attach it,

Lise said...

Wish I could have joined your lunch, although the spider would have scared me! We have lots and lots of snow here, now outdoor lunches for a while....I like the "new look" of your blog!

Janet said...

Wonderful photos! Spider webs are so beautiful and so mysterious. I agree....how do they do that!

Sorry your lunch was marred by someone's recklessness and disregard for other people but it sounds like you managed to have a super great day anyway.