The House(s) of Fran_mart

These pictures come from the ANPS Wednesday Walk in Monga National Park at the top of the coastal escarpment. Everyone was most surprised to find a Monga Waratah ( Telopea monganensis ) in flower in March. Everyone was less surprised to find leeches in fair numbers.

The large news up to the 8th of the month is that our grape vines have produced this year! After the work we have put in to weeding (mainly Frances); mulching (Martin), pruning (mainly Rob and Carol Ey); and netting them this is good stuff. They eat very well, although for some reason taste somewhat like feijoas! After a very cool Summer the start of Autumn has seen a nice warm spell. This has really kicked our tomtoes along. We have gone for variety rather than the supermarket junk standard. I can't remember some of the names but the big yellow ones are Jubilee (excellent, all flesh) and the greenish ones are Black Russiians (taste nice but mainly an interesting colour). The other activity has been preparing for the great daffodil planting event. Frances has acquired 650 bulbs of various varieties, which requires about 12 square metres of bed to be dug. I have created some more patches down the drive to extend the Wordsworthiness of last year's effect (see the last bit of ...

Frances has been using the room at the East end of our house as a music and art room pretty much since we moved in. She has often commented how pleasant it is with the sun coming over the Taliesin Hills. Proving that I am only a slow learner (and not totally thick) I have now taken to enjoying the view - as well as her music. The above is a sample of what can be seen. Talking (or blogging) of views, the following images come from an Australian Native Plants Society walk to Mount Aggie which is about 1450m up in the Brindanella Ranges just in NSW on the Western side of the ACT. The bug is an Alpine Katydid and is displaying as a result of having its head squeezed (in a caring manner of course). The next two photos come from a Nature Reserve to the North of Canberra. The reptile concerned is formally known as the Shingle-backed Skink, but informally as the "two-headed turd". You be the judge. I came home from a bird meeting at about 10:15 to find that Frances hasd been enter...

In addition to our other fruit it emerged (when the fruit appeared) that we had a peach tree (see left). On picking some of them (and a pear) there was evidence of marsupials: see toothy image to the right. The apple trees continue to do well, although we don't know what variety this (to the left) is. Note netting around the pear trees in the background. On the right is a view from inside the net - I think this is a Conference pear (or it would have been in the UK when I grew up).

This is effectively the story of our visit to the South Coast of NSW in mid-February 2008. For a change I thought I'd get the explanation of the title out of the way early. The background is that our National Scientific research place likes to get dead birds to add to their collection of skins, skeletons etc. The protocol is that when you find a corpse you freeze it and wrap it and then deliver it to them . We found the pictured Penguin when we were a fair trek from the car but we did have an esky (aka ice-box) in it. However, we were about an hours drive from our accomodation and we suspected the bird would be fairly ripe when we got back. Also, although our host is a birder, we were not sure how she'd feel about waterfowl in the fridge! One of the key elements to the trip was to visit the historic village of Tilba-tilba to check out the dining table situation in the woodworks there. They had a good sample made of red gum but it wasn't quite what we wanted so we asked for...

The title started as a quote from one of the many ear-worm songs in Guys and Dolls in which the narrator asks "What's happening in the Daily News?". But I don't intend to do this on a daily basis (Thank Deity you cry.) However there are a couple of odds and ends worth reporting as a bit of rustic interest. I have commented in another posting about the amount of blackberries we have picked. I think the total is now up to 10kgs in El Rancho Carwoola with a further 3 - 4 kgs despatched to the Upper Swamp (aka the US Embassy) in Weston. I have experimented by adding some extract from some blackberries to the secondary fermentation of a couple of bottles in a brew of Draught Bitter which I bottled today. The idea was to try a lambic approach: possibly by the time it has matured the berries will all have gone so it will be too late to repeat the exercise this season if it is a success. As well as blackberries we have been getting a good crop of mushrooms following some nice...

The underlying story follows the image. One of the characters who provides colour and movement to the Canberra birdwatching scene is Geoffrey Dabb, who is a brilliant photographer and video taker. He also has a good sense of the ridiculous, and after I accurately identified a butterfly on the COG chatline sent me this image.