Happy New Year and an Answer

Well this week no one was even close to guessing what this image was.It really was droplets of water cascading off our excited pup Lilli on Christmas day.Many of the places we go on our weekends are National Parks so dogs are banned. But for our Xmas BBQ last Sunday we went to a spot on the Yarra River where dogs are welcome. Our Girls and Lilli had a great time in the water.

A ball, water and getting to run around - a mix that is pretty close to heaven for a Labrador!

You will have to forgive me but this rather silly story has just popped into my head while I look at these photos.

"I can't see my ball. Can you?'"No mate, I can't""Lu, I've lost my ball, can you see it?""We can't see it either""Found it!""Now back into the water."Lilli did actually lose two balls on the day.
Lucky we travel with spares.
As to the Kookaburras, they were busy hunting for food for their young on the ground along the river.

Three Things

First, those of you who guessed “feathers” hit the nail on the head.
Yesterdays, image was cropped from this piccie of a Laughing Kookaburra, (Dacelo novaeguineae). I caught photographed this fellow last time I visited my Mum.
These raven sized birds are common on the east coast of Oz. Kookaburras are the largest kingfishers in the world. Unlike most kingfisher species they hunt small animals on the land, including mice and similar-sized small mammals, large insects, lizards, small birds and nestlings, and most famously, snakes.
That reminds me of a funny thing I saw once. (Maybe a tale for another time).

Second, one of my piccies is featuring on Marcy’s MaineWords blog at the moment. Apparently the piccie has inspired her latest WIP! What a lovely thought that one of my piccies has inspired someone else’s writing.

Finally because I want to, two of my recentish piccies.

A mountain stream near Marysville.And Deb and I went to the National Gallery of Victoria last Saturday. I was inspired to practice my own version of art there.

Home Safe

A quick one tonight.

I got home safe from Mum’s house late on Tuesday night.
I had a lovely time but all good things come to an end.

Mum lives 1300 km (800 miles) away so I don’t get to see her nearly as often as I would like. It was quite heart wrenching to come away. She is still fit and healthy but at 82 years of age I am painfully aware that she won’t be around forever.

Mind you having said that she comes from a long lived line on her mother’s side so I hope she will be around for a good while yet!

That’ll do me for tonight except I have as usual come home with a pile of piccies. I will share just two tonight.

A pair of fire-tail finches (Neochmia temporalis) also known as red-browed finches. These native finches are about the size of a sparrow. They form pair bonds and these two seemed very cozy so I guess they are mates.

A common or laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) these guys are common across eastern Oz. They are a giant kingfisher (about 45 cm long) their main prey is reptiles such as lizards and snakes. They swoop down from their perch and carry their prey back into a tree. They dispatch a snake by battering its head repeatedly against a branch before swallowing them whole!

Cockies, and Parrots and Lories Galore.

Now I promised absolutely ages ago that I would post my Cocky piccies (I told you Aussies like to finish every second word with a “ie” or “y” didn’t I?).

Well first I had the great internet rationing debacle. Then I had a couple of late meetings at work. Then when I got home last night my computer just wouldn’t boot up properly.
Four hours later I got it working but by then it was my bed time so no post.

So I am very sorry but the cockies went on the back burner (poor things, it must have been uncomfortably hot).
Now finally I will post as I promised except I have just one more thing to say.

Several bloggers have passed awards to me in recent weeks. I have to hang my head in shame and say I just haven’t had time to pass them on, but will try to do the right thing in the next couple of weeks.

Now for the birds.

On that lovely day when we visited the Maroondah Reservoir I caught some birds with my camera.

I’ll just slip this Kookaburra in. No he/she is not a parrot (Kookaburras are kingfishers) and I have promised parrots. But what the heck?The kookaburra looks a bit shorter than in real life but I was standing almost directly below a high lamp post to get this shot, but his shot gives a reasonable idea of their look.

Now finally we come to the parrots.

There were a flock of gloriously sweet sulphur crested cockatoos picking up seeds from the grass.These guys are a popular pet/cage bird right around the world but they are native to Oz.

In the Maroondah Reservoir park they are very used to people so I was able to get close enough to get some lovely shots.

This cocky sat and watched me for a bit before having a casual scratch.These two were very snugglish, I guess they may be a mated pair.As a by the way I should say that a “Cocky” is not only a bird it is also an Aussie slang term for a farmer. So a “cow cocky” here is pretty much the same thing as a “rancher” in the USA.

This fellow fluffed up his feathers which gave me a fantastic opportunity to catch some wonderful definition of his feathers.The cockies’ amazingly powerful beaks can tear chunks out of dry timber boards.Yet with their beak and thumb-like tongue they can delicately pick up or manipulate small objects such as seeds.Hanging back from the cockies was this king parrotI love the contrast between the glossy green and scarlet on these guys.

Also in the background of the king parrot shot, and unusually shy, were some rainbow lorikeets.

I’ve included this shot to remind people of just why they are called “rainbow” lorikeets.

The Writing Game (A Treat)

I have previously mentioned “A Life Twice Tasted” the blog of British Author Wendy Robertson. Wendy’s blog is one of my favourites, she posts thoughtful pieces about her writing, her life and dare I say, the occasional ramble.

Anyway, back in April Wendy ventured into a new field – radio broadcasting. Wendy is hosting a monthly program on Bishop FM, a community radio station not all that far from where she lives in County Durham in the UK.

The topic of Wendy’s program? As you might guess – books and writing.

Now, I live half way around the world from County Durham, so listening to the broadcast was of course impossible. That is where modern technology comes in, a podcast of the first program was posted within a few days of the episode going to air.

I listened to the first episode, ‘Starting Points in Writing’. It was lovely to hear Wendy’s voice and the material was very interesting. A month later and I waited impatiently for the second episode. Alas, Bishop FM is a small operation mainly staffed by volunteers and they ran into some technical problems – no podcast was forthcoming :-(

Now though, everything is rosy; three more episodes have recently been posted:

Episode 2 – Crime writing,
Episode 3 – Writing for Children, and
Episode 4 – Storytellers and writing groups

As you can see the topics are varied enough to interest writers (and readers) of many genres.
I have immensely enjoyed the episodes I have heard. I am particularly looking forward to an upcoming episode where Wendy will talk to another blogger friend of mine Kathleen Jones.

For those of you who are interested the site for the podcasts is: http://blogs.bishopfm.com/thewritinggame/

Check it out, I think you will enjoy it!


Now because I find it almost impossible to post without including a piccie or two:

Abandoned railway trestle bridge, Stony Creek Victoria.
A Kookaburra.
This guy has very ruffled feathers because it was really windy as I took this shot.
He/she may look quite familiar to non Aussies. Kookaburras are in fact the largest Kingfisher species in the world.
Rather than diving for fish, they perch on trees in the bush and swoop down on lizards and snakes. Some would argue that they do us a favour, but I have a soft spot for reptiles.