Fogs and filligree...

Mornings have been foggy affairs round here in the last couple of weeks.
There is something quite surreal and beautiful about the softness of a morning mist.

Gorgeous really.

Dash spied something quite beautiful in our garden

(not my neglected plants though, sorry to report).

And he thought I should take some photos...

It was this:

Isn't that amazing?

I know that not everyone loves spiders -

heck if one crawls on me I slap it away as quick as the next person...

but how can you NOT be spellbound by their art?

So delicate... intricate filligree.

Look closely...

Closer...

You can see the mist droplets drifting behind the gauze of the web...

And so we left the garden-dwellers to their work.

Back inside to our breakfasts.

Leaving them to busily improve on my non-green-thumb gardening efforts.

A little marsupial relief

I am trying really hard to give you something OTHER than rain-related photos... really I am. But it's kinda tricky - all my inspiration is precipitation-based! (Try saying that three times fast!). But as I work on the next batch of flood photos... enjoy a couple of the onlookers snapped as we drove around inspecting the creeks and river yesterday.

This first shot is of some neighbour's cattle, who had all parked themselves on the road. Cattle tend to do this in the wet - I suppose it's warm and dries more quickly. They are perhaps under the impression that we put it there specifically so they could keep their feet dry... who knows?

These are Brahman cattle - aren't they gorgeous? They always remind me of exotic Indian dancers, with their dark kohled eyes and loose-limbed walk.

Then we arrived in our house paddock. Remember how we have a rule that any marsupials who happen to be in the paddocks closest to our house are 'safe'?

This lot are so sure of their place, they hardly even hop away when we drive by...

And some of them are taking it to the extreme...

Good lord - talk about laid-back Aussie critters...

No. Please.

Stay where you are mate.

Lying down as if you are reclining on a sun lounge, waiting for the next margerita, is perfectly normal round these parts!

Don't mind us...

Wincy...

There are just over 24 hours left in my little contest/giveaway/harvesting of humour... and I thought I might entertain you as you dig deep into your psyche for a punchline in yesterday's photo blog post...

This series of photos was taken at about 10pm, after Mr Incredible had let his horse Trooper out of the yard he gets fed in (he doesn't like to share, our Trooper-Looper). He called me out into the backyard to show me something. "Bring the camera!" he called out. So I did.

My apologies for the photo quality. These were taken without a tripod and with only a torch to light the subject, which had set up house right across our walkway sometime in the previous 3 hours.

He was a little bigger than the size of the palm of a man's hand.

Moral of the story:

Keep your torch handy and eyes peeled while night-wandering in my neck of the woods!

Have I scared you back to the previous post yet?

Camouflage

Sometimes, you know, I feel exactly like I did three years ago.

Sure my kids are older, but really I run around and do grocery shopping and household chores pretty much the same. I cook. I take photos. I avoid cleaning. Nothing much has changed in these departments.

But one thing that has DEFINITELY changed since I swapped the Big Smoke for the Bush...

The Scenery.

And the creatures with whom I share that incredible scenery.

Like this dude...

He was just moseying across the road as I hurtled towards town to pick up Violet from Kindy.

Minding his own business.

This pre-historic looking creature (a common Aussie goanna) barely blinked at me as I screeched to a stop and grabbed the Nikon.

As if people screech and document it's life all the time.

What really hit me, as I ka-doosh-ka-doosh-ka-dooshed at him with the camera, was how amazingly s/he blended into the bitumen beneath his gnarly claws.

You know, like about a gazillion years ago Mother Nature was all:

"Now, this creature will be needing to subtly move

across surfaces like leaf-covered dirt,

and climb up speckly gum trees...

and there will be that bitumen to contend with too.

Let's see... "

Or am I the only person that imagines these kind of

one-way dialogues being uttered by a non-human presence?

Yup.

Thought so...

I'd love to blame my weirdness on the bush

but I reckon I've always been a bit of a space cadet!

On that note, it's time to GO... Anna.

(Oh dear...)

:-)

Weather and Wedge-ies

Life is kinda crowding me at the moment ... in the nicest possible way! I completely missed Weather Wednesday last week (cannot even keep to my OWN rules!).
...
I am so freaking busy I can hardly keep track of what day it is - but I have snuck off while my school holiday visitors are nana-napping (and kids watching Dr Suess on DVD) to share a little somethin' special from our trip away last week. We were late leaving Granite Glen (not unusual for me) in the late afternoon, on our way to drop the ankle-biters off with Aunty Neat And Uncle Are, before heading to Rock-Vegas for a rare night alone, before a bull sale the following day.
...
Earlier in the day I had dashed into Dash's school for a photo presentation (a little project I had been doing with his schoolmates) when I had accidentally hit a roo with the Prado. It sometimes happens and never fails to make me feel a little sick (I may be a bushie, but I am a girl and killing a creature - even accidentally - gives me serious guilt waves).
...
Anyway as we rounded the corner on our away trip in the afternoon, we spied some birds at the roo carcass. Birds who flew off into the trees as soon as we stopped.

Not just any birds though...

These guys...

They are wedge-tail eagles - enormous birds of prey that live throughout rural Australia.

And they are gorgeous in an arrogant, imposing kinda way...

and have been known to lift baby calves from the ground and take off.

It's a little hard to really get the sense of size and majesty of these birds from these photos... and as we drove off I lamented to Mr I that I didn't have a better zoom lense, because we don't see wedgetail eagles too often.

And then we pondered how long it had been since we had LAST seen a pair...

I have only seen one other pair (they seem to always be a couple)

and Mr Incredible had seen a few more, but still less than ten, in the two-and-a-half years we have been here...

WHEN...

We came up a rise and there, before us, feasting on another dead roo was...

ANOTHER pair of wedgies...
I kid you not.

(One had flown off into the long grass, while this one stayed feasting).

I demanded we stop the Prado. Again.

Mr I began to mutter silently about our inevitable lateness.

I ignored his concerns.

This guy was too beautiful!

I am very sorry about constantly bombarding you with carrion this post,

but encourage my gentle readers to focus instead on the amazing bird pecking away at it

(I know... sorry again!)

This bird would be more than knee high in height...

and yes, I realise 'knees' is not exactly an official measure, but I am totally guessing here and knee variations will let me get away with a wild 'guesstimate'!

Of course, I nagged Mr I to keep edging the car closer and closer to the eagle...

finally getting too close for comfort and he took off...

Giving you a good glimpse of the incredible wing span of these creatures...

And also the distinctive 'wedge' shape of the tail

(for which they are named... duh, BB!)

See ya, Big Fella...

And yes, my husband was at this point muttering:

Now? Now can we go?

And yes, we were late.

Again.

Totally acceptable excuse though, don't you think?

...

Oh, and weather this week - HOT.

Hot and sweaty.

Currently 42 degrees celsius in the sun on my kitchen bench.

Yah.

Garden gazing...

A couple of quick shots from the garden tonight...

My vege garden to be exact.

My 'pea' section of my vege garden to be absolutely specific.

This ladybug was trying to hide in the cap of a snow pea...

...

And the light shining through the translucent shell

of this pea shell captured my eye...

How cool are the 'veins' and 'baby peas'?

More garden shots to come but these couple caught my eye.

...

I'm not much of a green thumb,

but am finally understanding the little bits of magic

to be had tilling the earth... how 'bout you?

Any earthly magic touched your world lately?

Freaky Friday...

It's funny the things you see on the way to a meeting, isn't it?

...

You know, when I was a city chick, I would see all kinds of crazy on the way to work at George Street - addicts straining to appear straight as they stumbled home from an all-night bender somewhere, schoolkids up to mobile-phone mischief on benches waiting for school buses, businessmen sweating profusely as they squeezed their suited-up bulk into the standing-room-only jam of the third car of the Roma Street express. You know the kind of thing. All highly entertaining on a hour-long commute from the 'burbs.

...

These days, when I head to a meeting to discuss our family business, the loons I come across are of a different breed altogether.

Can you see what I spotted as I drove up the paddock (with the ipod happily blaring on the shuffle setting) to meet the boys this week?

(And yes I know the photo is hazy... it's taken through the smeary dusty windshield, what do you expect!?)

Oh yes.

Freaky Friday Full Moon Crazy bird alert...

Hello bird brain!

I think emus are the weirdest of Aussie creatures...

they stalk around all knobby-kneed in straggling gaggles,

mindlessly darting whenever the bird in front so much as twitches,

with their phoofy feather tutus,

and starey amber eyes.

Their kind of freakiness is quite hard to describe really -

maybe "sepia-hued Lewis Carrol versions of awkward prehistoric ballet bird dancers"?

Yeah. Nah.

I should shut it and let the photos do the talkin'...

This particular gang didn't bolt immediately as I let the Prado idle closer,

they were tense but curious ...

(and apparently closet fans of Guy Sebastian's 'Midnight Hour').

This one seems to be thinking:

I am exactly the same colour as the dry foliage here...

and if I hold still, no-one could POSSIBLY see me in this clever disguise!

While his brothers are bravely sneaking closer (in gaggle formation) and thinking:

What is that strange white rectangle?

And what is that funky music ...

could it be Guy Sebastian?

And this one is all:

'I'm gonna do everything I told ya,

In the Midnight Hour!'

And this one is muttering:

For Heaven's sake, the things you see on your way to a meeting!

...

So...see anything freaky - freakier than BB communing with giant flightless birds - today?

Hop, hop and away!

This is a sight we pretty much see every day around here...
but I am aware that for many people dropping by my place,
the view of roos nervously dashing off away from the road
is kind of an unusual thing...

So here you go - meet Mama Roo and her half-grown joey.

These photos were snapped about 15km from our house, in our steer paddock.

Notice how, as our dry winter sucks the colour from the landscape,

the kangaroos begin to blend perfectly with the sepia grass...

making it all the trickier

to shoot them accurately

....with a CAMERA!

...

Gosh, what did you think I meant?

Encounter of the (much-needed) wild kind

I went to Mum's "town" place yesterday, after visiting my friend Lil.

I wasn't feeling down exactly, but my mood was kinda flat I guess.

(Anyone hanging around this blog of late

will know what I mean!

BB's version of Sally Sunshine has been on holiday.)

...

So old Mother Nature decided to cut me a break,

and shout me a little somethin' special.

I pulled into the driveway of the house,

which is just a couple of kilometres from our local town.

As I parked, I glanced east, past the pumpkin patch

and towards the top of the hill...

To see an entire community of kangaroos grazing peacefully,

looking for all the world like they were in the middle of the outback

starring in the latest Baz Luhrmann epic.

This was just 30 metres from Mum and Dad's front door...

(and while this is not the city, Dad does consider we are still in the 'suburbs'!)

The roos - young and old - saw me just 15 metres from them,

but rather than take off (as wild roos would at Granite Glen)

they simply returned my gaze.

I approached slowly (with Mum shadowing me)

and my Nikon jammed onto my face

the shutter rapid-firing their way.

This young gun was ready to stand up on his tail and show off a little...

But the real man of the group was the big old buck

(sitting low to the left in the photo below)...

The young bucks were just doing what young bucks do...

wrassling and carrying on,

hoping someone was noticing,

while the females and main man grazed

and kept an eye out for danger.

Would you look at these crazy kids,

locked in combat...
And notice how everyone else is ignoring them...
(I swear that roo behind is rolling her eyes, and muttering "show-offs" under her breath)

Finally I sneak a little too close for comfort

(I was amazed I got this close)...

and the big fella stood upright, turned decisively

and bounded up over the rise...

And one-by-one each of his mob turned tail and followed him ...

Til the last lady, her pouch heavy with joey,

thunk-thunked across the horizon.

...

Sometimes, that Mother Nature,

she just blows your blinking socks off!

Yorrick...

This little series of snaps comes from a trip we made into town a couple of days ago... I had picked up Dash from his tiny one-teacher school, and was flying in to pick up Mr Incredible and Violet who were waiting in the main street of our nearest 'real' town for us. Despite being in a bit of a hurry, I stopped the Prado suddenly

when I spotted this guy in the middle of the road...

It looked suspiciously like a 'joe blake'...

but it wasn't.

For one thing, it was a whole lot slower....

I suspect he was pretty ancient,

he had a bit of a hobble and his feet were pretty gnarly...

We shall call him Yorrick...

The turtle was making mighty tough work of the epic journey from one side of the bitumen road to the other. Actually I think he was having a bit of a nap here - despite encouragement to MOVE from a certain concerned onlooker...

C'mon mate!

Uh oh!

We can hear a truck coming down the hill...

Mum tries to pick up our new friend Yorrick

To take him to safety...

but that truck is getting awfully close.

She grabs Dash instead and heads to the right side of the road,

hoping the turtle is far enough across on the grass verge

to avoid a terrible collision of shell and rubber.

The truck driver rounds the sharp bend

(behind the camera position)

and veers wide upon seeing the Prado and disembarked passengers.

He waves as he zooms by,

oblivious to the small creature huddled at the side of the road.

Two sets of brown eyes widen as they see the blur of tyres fly by.

Something spins out behind the departing truck...

Alas, poor Yorrick...

(I knew him not well, but still...)