Sydney

I'm in suburb just north of Sydney staying with my brother and his family. I haven't been into the city center yet. My kids all arrived here yesterday. One flight early in the morning, and another flight at night, so in between I went shopping at one of the local shopping malls, and then, because I was feeling pretty sleepy, I decided to take a walk to a nearby station and mall. This picture shows the road I walked down, and it really wasn't very easy walking, because it's pretty steep, both uphill and downhill.
Then I took a shortcut through this park. Do you see that dark spot on the tree just about in the middle of the picture? There were quite a few of those dotted here and there high in the trees, and I really don't know what they are.


Here's a closer look at one of them. It looks like some sort of waspsnest or at least something's nest.
A lot of wild birds come right up to the house looking for handouts. Here is a lorikeet family (mother father and baby) that came right up to the kitchen window and tapped and called out.
And this is a cockatoo, who was so tame he almost let me come right up to him, and even posed for this picture.