A Day of Good and Bad

Yesterday was 9th March - Its significance may not be immediately apparent, and the date might have passed without any special note except for a couple of events in recent history.
1. It marks the fact that we have now been in Toowoomba for 4 years exactly - the best move we have made, but where has the time gone?
2. It also marks the day of the heaviest bombing raid of World War II. On that day 70 years ago, the US launched 860 B29-Superfortresses on Tokyo and they delivered more than 6000 tonnes of incendiaries and explosives over the city, causing unimaginable damage to the city.
I am currently reading "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, which gives an excellent graphical account of one American serviceman who endured the dreadful conditions of a POW in Japan for 2 and a half years. It is a coincident that yesterday I just happened to be reading the section which described this massive bomb attack on Tokyo. It should have signalled the immediate surrender of Japan because their air force had been substantially decimated, ships sunk, and most of their outlying islands had been captured as the allies advanced on the mainland. Yet the Japanese continued to pursue their insane policy of "fighting to the last man", and they endured another 5 months of intense destruction until the atomic bombs hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when they finally surrendered.

A Rare Sight

It is a unique sight to see a blend of a placid country scene and the intense action of a contest on the roads. It was a peaceful day at the roadside until the flurry of almost half a million dollars worth of bikes raced towards their climax at the finishing line 140km along the road.

An Epic Space Encounter

Every hour NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft gets 31,000 miles closer to its July rendezvous with the former planet known as Pluto. Last week, to mark the 109th anniversary of the birth of Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, NASA revealed a new image of Pluto and its largest moon Charon.

As you can see in the image above, Pluto and Charon are finally more than a pinpoint of light to New Horizons. The image was captured on January 25, 2015 when New Horizons was was still 126 million miles from Pluto. 
New Horizons has been in flight since early 2006 and has travelled more than 3 billion miles. It will speed through a close approach with Pluto and its five moons on July 14, 2015. During its encounter with Pluto, New Horizons will map the global geology and topography of Pluto and Charon, determine their surface composition and temperature, measure Pluto’s atmosphere, study Pluto’s smaller moons Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra, and search for new moons and rings. It will be an epic encounter.

Its That Time Again

Yes the Summer and Autumn brings the best of cycling to Toowoomba.

This month we have the Oceania Cycling Championships at Goombungee, and in May we have the 5th edition of the 4 stage Tour of Toowoomba.  There is a small chance that they may select me for one of the events, so I went out and rode a fast 30km this morning. As I now sit and recover I think that maybe I have left my run a bit too late.

Trees

One of these days I will return to painting landscapes, and this reproduction of a scene by a local artist may well be my inspiration.

I am not too sure about the cows because animal life is well beyond my capabilities, but if I could paint trees as well as this example, then I would consider myself to be a master, at least within the confines of my studio.

Our New Airport

Today was a great day for Toowoomba.  We enjoyed the open day at the new airport at Wellcamp.
There were lots of things to see and some entertainment.  The model aircraft display was amazing, with some craft performing amazing aerobatics in the sky.
We walked on the main 3km runway - the last time this will be possible before the official opening the flights in November.

Lakeside Magic

I discovered an excellent site for New Zealand weather conditions which accesses numerous official and private weather stations throughout the country. While I was trawling through a few of the locations that I know so well in the southern lakes area, I came across the site for the "Whare Kea Lodge" which is apparently a new development on the western side of Lake Wanaka. At prices ranging from $500 to $935 per night, it would at least provide a rewarding view over the lake - Have a look at -
http://www.wharekealodge.com/
While I am not immediately rushing out to book a room, it did remind me of the day that Craig and Nick and I walked the track in that same area alongside the lake to the Ironside Trig. On that day we enjoyed the same views and it cost us nothing.