As I type the last few drops of rain are falling on the verandah. A storm just crossed the Illawarra coast. There was quite a great deal of lightning. I managed to capture one bolt. I left the shutter open for 10 seconds and narrowed the aperture.

Not too high tech or professional but it worked, at least for the photograph above. I have played around with the photography of lightning in the past. I am quite happy with the photograph below. After that shot was taken I went inside. The storm was too close for comfort.

Last weekend Shao Ping and I took our Taiwanese homestay student Jenny and her boyfriend Ho Yen for a drive. We went north across Sea Cliff Bridge via the Grand Pacific Drive and up to Bald Hill to take in the view of the Pacific Ocean. We then paid a visit to Sri Venkateswara Temple which is located south of Helensburgh.

It is a beautiful temple. I shall be posting more photographs over time. The temple’s history goes back to 1978. The temple’s web site has a gallery of excellent photographs. We also had our lunch at the temple. We ate some prata with a rather nice curry plus some masala tea. Very nice indeed. I took a few photographs.

A couple of weeks ago the students of our school participated in a walkathon to raise money for several charities. The students walked along the southern shores of Lake Illawarra to the mouth of the lake where it meets the Pacific Ocean. The journey there and back was about 13 km. I took 23,748 steps according to a pedometer.

During the walk I took a few photographs with a small Casio digital pocket camera. I photographed the Illawarra escarpment. I was standing on the eastern shores of the lake and, pointing west, took a few photographs of the escarpment. I stitched a couple together using Photoshop Elements. To make up for the differing exposures I adjusted the levels slightly. The yellow spot on the Google Map above marks my approximate position.

Simply click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the panorama [4703 x 959 pixels at 72dpi ~ 1.7mb]

This afternoon Shao Ping and I took our homestays Jenny, Aya and Shiho for a drive to the ocean in order to view the high seas. We have had quite a good bit of rain during the last two days. I captured a quick movie of the seas.

Updated the Year 9 and 10 history pages last night. Added some links relevant to the local and national sites studies currently being undertaken by the students in those years.

Year Nine History links

Year Ten History links

Some of the sites are worthy, others not so worthy. The students will provide feedback on that. Included some Wikipedia entries as well. Referencing WIkipedia does not always go down well in some academic quarters. Often the external links at the foot of a Wikipedia page are useful.

I shall encourage the students to suggest more links. If you would like to suggest some local Illawarra History site or Australian historical sites of national interest please comment below.