The House(s) of Fran_mart

I have given the image immediately following pride of place as it is the first sun-orchid we have found on the property. It has been identified as Thelymitra pauciflora by Jean Egan, a co-author of "A Field Guide to the Orchids of the Australian Capital Territory" which everyone should own! The image isn't great, but it was difficult to get anything as the flower whipped back and forth in the gale blowing on 31 October! The following lot are an Orchid (Stegastylis sp); flowering sundew (Drosera sp); a Chocolate lily and a small native Bluebell (Wahlenbergia communis).

The following are a Peregrine Falcon chick while being banded by an expert (with the required licence); and one of the parents expressing a view about the expert's presence. The excellent photos were take by Michael Maconachie from ACT Parks and Conservation!

After the overview of a nice part of the garden above, these show: the Jitterbug Irises; two un-named Irises; a Paeony poppy; Wisteria; the spuds; Onions and garlic; and strawberries (hopefully you will be able to see the fruit, and in the near future we will be able to taste them).

The following images are of some of the flowers around our block and others seen on a trip led by Ian Fraser to parts of the Shoalhaven Valley. They are, in the order they appear to me, Pattersonia (blue) with some legume in front of it; a Monga Waratah - a great desktop image at full size; mail me if you'd like a 2Mb copy; a sundew (Drosera sp) having lunch; A Grevillea; One of the Wahlenbergias - also known as Australian Bluebells. One of the species is the 'State' flower of the ACT. The photo is a bit blurry as the flower was waving arund in gale force winds. Diuris sulphurea - a donkey orchid, of which we now have a lot of clumps around the property; and a greenhood orchid (Hymenochilus sp).

This is a tale of two wars. The first and simplest was Tammy the Rocket-propelled Rodent against the slower members of that order. The initial tangible battle in this occurred while I was in Vanuatu and Frances found her emerging from under the shed with a rabbit in her mouth. Good dog! When I returned and got into gardening, on 3 occasions we found her wandering around the vege garden with a dead rabbit - in 2 cases very dead and fly blown - in her mouth. I wondered why the rabbits were dying in the garden and had suspicions that they were getting some help in "passing over" from a reptile. Advancing a little in time, we come to the second war, which was rocket-propelled rodent versus the hypothesised reptile. I was feeling a bit tired on 10 October so had a nap in the middle of the day, but was woken by furious barking from the vege patch. Frances was not game to enter to find out what was happening so I went in and called Tammy out of the bean patch where t

This post was originally titled "Tadpolemouthson the horizon" but I then remembered the Adelaide name for juvenile amphibians and decided that was more romantic. One afternoon in early October I became aware that a Pied Currawong was disturbed by something in the tree which the 'wong had established a nest. It turned out to be a Tawny Frogmouth. A couple of days later I looked, from my study, at the position in which the Frogmouth had been sitting and realised it was on a nest!!! Thus the photos. To my surprise the bird did not get at all fussed about me mowing the lawn right underneath it.'s possie. Also it seems to have achieved a detente cordiale with the 'wong. Watch this blog for updates. In fact the first update came a little sooner than expected. The day after I discovered the nest my attention was drawn to a smaller tree nearby in which there was much twittering of Striated Thornbills. The cause of ther excitement was a second T

... and just misses sundry members of the Australia Native Plants Society is it a message from God? ... and if so what does it mean? Was He hoping to get a trail bike rider and realised at the last moment His infallibility was slipping a bit? Did he think Sarah Palin was in the group and suddenly realised we were all 20- 30 years older than her (and have about an extra 60 points on our IQ rating)? On the Wednesday walk on 8 October this 10m high tree - I think Acacia decurrens (I just go along to ID the birds and talk to some very pleasant and interesting people) - fell between two parts of the walking group. Had it actually hit someone it would have been interesting as we were about 3km from the cars and about 15km of crappy roads from a medical service.