Delicate wings

This was another creature encountered during my Victorian holiday -

its actual size was about 2 inches (4.5cm). Despite its bulky body, those gossamer-like wings obviously carried it on its journeys.

Can anyone help out with its identification please?

Colourful Cones

Today, in celebration of a day with temperatures below 30oC (and especially below 43oC!), I caught a bus into the Adelaide Hills and enjoyed the views [as a passenger instead of a driver].
In the suburb of Belair, these colourful pine cones caught my eye

Just salt?

These are mountains of naturally-evaporated sea salt and are part of the Cheetham Salt Fields north of Adelaide and adjacent to St Vincent's Gulf.

I'd not really thought much about salt previously, but a little research reveals that it is used for supressing dust (being sprayed on in liquid form), as an essential part of stockfeed, as a method of curing hides and skins from spoilage prior to the remaining tanning process, as a vital ingredient in the pharmaceutical industry (whether used in preparation of dialysis solutions, cosmetics or health products), as swimming pool additive, as well as being used in the food industry and consumed by us locally as well as being exported overseas.

The salt you see above is double washed, dried, sieved and graded (to give consistent particle sizes) before it ends up in our pantries.

Here you can see the "fields" of salt water prior to evaporation

Sunset over the salt fields (posted earlier this year)

and dusk

Joining others appreciating sky scenes at Skywatch Friday

Visit http://skyley.blogspot.com.au/ to see many more.

Local churchyard - from a different (heavenly?) perspective

Late one afternoon the local church warden needed to change the flag on top of the church in recognition of an upcoming celebration; we were privileged to be invited up to the roof with him - hence this shot!