Well it has been a while, in fact it seems that it is longer than I thought. I would like to say that I have been flat out like a lizard drinking, but it’s not exactly true. OK so what’s been happening in beautiful downtown Rat. Well the weather seems to have caught the imagination, even my mother mentioned the heat and the bush fires. It was a tad warm and the poor old dogs wandered around the house looking for cool spots. Until yesterday it was far too hot to take them out for a walk. Hol was out doing camera trapping stuff so the other day I took them for a walk at 630 and we didn’t get very far as it was already high twenties and neither dogs were keen to go for an extended walk. Which was a bit of a shame as the birds were pretty active especially near the small dam. Well Charley and Amber sat down and we watched the birds coming in and out for 20 minutes. Nothing very stunning but the White-winged Choughs were nice. Then the dogs got really bored and so we beat a hasty retreat and by the time we got to the car it was really warm. This weather carried on for several days, well over 35 degrees and it touched 40 briefly on one day, and meant that the bush fire risk was extreme and to prove it when I came out of Uncle Dan’s, the alcohol supply shop, there was a huge cloud of smoke. This was a big fire about 20 kilometres away and destroyed a few houses and lots of out buildings.
So all this waffle about weather brings me to the big news in that we bought a swimming pool and you can see a picture of it below with it being put to good use.
Other things that has been happening is that I got a few days’ work doing bird surveys in the Central Highlands, of course the boss was such a hard task master that forced me out of a nice warm bed at 0400 before even the sparrows were up and about. It was tough but the birding at some of the spots was spectacular with the Lyrebirds bouncing around like chooks in a chook farm and I have never heard so many Pilotbirds singing their little hearts out. Other highlights were the lonely little Crested Shrike Tit that popped up and the variety of honeyeaters was quite specky. It’s always nice to get out and about in rain forest at dawn. By the way Holly was my boss and a good one at that.
On the entertainment front we went to two Fleetwood Mac concerts in a week, simply because they will never come to Australia again, probably they should retire but they won't. The first was in Melbourne and it was somewhat spoilt by the upper middle aged woman drinking herself silly on overpriced white wine, which she lost most of anyway. The music was superb though some of the audience needed lessons in controlling the urge not to bounce around in the seats as it tends to have a knock on effect along the row. And why is it that people think they can sing better than the people on the stage, if I want to hear them sing I’ll go to their karaoke club. The second time was an open air event and it was really cold but it was far more enjoyable. The only fly in the ointment was getting out of the car park it took ages almost as long as the F Mac were on stage. Holly also went to see Reginald Dwight in Melbourne on her birthday personally it wasn’t my kind of thing watching a piano player but the ticket was a freebie.
Finally, if you want an interesting film check out the Last Cab to Darwin. It’s kind of tragi/comedy that Australians are good at making and they rarely get the acclaim they deserve. OK so if anybody is reading this have a great holiday indulge on a grand scale and I hope to see some of you, if not all, sometime in 2016.
So all this waffle about weather brings me to the big news in that we bought a swimming pool and you can see a picture of it below with it being put to good use.
Other things that has been happening is that I got a few days’ work doing bird surveys in the Central Highlands, of course the boss was such a hard task master that forced me out of a nice warm bed at 0400 before even the sparrows were up and about. It was tough but the birding at some of the spots was spectacular with the Lyrebirds bouncing around like chooks in a chook farm and I have never heard so many Pilotbirds singing their little hearts out. Other highlights were the lonely little Crested Shrike Tit that popped up and the variety of honeyeaters was quite specky. It’s always nice to get out and about in rain forest at dawn. By the way Holly was my boss and a good one at that.
On the entertainment front we went to two Fleetwood Mac concerts in a week, simply because they will never come to Australia again, probably they should retire but they won't. The first was in Melbourne and it was somewhat spoilt by the upper middle aged woman drinking herself silly on overpriced white wine, which she lost most of anyway. The music was superb though some of the audience needed lessons in controlling the urge not to bounce around in the seats as it tends to have a knock on effect along the row. And why is it that people think they can sing better than the people on the stage, if I want to hear them sing I’ll go to their karaoke club. The second time was an open air event and it was really cold but it was far more enjoyable. The only fly in the ointment was getting out of the car park it took ages almost as long as the F Mac were on stage. Holly also went to see Reginald Dwight in Melbourne on her birthday personally it wasn’t my kind of thing watching a piano player but the ticket was a freebie.
Finally, if you want an interesting film check out the Last Cab to Darwin. It’s kind of tragi/comedy that Australians are good at making and they rarely get the acclaim they deserve. OK so if anybody is reading this have a great holiday indulge on a grand scale and I hope to see some of you, if not all, sometime in 2016.
Every house in Australia has a swimming pool and now we have one too. I know it's a tad small but it is magical as it broke the number of days of 35 degree heat. Well Charlie likes it and don't you just love the sea sidey themes. Actually there are warnings on the side that say you can drown in this so it must be a dangerous thing that he is doing.