Sugar Bush at Sunset

I'm a bit of a sweet tooth. How about you?

I am a self confessed chocoholic and I think the best time to eat desert is anytime but breakfast works well because it is before I've gotten too full of other food to really enjoy it.

Sugar cane, noble cane, sugar bush or whatever you want to call that tall, high sugar content grass that is grown in warm, tropical areas so that you can have sugar in your tea, coffee, cake and chocolate (well that is unless you've gone sugar free but that is your choice) is reaching for the sky around here.

North and south of town you can see paddocks of sugar cane stretching away from the highway. You don't have to go far to find it.

Go down a side road and you are surrounded.

Mountains and sugar cane, you can't get much more tropical looking than that, unless you add in a bit of beach and a palm tree into the mix.

I get to the late afternoon on the weekend and am just itching to get out and find a sunset. So I do, sometimes. Saturday I wanted a different sunset location, not the usual over water thing. So I headed south for an over the sugarcane look.No particular spot in mind I just drove and stopped and took photos, drove some more then stopped and took photos. You get the idea.

When living on the station sunset photos were pretty much part of my daily routine. Living here and working a night shift I have lost the freedom to do it all the time. That would be why I get that itch to do it when I am home at the right time.

I decided along the way to take photos of the same cane I had taken a few months ago when the mill was pumping out steam in the background.

There are a few more months to go yet before harvest. 

Over that time the stalks will hopefully thicken, sugar content will increase.

Then the cane will flower, a sign that it is about ready to harvest. 

It will be cut and left to reshoot for next year or the paddock will be replanted. It repeats, season after season. Mr Sparky has noticed the decrease in cane but I just see the miles of green, waving sugarcane everywhere up here. As the price of sugar changes the amount of sugarcane goes up and down. I just like my romantic swaying, green stalks view though.

I chose my sunset spot and despite what the number of photos looks like, I watched the sun speed towards the mountain tops.

 

Or maybe I just wasn't keeping track of time.

The sun seems to do that though. One moment it is slowly slipping from the sky and the next it has sped by, setting in the blink of an eye.

One moment the clouds are white, the sky blue and the cane green then the next everything is gold.

I just had a thought, I don't recall ever munching on a stalk of sugarcane. I had better rectify that sometime.

 

The sun dipped below the top of the sugarcane, rays of light highlighting the mountains. The world became a magical place.

Then it is done, the sun gone from view, the clouds turned pink and orange and the sky to the east soft pinks and blues. It is a relaxing end to the day and a reminder that no matter how crappy your day there was beauty in it. I guess that is why I love sunsets.

Do you ever take time to watch the sunset?

Do you sometimes wish it happened at a more convenient time of day like not when you should be making dinner?

Do you sometimes go 'screw dinner, it'll wait' like I do?

If you answered no to these questions I strongly advise you change your answer and go chase a sunset, even if you have to bring others with you.

Sunrise to Sunset

I literally just inhaled a chocolate. I mean, I breathed in and it was gone. It was too fast to choke on and hopefully went down the right way. It was one of those choc covered sultanas, so there is nothing to worry about. I was getting my fruit for the day, maybe I have had enough of my fruit for the day.

Meanwhile I am deciding whether I want to go out or not and then thinking about the corned beef I should put on for dinner soon, which equals not going out. Maybe we should have something else. Milk we might need milk, nah it'll be right. Sometimes it is handy having shops so close and sometimes it is just too handy.

As you can probably tell I am back to tired brain. It just comes with the territory at this part of my roster. Oh, and then there is the fact that Mr Sparky decided 4:30am was a good time to wake up. Ummm 12:30 bed time, 4:30 wake up I guess that equals I need more sleep. While I'm on the lack of sleep whinge fest (take a teaspoon of cement, I know that is what you are thinking) they have been slashing our bit of grassy swamp out the back for the last two days which means no daytime napping for me.

Okay, so yesterday morning I tried a new sunrise location. It didn't go quite to plan meaning the sun was too fast or I left home to late, whichever way you want to see it. I got part way there though so that was good enough, plus I was sick of dodging bike riders. Can you guess where I've taken these from? It is a place that has been in the blog a couple of times just not at sunrise.

Okay, I'll tell you. It is from the Lake Morris/ Copperlode Dam road, looking over the city. I didn't make it all the way to the lookout but it was still a pretty view. You can look back here and here.

After that I went back to the Arterial Road and went to find this shed. It is pretty well known around here. 

I've always wanted to stop but never have. It really wasn't a good time to choose to either. The traffic was pretty heavy.

I turned and headed back into the city. Turning back onto the highway was interesting. I ended up going the same direction as I had been and turning up where there was a turning lane into a car park and then heading back for the city. Much easier option.

On the way back into the city I stopped and took random pics of sugar cane and high voltage towers.

I even managed somehow to get a deserted road, it didn't look like that for long though.

Back at home I was fluffing around when I saw a dragonfly hanging out.

It would sit for a while trying to catch something in its mouth and then zoom off. 

It would come back just as quickly, settling and doing it all again.

I somehow managed a shot with its mouth open. More the fact that I took way to many photos than a fluke. It looks a bit freaky really.

It was a pretty big fellow.

Oh, by the way our garden is actually growing things. Tomatoes and cucumbers have taken off so now we will see what happens. We also have rosella bushes growing again and our passionfruit is flowering, sort of, but doing nothing much, again. We won't talk about the basil that is coming up everywhere, including in cracks in the driveway, or the strawberries that got burnt and then grasshopper attacked along with my bigger basil plants.

Before leaving for work I did get to see the clouds taking on a pink tinge with the sunset. So pretty.

What would you love to be doing while watching a sky like this?