Spring?

Firstly, many thanks to everyone for your cards and well-wishes. It's very touching and much appreciated.

Is Spring finally here?

The last few days in Sydney have been warm and sunny and we can maybe dare to think that Spring is on the way. Three big huntsman spiders in the side passage over the last couple of weeks suggest that it may indeed be warming up at last.

Crimson Rosellas and a Common Bronzewing taking advantage of the chooks

The rain is forecast to return at the weekend which is rubbish because Kath and Dave fly in tomorrow night for three weeks of holiday. We're all heading to Alice Springs for one of those weeks though and so surely that's guaranteed nice weather. I reckon only the mice can spoil things out in The Centre. There's been a bit of a plague of them in Central Australia recently so a few potential dramas there maybe. We'll see...

Widow-maker

A couple of weeks back, the neighbour's gum tree decided to drop a bough into the back yard. Without any warning and on a perfectly still morning, a perfectly healthy branch decided to detatch itself from the tree and crash into our garden. It doesn't look that impressive in the photo but it was actually a tremendous weight of wood and took a good morning to chop up. By some ridiculous stroke of luck, we got away with only a dented shed roof and just a few scratches on the car. Gum trees just do that from time to time and the resulting holes are what all the wonderful Australian parrots nest in. Just don't camp or park your car under them!

Too close for comfort