Cockatoos

It's been a bit hairy up the hill over the past week or so with the bushfires but hopefully things are now being brought under some sort of control as the weather cools for a few days. Although the fires didn't get too close to the in-laws' place this time, we drove up there last weekend through the smoke to pick up a few photo albums and other important items and move them to the relative safety of the city. 

Great view from the living room up the hill!

I'm not sure what the mushrooms are doing but something's happened in the box over the first week.

T = 1 week

Mushrooms

Well here we go! It's been a (strange) dream of mine for as long as I can remember to grow my own mushrooms and now it could finally be happening. I just bought a kit from Bunnings which simply consisted of a bag of mouldy straw and some soil in a cardboard box. They reckon we'll be producing mushrooms in a matter of 3 weeks or so but I'm thinking this one could go either way. We have to weigh up the two opposing factors that this is a Bunnings kit after all and so might just do nothing and, even if it does, the resulting produce may prove inedible. On the other hand, my house has a proven track record for growing fungus. Watch this space...! 

T = 0
 

Hot and loud

It appears that we're going to be in for a hot dry summer this year with things warming up already. The recent hot weather has led to an explosion of cicadas up the hill at the In-laws' and it's so loud that you can't really go outside during the day without ear protection. The little critters turn it on when the temperature reaches about 21C and then go all day until it cools down again. Deafening!

Greengrocer cicada (Cyclochila australasiae)

The warm weather may also be the reason for three sightings of Oriental Plover in NSW over the last couple of weeks. These migratory waders usually only get as far south as the much warmer northern inland. I took advantage of the newly adopted daylight savings time after work the other day and managed to get myself down to Long Reef golf course before the sun went down. As well as some tremendous breaching whale action off the coast, I managed to easily locate the pair of Oriental Plovers #443 scurrying around in the semi-rough. It's been ages since my last tick so nice to get the list (slowly) moving again. And nice to see the whales returning south again after their winter break.

Oriental Plover

 Sunset at Long Reef