A New Camera

Finally received my new second hand camera. Got the same model as the one that packed in it's pixels. Will dismantle said camera and see if it's fixable. That is highly unlikely after I've finished with it.

Ok so what have we been doing?

Assembled the propagation and shade houses. The shade house originally housed young flying foxes in it's last life.

The interior of the propagation house, furnished with state-of-the-art racking.

We now have a small vegie garden. This all came about due to:-

1. The weather warming up and the desire for cold crispy lettuce

2. Not enough fridge space to store a whole Iceberg lettuce.

Now we are . . .

Patiently waiting for the tomatoes to grow and produce fruit.

Lettuces just planted, carrots and corn. The other bed has beans, capsicum, cucumber and more corn.

Will be interesting to see what wildlife this will flush out!

Camera Gap #2

A Four-Bar Sword-tail Butterfly. The caterpillars feed on the Zig Zag vine shown in the last scintillating post.

 A lovely moth with a loooooooong latin name

A Bearded Dragon telling me to back orf! 

She dug a hole and laid her eggs right in the middle of where the solar panels are to be installed, so we had to move them.  They will take about 60 days to hatch.

A Frilled-Necked Lizard catching the afternoon sun.
And finally another flower piccie.

Until I Get a New Camera

My trusty Fuji camera refuses to switch on.

Yes I have made sure the batteries are correctly inserted and yes I have tested the batteries and they are ok, so it looks as though it has expired.

So the bad news is no more fantastic, exciting ,scintilating posts. The good news is that I won't be able to bore you spitless with trivial drivle either!

So I will now show you some arty-farty flora/fauna shots.

Little golden flowered Hibbertia that spring up everywhere with all the rain.

 

This is a native hibiscus. Grows to about 2.5 metres high. The leaves are furry and the flowers are a beautiful pink and last for one day. They however, have prickly stems.

A little bush with daisy-like flowers

 This is a zig-zag vine. It starts out as a bush, then turns into a scrambling vine that climbs over other plants.

The pattern of the trunk of a Spotted Gum

 

The beautiful pattern of bark on another tree.

Small Room - with a View

I have a theory, that all civilised advances are due to the weather. It was the weather that made our ancestors come down from the trees and take up the relative comfort of caves. It was the weather that resulted in them clustering around the warmth of  fire and it was the weather that induced them to cloth themselves in soft skins.
So the weather has caused us to make another civilised advance.
Rain
For the last few days we have had rain. Now we are quite snug in our little abode but calls of nature became water torture. Sitting on the 'dunny stump' in the rain and wind struggling with a unruly umbrella that exposed more than it covered then to find that the toilet roll melted in your hand because you had left it hanging on the toilet roll tree brought about a swift response.
A quick shuffle through our tin stash and we had enough for 3 walls and a roof. A little carpentry, some paint and a deep hole and we now have the 'Littlest Room" complete with a view.

 

 Aaaaah bliss. No more rain where you least want it, no more damp derrieres and no more soggy amorphous paper masses.

Then there is the view. Gazing off to the distant mountains beats a magazine any day. And at night the new moon in the western sky shines directly through the door.

It's almost as good as indoor plumbing - almost.

 

My Cup Runeth Over

One of the thing you take for granted in a 'normal' house, is that, when you turn a tap, water comes out.

Up until now water consisted of lugging 20 litre containers, fulling them in town and filling kettles and pots when water was needed for cups of tea and cooking.

Now that we have the tanks, I bought a pressure pump (good old Ebay) and Jim installed it and this is what happens.

Turn the tap - water comes out. Turn the tap off - water stops coming out!

Another sad example of what some people find exciting!

In a Circle of Silver

This morning we awoke to a morning wreathed in a soft circle of silver. The 'breath of the forest' gently enfolded our world, pale and shifting. The spiderswebs were spangled with light and the leaves held diamonds in their green hands.

There is something magic about fog.

The Big Smoke and A Successful Dance

Friday morning, with the trailer in tow, I left for the big smoke. 

No not Bundaberg the really big smoke - Brisbane. 

First to my son and daughter-in-laws to deliver the handmade clown I purchased at our local craft gallery as a birthday present for Isaac. Then on to the Gold Coast to pick up some stuff from Helensvale, then on to Advancetown for the Baby Bat Workshop.

As I drove south the clouds became thicker with misty patches of rain. Saturday the rain became more frequent the closer I came to the Gold Coast. Saturday night and all day Sunday the rain was almost continuous and Sunday night was very heavy.

Clearly as a rain-dancer my ability to produce rain is established. My sense of direction, however requires some fine tuning! And, you guessed it, drove back in brilliant sunshine

Great time with family lotsa yacking. And great to catch up with all the batty people and get a bat cuddle-fix. No baby flying-foxes for me this year *sigh*