Drinking Problem

Eventually someone is going to notice that the composition and background of every water bird photo on this blog is identical.  That's because I don't actually spend any time stalking the subjects, I just sit on the back steps with my cup of coffee watching the world go by, and by it does indeed go.

Often just moving enough to raise my camera to my eye is enough to scare them away, which is ok, because mostly I don't have my camera beside me.   It's really only in the past few weeks that I've even given a thought to not taking the diversity of birdlife that we see here for granted!

This little bloke is, I am fairly certain, a young Striated Heron with his adult grey plumage just starting to appear on his back and shoulders.   We were brothers for a time, he and I.  He with his tasty salt water refreshment, and me dribbling my coffee with similar aplomb.

Social Scorecard 2010:
Day No: 21
Nights at Home: 18
Days Without Visitors: 13

Creatures of Habit

From the day we poured shell of the pond it had water in it.  Well it would have, we did all our building work in the wettest season on record, but that's another story.  

From the moment it had water in it we have been visited by the magpie family, and for at least seven years they've continued with what can only be described as a ritual. Each year they bring their latest family member to join them.

They don't fly in.  Presumably out of respect for ourselves, they walk.

Like cowboys checking in their guns at the door to the saloon, they land near our letterbox and walk the length of the driveway and then some more until they arrive at the pond near the front door.   There's a shallow bit that they bathe in, one watching the other, each warbling the whole time, then they'll hop onto one of the lower branches of the frangipani to clean their beaks, before perhaps popping back in for a good splash and another chat.

When it's all done, they'll walk back down the driveway to the letterbox, then take off till the next time.

I wonder if they are going to miss us.

Social Scorecard 2010:
Day No: 20
Nights at Home: 17
Days Without Visitors: 12

Roger's Pontoon

Drinking a cup of coffee this morning, sitting on the step and staring up river past Roger's pontoon, my lens is not long enough to focus on the Heron roosting in the mangroves beyond.  Well I suppose it's getting close to a kilometre away so I can excuse that.

I've got other things to focus on now anyway.  They've appointed their valuer, now we have to do the same.

And get a lawyer.

The bunfight is about to begin, but at this stage at least there is an extraordinary degree of courtesy being extended.  If feels like the sort of sympathy one gives to the relatives of the deceased at the funeral of someone one barely knew.

Social Scorecard 2010:
Day No: 19
Nights at Home: 16
Days Without Visitors: 10

Well you have to laugh....

 Poking around his backyard with Mr Three this morning, I did get a giggle to see the working boys' clothes all hung out there, nice and clean, ready for another day's yakka.

Social Scorecard 2010:
Day No: 18
Nights at home: 15
Days by ourselves: 10

At Dobbos

A night at the Dobbos among the trees in the Gold Coast Hinterland is a guarantee of a good time, but when there are a dozen or so others who spend a bit of time on their boats in France, it almost becomes a club.  Come to think of it, it IS a club of sorts.

It's amazing that so many people from such a small geographic area can have discovered each other, it makes us all wonder how many others are out there that we are yet to find.

Ian, the second washer from the right on the bottom doesn't line up with the others.

Social Scorecard 2010:
Day No: 17
Nights at Home: 15
Days Without Visitors: 10

Grass Never Sleeps

Two weeks into the year and our first night away from home, that has to be some sort of record.  As my eyes started to open and one of them peered out of our room at Ab and Matt's place this morning, Matt had already been at work for a couple of hours, no doubt dreaming of coming home and getting stuck into the never ending list of chores.

I don't think I'd like to swap places with him, but I'm happy in the knowledge that I've done my time, as he should be in the knowledge that our grass was once perpetually in need of a mow as well.

I do recall that I've already expressed my view on mowing on these very pages, so won't repeat myself, other than to say that in the very probable event that the next home of the biting midge is not beside a quiet river somewhere, there is very little chance of any deliberately cultivated grass finding it's way into our lives!




Social Scorecard 2010:
Day No: 16
Nights at Home: 15
Days Without Company: 10

One I prepared earlier

I'm not sure what to do today, I left for the Big Smoke early, but technically I still woke up at home, and since I'm making up this year's rules as I go along, I thought a pic from home was appropriate.   We'll have the new lotus flower today and we won't be home to see it, but I'm sure it will be just as wonderful as the last one was.    This picture about half way through the second day, after that, well you saw the results a few days ago.

Social Scorecard 2010:
Day No: 15
Nights at Home: 15
Days Without Visitors: 10