Ode To Timmy (the world's fattest possum)

Timmy, oh Timmy,
Oh, what have we done?
We fed you and fed you,
Till you weighed half a ton!

Oranges, grapes,
and yes, biccies too,
We plied you with sweet treats,
because we loved you.

And rounder and rounder,
you sat in your chair,
With crumbs all around you,
And juice in your hair.

You said you were hungry,
We gave you our all,
And slowly you took on
The shape of a ball.

We killed you with kindness,
We know that it's true,
But we think you died happy,
As you took your last chew.

Timmy, oh Timmy,
Oh, what could we say,
As you rolled to the floor,
And waddled away?

Life is for living,
And always live big,
So here's to you, Timmy,
You were our little pig!

And the runners up are ...

Here's the rest of the pics from Strand Ephemera.
I'll let you make up your own mind.


Fountain with curtain of coloured beads.

Hanna Barbera meets Freddy Krueger.

Licorice allsorts (sand flavoured).

Elton John's love child?

Townsville's new defence system.

Family portrait

Snapped this at Townsville's Cultural Festival a few years ago. Even though you can't see their faces (I am assuming they are mother and son, but they could be a couple), there is something just plain nice about this little group. They seem completely in harmony with one another. Everything from the relaxed attitude of the birds to the woman's 'galah' coloured scarf says what a neat little family group they are. And yes, the birds are tethered, but they don't seem to mind. This is one of my favourite pics, because it gives me the warm and fuzzies every time I come across it.

The Great Art Heist

Someone stole one of the exhibits from
Strand Ephemera early on Sunday morning.

After a public outcry, it was left anonymously
at the back door of the art gallery.

The artist immediately set about restoring
it to its former glory.

And I was there to film the closing chapter.

Imagine trying to sell that at Cash Converters.

"What is it?",
"Ummm, it's called 'Man On Beach',
"But it's not on the beach?",
"Oh, yeah. Umm, it's just called 'Man' then".

Didgeridon't

Snapped this cute little guy in Kuranda near Cairns.


Then I found this pic from a visit to Perth, which reminded me that not everyone likes having their photo taken. Check out the expression on his face. After I took this, I walked off down the mall, only to hear shouting behind me. He was yelling for me to come back, but needless to say I didn't. Obviously someone didn't have a busker's licence and was feeling a little precious about it. Ah, the perils of being a front line photographer!

To the Victa goes the spoils

This was my favourite piece at Strand Ephemera 2011 out of a fairly lacklustre field of entries. It shows a bit of warped humour at least. My interpretation is that the mummy mower (she's the one with the catcher) is being 'serviced' by the daddy mower (I can't see his filler nozzle, but I'm sure it's there somewhere), while the baby mowers all look on. No shame in nature (or in mower land), I guess.

A powerful wind

Took this pic of a wind farm when we were on the Tablelands behind Cairns. The turbines are huge and make an eerie whistling sound, but the cows didn't seem to mind, so neither did we. There is talk of wind farms being harmful to human health (people falling sick who live near them), but I don't know how much of that is true and how much is sour grapes because they don't want them in their neighbourhood. Wind power seems like a fantastic alternative to what we've got now anyway. I'm sure the residents of Fukushima where the recent meltdown occurred would rather have had a few big fans whirring away on their hilltops than the lethal cocktail they were served with. More power to the wind I say.

It came from outer space

My wife killed a spider on our porch the other day and she was a little put out that I wasn't impressed by its size when I scooped it up to put it in the bin (it was shrivelled up in a little ball by then). Luckily our security camera had been running earlier that morning and had managed to get a shot of it while it was still alive. No wonder she used a whole can of Raid on it! Seriously though, tarantulas are not only scary, they're freaky as well. Did you know that a tarantula can regenerate a lost leg? Or that they have retractable claws on each leg, just like a cat? Or that female tarantulas can live as long as 30 years in the wild? Wow! I'll try and remember how amazing they are next time there's one crawling up my pants leg.