The House(s) of Fran_mart

Almost exactly 11 years ago I published this post . This afternoon I sent a less pleasurable email to family members. She has been going downhill for most of the last year and the process has been accelerating recently.  She's stopped getting excited about us returning when we left her, and tolerating (most days) going for a walk rather than leaping up and down demanding to go.  She also seemed confused about where she was - stand looking at a blank wall, not know where doors were etc.  Over the last few days she also seemed to lose bladder and bowel control.  Her quality of life was marginal at best. So we decided that it was time to put her out of her misery which we did with the aid a very caring vet this afternoon. She gave us 11 good years and I hope we did the same for her.

There is rarely a dull moment when one owns a terrier.  Earlier this year - in the heat of Summer Tammy really seemed to be going downhill: not keen on walking and seemed to have completely lost her zip. After a visit to the vet - who spotted she had a kneecap that was dislocating a bit more easily than might be expected - we gave her a course of anti-inflammatories and started giving her a sardine a day for the nutritional goodies.  It has also got a fair bit cooler.  Putting all of those together she had reclaimed her zip and was dancing to got out in the mornings (and not just because she needed to park a coil).  This made our morning walks much more pleasant. So on Sunday Frances noticed that she seemed to have had trouble getting down some steps and was limping a bit.  We were very careful with her through the day.  Of course that night as she went out for her final toilet stop a wombat was on her lawn.  The 5 steps down to the lawn were tak...

As Frances was going for a day-long bird drawing class today I thought I'd have a crack at finding a few interesting birds around the Northern parts of the ACT.  A constraint was planning to take the small dog so canophobic areas such as Canberra Nature Park and Namadgi were not possible,  Here is the plan: Start at M16 Artspace in Griffith. Yerrabi Pond Amaroo - target bird is Red-capped Robin; Ibis St, Nicholls - check the Eastern side of Gungahlin Pond; Urriara Woodland - Pied Butcherbird East West Rd, Stromlo - Hooded Robin Urriara East Reserve - back up for Pied Butcherbird Edgeworth Pond Coombs - White-fronted Chat, Fairy Martin All up the route is, according to Google ,aps, 109km.  Can I get 100 species?  I would do it on my bike but too difficult to schlep the telescope (and the small dog). As I started off there was a very good collection of lenticular clouds over the airport.  Not the best photo but I was parked on the hard shoulder of th...

May you not live in interesting times! I make that statement having had an interesting 48 hours with the small dog. We did an 8km walk in Queanbeyan with her on Tuesday 18 July and she was in fine form. On returning home she was put on the lead to put tooth to bone which concluded with her yelping very loudly. This is most unusual for her and when I went to investigate she was caught up in some vegetation. On untangling her she gagged and vomited up a lot of slimy foam. This was repeated s everal times over the next couple of hours. She then seemed to come good until evening when she became very unsettled and appeared to be looking for a dark corner to crawl into.  A definite worry.  The unsettled behavior continued through the night and we didn't get much sleep.   The process of settling her down was to cuddle her and stay very still oneself.   By morning she seemed to be getting very unresponsive.  As soon as our vet (John Montgomery of Sonza ) open...

The day began well with the return of Tawny Frogmouths. I initially thought this was Dad and the 2 chicks,  However on Boxing Day they adopted a slightly different position which led me to conclude it was both adults and a single chick.   Given that one of the chicks was a complete Gumby in leaving the nest, it is not surprising it had trouble dealing with a continuing existence .  While not resiling from the Gumby call, while collecting the washing today I found all 4 of them.  Mum was perched on another branch (actually a bit of fallen timber) somewhat lower down and I hadn't spotted her in the first check!  Really good news. Our first engagement for the day was visiting Ingrid, Alex and Arabella.  Arabella is very keen on drawing things so we had taken along lotsa equipment for her.  I must buy some equity in a wrapping paper manufacturer!  I can't remember what Frances was being painted as ...  .. but know I was a leopard...

I have been a bit busy on things other than blogging the last few days so here are a few bits and pieces from today.  The starting point was probably going  outside to check on the Cyanicula caerulens situation which resolved in the negative (it is still a few days early). On the way to discover this, I caught up with a few flowers around the garden I missed earlier in the week.  Beginning with some Hellebores growing beside the deck.  Then a mixed bunch of snowdrops and jonquils.  Some white jonquils. Frances picked a bunch of these for in the house but their perfume was so strong they got exported outside again! Heading up the block I noticed quite a large bush of Acacia gunnii .  This is an understated wattle in comparison with most of the others around here. Of the mauve beans around the block I have had trouble finding much Hardenbergia for the last few years.  No idea what has happened to it.  The common one today was Glycin...

After a stroll to say hello to Arabella, Tammy and I dropped Frances off at a drawing class and headed to vague area of Ginniderra Creek.  I began at Giralang Ponds. The big hope here was Nankeen Night-heron which roost in the Casuarinas.  Actually that should be "Sometimes roost in the Casuarinas.": and as you might infer today was not one of those times.  In the general region of Herons etc I soon spotted 3 Australian White Ibis (not common recently) and a pair of White-faced Herons on a power line. I then spotted another two mucking around in the reeds.  I'd guess a family group.  A Lathams Snipe then sqwarked its way off a mud bank.  All told I ended up with 25 species for the site. I then shifted a few '00m to McKellar Pond where in the past Little Bittern and Australasian Bittern have been sighted.  Not today they weren't.  The best bird - which has turned out to be Bird of the Day - here was Olive-backed Oriole.  Surely that is ...

Happy New Year ! May you all achieve this level of relaxation throughout the year! I will add a plug in here for " Birdland " a collection of incredible photographs of birds by Leila Jeffreys.  Not only are the photos brilliant but the text is extremely interesting, both the introduction by Sarah Engledow  (discussing the images as portraits) and the notes about each bird by the artist. This blog I have added a little to the fiction review covering a second book by Betty Webb. More lily pictures have been took. Since my post in November I have been untroubled by any contact with Australia Post.  They have been contacted again.  The last message was sent to the wrong area for resolution!  An expedited solution has been requested.  There might be another post on this one! The lemur question from our last visit to the zoo has been solved. Sometimes the dog is more active: She bailed out before the pusher started to move.

We were invited to spend Christmas evening with friends in Weston.  They have a dog, by the name of Boson, as Mr Higgs theory was proved just before he was acquired. Before he was acquired, as a rescue dog, they were told was (mainly) whippet.  He has turned out a bit bigger than that and from DNA analysis appears to be a mixture of  Kelpie, Greyhound, Mastiff, Staffie, Boxer and about 25%??   He is about 22kgs which makes him loom a little over Tammy (who weighs in at about 3.5Kgs and thus outdoes the real Higgs boson which tips something or another at CERN at 2.22875E - 25 Kgs). They are both aware that cooking is being done in the kitchen and are ever hopeful.  Their hopes were rewarded eventually with some turkey skin which was very well, and speedily, dealt with.  Some sleeping was then in order.  Surprisingly in this snap they are both in the correct beds. The normal situation is them on the other's bed.  Boson somehow manages to fo...