The House(s) of Fran_mart

I will do the usual weather report a tad later in the week but thought that what has been going on for the last couple of days worth mentioning. We haven't had anything like that experienced in South Australia but basically its just been raining steadily, apart from a brief spell of dry on the afternoon of 29 September. It seemed to rain most of the night (but only a few millimetres.  Whiskers Creek is running hard, and has done since I took this photo yesterday afternoon. The Molonglo went over Briars Sharrow Rd last evening and now has  about 0.5m of water over the road. The current situation is shown in this radar image from 0705; Our place is at the red X.  This situation has been effectively stationary since I got up about 0500 and is showing no signs of moving.  At 0900 it was still in the same place but the rainfall had greatly reduced. In a Facebook conversation another local commented that "The sponge is full."  I think this is what he was...

Before getting to the many delights of North Mulligans Flat here are a couple of updateish photographs from our block. I finally managed to find a few flowers of Hardenbergia violacea .  Perhaps this wet year will get it back to its former lurid presence? I have mentioned that the Glossodia major is beginning to flower.  Today, for the first time this season, I noticed a lot of buds appearing as well as an increase in the number of open flowers. The rather phallic looking object is a bud - the camera focussed on the flower behind it. So off we went to Mullies, where we had been told of many Diuris chryseopsis .  They will come in a few lines but first I will note the area was quite damp.  This dam seemed quite full. So did this one until I noticed the tide line and realised it was still about 2.5m below full.  How much rain does it take to fill it? Here is an impressionistic snap of a clump of the D. chyseopsis (aka Golden Moth orchid). ...

Although Spring doesn't start for another few hours from the time of  starting typing some of the insects around Carwoola are already firing up. (They may have started firing but then went missing for quite some time: this draft has been hanging around for nearly four weeks.  So I thought I would add a sighting from today (26 September) and publish it.) The first observation was in fact a few days ago when I saw an Australian Painted Lady butterfly taking advantage of a sunny day.  I'd suggest this was a contender for whatever Lepidoptera have as the equivalent of the Darwin Awards as the next night was -4 o C. The second was a tad strange as I had not noticed such an event before.  At about 2100hrs on 30 August Frances became aware of tapping on the windows.  It wasn't Greta Garbo but a bunch (at least 10 specimens) of insects!  I think they were Icheumenon wasps.  What they were doing out at night I have no idea. Fortunately I asked Roger Farr...

The Veterans Athletic Club held a monthly handicap at Bruce Ridge Nature Park (I'll come back to that later) on 25 September and I was duty photographer.   There was quite a bit of interesting stuff, both to do with the venue and the event. While warming up (ie wandering around waiting for the event to start) I spotted quite a few attractive flowers. Petalochilus fuscatus   Acacia genistifolia   Dillwynnia sp.   Glycine clandestina  I "ran" the short course and was surprised to find that the turn point was unattended.  (It emerged the marshal had gone a bit further up the track to deal with the Long Course turn.)  It looked as though the wind had blown a few trees across the track.  Then I looked at the stump. Either there has been an outbreak of big-toothed beavers or Canberra Nature Park staff have been clearing away trees that offend lawyers. The club has been sending around messages about no dogs on the course. ...