The House(s) of Fran_mart

We made a short visit to Canberra this time.  I have just realised that in fact its only 3 full days, plus parts of two others!  However we did what was needed. For the last few months (since about May I think) there has been activity around the site of Floriade as the garden beds are sort of rebuilt.  I realise that whatever happened there would need to be some work done each year but the amount required to rebuild from scratch is an enormous waste of resources.  Until this visit it has just made the area of Commonwealth Park look messy.  Now however they are into serious erection of concentration camp fencing.  The red line in the map below shows the approximate position of the barricades. The main problem with the way they have done this is that it completely blocks access to the footbridge over Parkes Way except for the path past the Archbishops Palace (see green line).  So we have had to give up our morning walks in that area.  I suspect that as well as satisfying the ACT G

It was an interesting choice for how to get to Hall from Bunda St.  The main offering from Google Maps made no allowance for the efforts of the traffic management cartel to screw-up the roads so I ignored that and went via the GDE, which was surprisingly easy as leaving home at 0800 was peak hour (by Canberra standards).  The time estimate of 21 minutes was about right. My usual alternate route is via William Hovell Dr which I rejected as the traffic management cartel have that quarantined at Coppins Crossing Rd. Here is the route we followed for the walk. 23 members and guests gathered on Gladstone St in very windy weather for a stroll round the village.  Good numbers of birds were feeding on the oval: 28 Red-rumped Parrots; 9 Eastern Rosellas; 5 Sulphur-crested Cockatoos (which number was swamped by a flock of approximately 30 which overflew  - noisily).  2 Rainbow Lorikeets were seen in the flowering eucalypt outside the pub - which still had a fair amount of blossom.  Not

Shipwreck Creek that is: they haven't started studying kelp (as far as I know).   A group of 12 members came to Mallacoota on a Field Trip and I joined then on an outing to Shipwreck Creek. One would have to describe the state of the road as far as the Park boundary as "average, going on ordinary".  It obviously hasn't been graded for a fair while and some good quality potholes are developing.  Along the way I saw 6 Swamp Wallabies (one of which had an RHG at diving under my wheels) and 4 Red-necked Wallabies (which displayed more sense than the average redneck). Here is the route we followed the stretch heading SW is the heathland element. Almost as soon as we headed off we encountered Acacia myrtifolia .  This was common, especially through the heath. Some of the plants were less well developed than others. There were very few birds around (apart from a cluster feeding on blossom near the crossing of Shipwreck Creek near the junction with the Centre Tra

After comments on the Mallacoota Weather and Wildlife Facebook page about the wonders on the Betka loop which we hadn't seen yesterday, we took ourselves back there this afternoon with an aim of just doing the clifftop section to see if we could find any extra orchids. We began by finding a lot more mosquito orchids ( Acianthus exsertus ).  We have been looking for these for weeks without success, but after finding some yesterday here were a heap.  All unfortunately fertilised but they still count. Then Frances found the bud of a Pterostylis pedunculata (Maroonhood) with several others, less well developed, nearby. I dived into the scrub seeing what else was around and found this interesting flower.  I am taking a punt on it being Phebalium squamulosum. No punts needed for Kennedia prostrata . A nice Earthstar Geastar sp . And another puffball. Then we came across a nice patch of full developed Pterostylis pedunculata. I tried out the effect of my flash t