A rural miscellany

I was expecting to do a post about a visit to the National Arboretum but unfortunately the weather was not propitious.  When we took Tammie for her exercise it was still pretty foggy when we returned so I thought we'd wait until that lifted, and hopefully get in a stroll before the promised rain arrived.

Here is the 128km radar image at about 10:30 our time (I was stirred to look at it by a few 'tings' on the roof  which sounded rather like raindrops).

The recent radar seminar didn't mention one innovation I have discovered, which is the 64km screen: perhaps it has been there all along?  We are right on the edge of the straight N-S line.

The doppler screen suggests the is a fairly brisk NW wind driving the system towards us.

So the walk was cancelled.

Before that I had had to deal with a small issue with some of Frances' camelias.  They were getting munched

but we weren't sure which phylum was responsible (the principle suspects being Arthropda or Chordata).  She then reported that one of the pots had been knocked over, so either we had got some Really Big Aphids or it was Chordata.  I decided the most likely species was a Brush-tailed Possum which we have recorded in the past.  Thus the humane trap was baited with apple and set.

Next morning and we had no victim.

Then we had a visitor.

Thus the possum accusation was unfounded and the trap was unlikely to be effective.  (If by chance a swampie did get stuck in the trap I would not look forward to the bloodbath - and I suspect the blood would mainly be mine - which would ensue in trying to extract it.)   So the trap will be closed and the camellias shifted to a 'roo-proof area.  This episode did cause me to recall, for the second time this week, that swampies are unusual for kangaroos in that they browse bushes rather than graze grass,

My next task was to relocate some yellow flag irises - which do not seem to be on the marsupial diet sheet -from a small overgrown former fishpond

to our new wetland created (deliberately) during our recent driveway upgrade.

The red arrow marks some 'roo tracks .  Note also the way the embankment is holding some water as hoped!