The House(s) of Fran_mart

No, the border in question is not the Rio Grande. Rather it is the River Murray, and this post is being created in Eltham, a lovely suburb on the North-Eastern outskirts of Melbourne. The post will also feature links to a couple of sub-pages I have created to hold photos and thus preventing this page getting too big. Our reason for travelling to Victoria was to attend a contest of skill and science (to use the phrase Damon Runyan applied to pugilism) in the form of an Australian Rules football match between St Kilda Saints and the Adelaide Crows. It came about through my friend Rob winning a private box when he attended a breakfast before the 2009 Grand Final (which the Saints didn't win – boo-hoo). He invited us to take up a couple of the seats in the box. This was accepted very quickly (thanks again Rob). As we had long standing invitations to stay with friends at Eltham, and to take the small dog with us, the entire trip was a done deal! We set off in a fairly restr...

This post holds some images of roadside structures noticed in the Melbourne area on our travels.  Unfortunately the best  - a twisty rusty (but new and designed that way) bridge over the Hume Freeway, with a panorama of the CBD skyline - escaped us until returning where it wasn't so exciting (but I have included the shot anyway).

These are a few shots taken at a great range which might give a view of the game.  I start with the Saints coming on the field - apparently 'Linenhouse' is their sponsor! This gives an overall view of the Stadium. Next we have a happy moment, of the Saints kicking a goal.  As I said these shots were taken at a fair distance. The final shot is of the Crows cheer squad: I think this was taken in the second quarter as they didn't get much of a workout after half time!

Today ( 26 May 2010) we have had some more reasonable rain.  It started about 5:30 am and went until about 10:30am totalling up to 15.5mm.  This was enough to get both our creeks running and to top up our house tank.  Compared to last year, in aggregate for 2010 we are up to 312mm which is the same amount of rain as had fallen up to 3 October 2009! What is particularly interesting to me about this is where the rain has come from.  And I don't want any smart comments about ' the sky "! About half the amount fell in a very large episode in February where the rain came from the North, as a cyclone remnant headed down the Coast.   This latest lot came from the East due to a low pressure system sitting off the South Coast pumping moisture inland. A fair proportion of the rest was Summer thunderstorms. The main point being made is that very little of it is coming from the traditional source, of fronts moving through from the west of the country.  The...

Last evening I was doing the dinner dishes (at least the ones which don't fit in the dishwasher) and looking at the swift moths which have decided to reappear. There then came a tap-tap on the window.  No, it was not Raquel Welch (despite my fond memories of Pete'n'Dud's sketch on this topic) but a far larger moth fluttering on the glass.  I was contemplating getting the camera for a snap, but this was going to involve logistics with removal of rubber gloves etc. Suddenly there was an even louder tap.On looking out again, it was still not Raquel Welch. Rather, there was the male Tawny Frogmouth sitting on the window sill (perhaps 60cm from me).  No sign of the very large moth.  Getting the camera was now a matter of urgency but, alas, the Frogmouth had an appointment elsewhere and departed before a single glove could be removed. The next evening I got a snap of a swift moth (I think) so have included it to the left.   As I went to bed I noticed a ...

With that title you shouldn't be expecting great changes to your life as a result of reading this post! We were in a paddock thinking about setting up a vegetation monitoring site (of which more later ) when I was struck by the small dog's posture.  This is very typical of her when she can see something interesting but a little bit out of range.  The second image is just of willow leaves that have fallen into a small billabong (fortunately deficient in swagmen, jumbucks and -particularly fortunately - troopers) in Whiskers Creek.  I suspect the areas of clear water indicate where 'roos have misjudged a leap.  They look a bit like shots of polynias in ice fields but there are no seals or polar bears in them.

I have chosen this title because where we live and places like it can't really be called the Outback! It could be thought of as Tales from the Urban Fringe, but that sounds like an Art Festival. Tale 1 One night recently Frances and I were sitting in our sun-room having a cleansing glass or two of red and watching the light fade. The small dog was with us (but not having any red). Shortly after it had completely faded – say 5:40pm - there came what sounded like a VERY loud knock on the back door. Small dog goes ballistic. I scuttled off to see who was knocking. No-one visible. So I checked various other doors and go out with the spotlight and can't find anyone. Frances and I agree that this is most strange and puzzle about it for a while. Small dog goes back to sleep. After a while we go back to the lounge, where there is a nice warm fire. In passing Frances notices that her palette has fallen off her art-cart and the two halves have separated. This would h...

On our last trip to Adelaide we brought back a couple of items of furniture.  One of these was a wooden divan which Frances used to sleep on at her Grandmas (thus its probably an antique!) and on which we have slept when visiting her Mum. Apart from maintaining this emotional linkage Frances thought it would be just diddly installed on our deck where she could sit in the sun.  So that has been done and she and the small dog were well ensconced there this afternoon while I was off doing alpha male things with my old trailer; the wood heap and my log splitter. There is one issue.  That is, that the corner in which the bed is positioned is also the chosen roost for a White-throated Treecreeper.  We used to deal with this by putting old cut-up wine cartons on the deck to collect the guano.  With the prospect of the divan situation I put up a shelf to collect the crap.  Unfortunately Mr Treecreeper has decided to hang out below the shelf.  Bugger. ...

While El Camion Real was getting a service in Fyshwick I took my bike for a stroll out to the Fyshwick poo-pits and back via Newline Quarry Rd and Molonglo Reach. The poo-pits (which are interestingly in the ACT rather than NSW, perhaps proving that Canberra takes a lot of shyte from Queanbeyan) had a few interesting but not photogenic birds.  Getting to Newline I began by riding down the road to the Quarry where parrots and Cockatoos were the name of the game. I found a large flock (185+ birds) of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos at the far end of the road.  Along the way I noticed several Red-rumped Parrots exploring trees with hollows and spouts.  The image doesn't show the red rump but does give an idea of how colourful the male of this species is.  (The females are much drabber, and even the males vanish into grass due to their broken colour pattern.) On the way back to the car I snapped this Darter hanging out in the Molonglo.  For a bird that seems so bla...

It is a funny old season with baby Brown Quail seen running about a couple of days ago and native plants in flower all over the place.  However the weather has finally decided to get down to Winter business with our first frost on 12 May!  This nailed all the dahlias.  However we still have attractive flowers to look at indoors.  Here are two flavours of Xygocactus, a Begonia and something unknown but pretty in blue.

Condor Creek is a small Creek in the Brindabellas to the West of Canberra.  ANPS went for a Wednesday Walk there today and I found a few fungi.  I have even been able to have a crack at identifying some of them. Ramaria sp a coral fungus Calocera sp: a small orange-yellow jelly fungus Oudemansiella radicata - the Rooting Shank- Top surface on the left and underside on the right Finally, two shots of a tiny but unknown (to me)  fungus.  Fungimap have advised it is a species of Mycena

When I arrived in Australia I was taken to an Australian Rules football match within 24 hours of touching down.  I was quite impressed with the game as it was very tough and exciting (even though this first sample was a SANFL game, Glenelg vs Woodville).  The Bays ran out winners by about 100 points with Fred Phyllis kicking 10 goals.  (Obviously it wasn't a Grand Final for Fred to kick like that.  After one (of several) despicable performance in a Final they burnt his boots: unfortunately they let him take them off first.) But I digress. The game has changed a lot since then.  The good old shirt-front has disappeared - apparently mothers were objecting to their Nathans and Trents getting hurt by tactics like that so were sending the poor little dears off to play soccer wheer they wouldn't get hurt.  (Obviously they've never watched any Italian or South American games.)  Many of the kicking styles used in my few games have disappeared, and there is...

As we had a few spare $s recently we decided to acquire some nice furniture.  A friend from our plant-walks had commented that her daughter's husband was well regarded in such matters ".. but he is pretty expensive." So we took ourselves off to the showrooms of Dunstone Designs in beautiful downtown Fyshwick.  This was rather like Aladdin's cave, without 40 militants hiding in the big vases!  From glancing at a Furniture magazine they had around it seems that they have won many prizes for their stuff.  And well deserved too: after seeing their stuff, everything we saw in other shops - regardless of price -  looked bland and boring. Evan and Fenella (the Dunstones) showed us the stuff they had on the floor and talked to us about customised things.  Eventually Evan had to go off back to the workshop (in even more beautiful East Queanbeyan - behind the Motor Registry) to, as he said ".. make some more sawdust.". After a fair bit of measuring and thinkin...

Although the following are probably seen as a bit ho-hum by those in the Northern Hemisphere the Autumn leaves around Canberra are not bad.  I included the one of the Black Swan displaying his curly tail feathers because I thought it was pretty nifty.

This is really a schizophrenic post as it will cover two different (albeit related) things.  I guess I'll have to keep taking the medication! The background is that I have been looking at the Canberra Ornithologists Group grid system for reporting bird sightings.  One of the difficulties of this is that in some cases well-known birding spots are cut into two (or more) chunks of very similar habitat by the arbitrary nature of latitudes and longitudes.  One of these spots is an area to the East of Canberra Airport which I have taken to calling Newline Paddocks as it is paddocks, and close to, but distinct from, Newline Quarry.  I decided to collect data from both parts of the site today to see what sense this split made expecting the answer to be 'none'. On first starting my birding foray I was struck by the number of Dusky Woodswallows still present and took a few images.  The first shows a row of little cuties sitting on a branch: my guess is tht there were...