Alien Plants

I've recently noticed a certain type of plant that grows wild in places along the embankment of the railway line on which I travel to and from work. It's a strange plant and I do not know its name. Its long leaves grow and curl into such positions to suggest that it is animated. I can imagine those leaves flailing around, searching for food, and then closing on a hapless bird or small animal that has wandered too close. John Wyndham has a lot to answer for.


The specimens in the photo above are about 3 metres (10 feet) in width. I'm always on the lookout for things to inspire me for miniature scratch-building projects. These plants look suitably alien and I could imagine them as perfect terrain for some futuristic miniature tabletop skirmish game.

Solar Halo

I took the family for a day trip up to Tamborine Mountain last Sunday. One of the cool things I saw that day was a rainbow ring around the sun. This is an optical phenomenon known as a 22° halo and forms when sunlight is refracted in hexagonal ice crystals suspended high in the atmosphere.


The photo was taken with the camera pointing directly at the sun. The ring was observable with the naked eye and was even more spectacular than the photo suggests.