The House(s) of Fran_mart

So today ANPS went in search of Autumn orchids in Tallaganda State Forest.  We found a few (see below) and also, as expected, a few leeches.  Fortunately for most of the party they (nearly) all ended up with one member!   I think her driver was joking when he said she'd have to travel back on the pack rack. Here is a leech on the hunt, after being dislodged from its intended prey! This one is obviously looking for a weak point in the nylon weave.  If the photo is blurry its because I was being pressured to "Finish and knock the rotten thing off."  A few flowering plants beginning with Helichrysum rutidolepis   Brachyscome aculeata  Choretrum pauciflorum  Daviesia ulicifolia  Goodenia ovata Persoonia linearis berries  Eustrephus latifolius  Its orchid time!  Those of us on the ACT Orchid mailing list were aware that another member of that list had found three species in the vicinity of Lowden Leech Farm on the previous weekend.  We found one o

Anyone who was in Adelaide in the 1970s will be having a good nudge nudge at that title.  However the beach is really nice even though it is the haunt (in Summer ) of naked people.  (As an aside one of the 'van park staff was talking to some other guests and commented that the sights on the beach in Summer were not at all exciting.)  In April it is the haunt of seniors, many of them exercising their dogs, and thus a far more attractive place. Getting to the beach was a walk of about 1km along roads, from our van.  The second half of this went past a rather daggy looking paddock with many formed ridges in it, as though it was irrigated, although a water sources wasn't evident.  The paddock got interesting towards the end as some green parrots appeared.  Thanks to Frances eye for detail we have subsequently identified these as Elegant Parrots: my first lifer for 2014.    The locale is indicated by the red lines in this mudmap: Here are the birds: The view from the top of