The House(s) of Fran_mart

 A few more images from our Canberra trip.

 Our morning walk goes through the site of Floriade (and sundry garbage concerts by pop bands).  Unlike the latter appalling events (except the offering by the Oils) thus far Floriade has not led to the entire area being closed off by the goons.  There is still evidence that the Barr Government is aiming for a fence-hire led economic recovery. It was a bit cool as a load of topsoil was delivered.  (That must also be a nice little earner for someone's brother-in-law.) On 22nd we were astonished at the workforce involved.  The ACT must be approaching a negative unemployment rate! A couple more workers and note the instructions about colour.  (Given the ACT Government's predilection for inclusiveness I am surprised that the colours aren't also labelled in languages other than English,) I've filled in a few blanks and returned to traditional values in suggesting how some Alyssum could be used.  (The origin of this idea came about on a run through the area ...

 The first image is recording a mistake by me.  When I saw lights in the trees in Glebe Park I assumed that as part of the "improvement" of the Park fairy lights had been installed in random trees. On looking closely, after Frances had made a comment, I realised it was simply the street lights shining down on dead leaves in the trees!  So I then took a look at the true fairy lights in City Walk.  Rather insipid at this early time of day. My birding outing was to Upper Stranger Pond.  I had been aware of this water body from other's eBird activities but never visited it.  As it is just across the road from Isabella Pond (visited several times) that is surprising.  It is also upstream from Stranger Pond: again visited several times. The trip did not begin well with the tyre pressure warning going off in the Jetta (as it had on the drive up.  So into a parking area and change the tyre.  This revealed a screw having inserted itself into the tyre:...

This starts off in town, with some scenes of the bream fishing competition as seen from our deck.  This was about 0630. A clearer shot about 0650.   Quite a few of the boats had turned their lights off by this point.  By the time the boats actually started  the weather had got really murky.  With that  and the strong wind it would be most unpleasant out on the lakes.  At a rough count there were about 40 boats in the competition:  a slight drop on previous years, but given the chaos that is COVID, not bad. The weather continued to be ordinary as we drove up to Canberra.  I wrote on the weather forum: Basically intermittent light rain from Mallacoota to Cooma. Lots of water lying around in the paddocks once we got out of the plantations South of Bombala, all the way to Cooma (about 100km) . Less water around from Cooma to Canberra. We'd had our usual bet on the temperature at Nimmitabel as we left 13C at 'coota. I went for 7 and Frances f...

 This morning I took myself to the back of the WWTP for an exercise walk on which I would note the birds I saw.  To give added aerobic benefit I schlepped a couple of kgs of scope and tripod.  Initially I thought there were few fowl around, but it turned out they were all on the rocky banks hiding from the wind.   I was particularly pleased to see a pair of Musk Ducks on the Big Pond. A Jacky Winter - one of at least 8 in the area - posed nicely. The total list of species seen is https://ebird.org/australia/checklist/S89171254. In the afternoon we  went for another walk on the beach at Bastion Point. At the foot of the steps Frances noticed a White-fronted Chat perched on a clump of washed up seaweed.  As we peered at the weed and sand we realised there were Chats everywhere. The highest count we got to here was 33, which is an exceptionally large flock for this species.  As we got to the mouth - which was very wide - there were another 6. Returni...

 The following are my photos of the eclipse on 26 May 2021.  All hand held so a bit fuzzy. The first image is at 20:20hrs and the last camera one is 21:08.  Roughly 5  minutes between these images. As the event proceeded other celestial bodies became visible. I also took a couple of shots with my phone, just to see what it could do.  Not much was the answer! The moon seemed to be giving some sort of message in this one!

 In English "Indiana Butterfield and the City of Mysterious Road Signs".   An index page for our trip to Melbourne.   Day 1 to MacLeod Morass and Sale. Day 2 Sale Common and into Melbourne Day 3 Chaos and confusion on Melbourne's parking lots (formerly known as roads). Day 4: Melbourne Zoo Day 5 Botanic Gardens Day 6 Fitzroy and St Kilda Day 7 Home again.