The House(s) of Fran_mart

 When we followed the Genoa River Fire trail we noticed a second track peel off to Cape Horn Bay.  On the 27th of January we decided to follow that and see where it ended up.  The intersection is clear in this route (from eBird) The reason for this photograph is to show the regrowth of the Allocasuarina littoralis.   This is a plant of interest to birders as it forms the food source for Glossy Black-Cockatoos.  (The plants have to be about 10 years old to get the appropriately developed cones, so these have got about 7 years to go.) There were a good lot of flowers on some of the trees. Others had cones from last year. This shrub was unusual.  INaturalist has suggested it is Daviesia latifolia , which does match quite well in Flora of Victoria , The Cape Horn Jetty is on the far side of the River, just visible in this image. On occasion the danger ta[e is quite reasonable.  In the logging industry branches such as that marked with the arrow are called ...

This is the start of a series.   After much drama about my denture going walkabout we are back in Canberra. This does not mean my denture is badly fitting in my mouth.  What it means is that Star Track have registered the parcel containing it into their warehouse in Sydney but (when the dental person's person last spoke to them on Thursday) they had no idea where it is therein.  We hope they have found it and sent it on.  A fitting is scheduled for today (Monday 13 December). The start of the drive up was a tad fraught as a bunch of pelicans under contract to Rural Roads Victoria (I think) sprayed tar on a stretch of new road surface near Genoa.  This led to quite a few people getting their  tyres - and a few other bits of their car - coated with bitumen.  Claims against the pelicans and RRV are in progress.  In over-fairness, RRV got another crew out within a few hours and put a heavy layer of stone on the road so the tar wasn't an issue....

This post covers our visit to 'Lakes' on 2-3 August 2021.  This kept us within Victoria so road works were to be expected. That lot were OK as there was actually work going on.  A later section, of about 3km of "traffic hazard" marked down to 40 or 60 kph, was not acceptable and ignored by everyone.  Obviously Rural Roads Victoria have not absorbed the meaning of one of Aesop's Fables . A 3 minute delay happened at Cann River where some Police checked that we were not breaching the Health Reguations.  This was no surprising and a good idea as one road block covered both Princes and Monaro Highways.  Our situation was non-standard but the officer worked it out quickly and was very pleasant and sensible.   Down the road a bit (just before Nowa Nowa) an unusual looking vehicle tagged on behind.  I couldn't initially work out if it was a Police car or not but rigorously obeyed all speed limits.  Eventually I was able to become certain it was....

 On the Easter Monday, after I had spent some time dealing with Apple updating issues we went for a walk in the ANBG, primarily bird focused.  There were very few from that Order in evidence but Frances had read the latest version of Fronds (the Friends magazine) which gave mention to the new Banksia garden.  I had been a bit sceptical about the value of that, but what id there is brilliant and as the plants grow will become more so. Here are some images of the flowers I liked best. Banksia prionotes (distant) Banksia prionotes (close) Banksia baxteri was the species covered in Fronds, in included an article about the botanist and plant collector William Baxter after whom it was named..  A somewhat dodgy (or perhaps unlucky) character in terms of finances but apparently an excellent collector. A low growing specimen of B. spinulosa "Birthday Candles".   Presumably one of those developed for 'commercialisation'.  I do hope the gardens are on a nice li...