finally posting something again

Just to get started again, i'll post some pictures of drill rig pits with nice patterns. Haven't done any drilling work this past year, so these are older shots. Anyway, pits are being replaced by the above ground tank system, so viewing the action is becoming not so easy or interesting.

metallic sheen on the bubbles: we've hit a coal horizon

nice low angled sun effect

the bubbles look like ball bearings rolling on metal sheeting here

a nice blobby effect, i think the picture is sideways.....

coal horizon, in the runoff channel to the pit

out of the coal

more channel swirls

i kept putting off posting as my pictures of the dying experiments don't really show the right colours. So, i'' probably just start anyway and post a lot about the this and that of the last year to unblock the pipe....visited clare in auckland in autumn...... i went to iceland with karen and stella in september. And then to uganda in october to visit the school that we raise funds for. the kids are gorgeous of course.

A visit to a starkly beautiful place

Occasionally very nice things come your way.....i got to go on a trip for work to China to look at dimesion stone projects. This is the rock that gets used for buildings: marble for benchtops, granites for wall panels and that sort of thing. Chinese people have feelings for dimension stone and they use it beautifully. We could learn heaps from them.

We went to 2 truly outstanding provinces. The first was nearish to the 3 Gorges area (but not too close!) so the mountains were luscious and the river valleys very scenic indeed. Growing wild on the farms are the plants people now garden with: wild hydrangeas for example, campanulas, windflowers etc etc etc. ( If the quarry doesn't come off, the locals should run garden enthusiast tours!)

The 2nd place is up in the north: DunHuang. On the silk road. On the edge of the desert country. Like an oasis. In some ways it reminded me of Mildura of all places - lots of sand surrounding and blowing into the small city, but grapes growing all through the housing areas and crops of melons and greens. the local red grapes are ENORMOUS and very tasty......

Here is a view of one of the places we drove to, about 2hrs out of the city into an arid landscape that is a geology-mapping paradise: looks like 100% exposure, eh? and dykes run all over the place. The ground surface is actually frost shattered rock so it's not quite 100% exposure, but close....i'm loading the pictures on my flickr page bit by bit,

but here is a taster of this  fascinating landscape (sadly i could only take my little point'n'shoot camera and a lot of shots are from a moving car on really bumpy track....)

i wanna go back......with my camera and stay for a week. it's enthralling. the colours.........find the flickr link and browse :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alicole-sydney/albums

More things abstract & almost psychadelic

Opportunities to photograph these wonderful ever-changing pits of earthy mush are becoming rare as the environmental standards are becoming tighter. These days it is more usual to use large removable tanks so you don't get to see the recycling drilling mud in all its glory. Here are some recent shots from where i was working in Queensland. These pits were only recycled water with no drilling muds added and it's the ground up rock that creates the wonderful froth and colours (metallic in the case of the very fine bright coal). Enjoy, (i certainly did, taking an awful lot of photos in between core runs .....every core run made a different effect in the pits.) And don't mention the cows.........