city bingo: mailboxes and snail mail

I may have gone on about tiny mailboxes too much - no explanation (at least not based on land, culture, history etc.) Does give the snails some extra roughage.

by gum!

What for example, can you say, when a typical tree had bark like this; bark that folds and peels like the pages of a crumpled, elderly and unkempt book?

possum

I did go arhh when I noticed this possum which appears to live in the garage. I know I should think of them as equivalent to squirrels (which of course make many people go arhh but are in fact vermin who repeatedly and infuriatingly dig up my balcony veg patch by shinning up digital cables to get to the 3^rd floor)

But just look at those huge, sad eyes and those cute, ridiculous ears.

veg patch

With the new tenants next door, I have been taken off gardening duties – there are now agents who will get someone to mow the grass and do the weeding. Not sure if this is a sadness or a relief. I have not adapted well beyond the British type of gardening that mainly requires the gentle coaxing of plants into life and production.  I am not good at the hack and burn, the fiercely contested competition for space between human and vegetation, usually involving a baking sun, enormous and potentially dangerous insects, much thorny stuff, and things that grow so quickly you can almost see it happen.

going to rotto

Another must-do - although not cheap - is a visit to Rottnest Island (or Rotto).  You get there by boat from Perth, Freemantle or the Hillarys, to a place almost without cars that is mainly a nature reserve with large shallow salt lakes in its centre and a whole series of beautiful bays around its periphery. It has a holiday camp feel, with groupings of near identical huts - left over from its penal colony and military days? - luggage transported by electric trucks, and tourists walking or cycling by.

It also has quokkas, a small marsupial not found in many places - hence its European name, since early Dutch travellers mistook them for rats. Despite the ferry there being packed, I rode off on my bicycle and later had the salt lakes and their bird life all to myself.

pretentious, moi?

Would recommend a walk through Kings Park in Perth to anyone. Mainly tailored bushland but beautiful all the same. Having negotiated the dense thicket of joggers who use the steps of Jacob's Ladder as part of their weekend workout, I (of course) had to have breakfast before my walk. Boiled eggs and soldiers in a wooden box, with the eggs contained in part of a cardboard egg carton.

I do think Australian city breakfasts are the best in the world, but sometimes just a tiny bit up themselves.

danger: wildlife

I may have gone on before about the sheer fecundity of the flora and fauna here (unlike Britain where in comparison everything has to be coaxed from the ground and nursemaided into adulthood; and where the animal and insect life is almost totally benign).

Everything here is bigger, brighter, glossier, more dangerous (I won't even get onto sharks or crocs). Ordinary butterflies are three times the size, spiders are terrifying large - although in this case the dangerous ones tend to be at the boring end* - and birds are just more full on all around. This sign warns of the reality that, when it has young (luckily a time of year we are now past) it will most certainly attack you, even peck holes in you. Particularly, it seems, if you are on a bicycle.  


* trigger alert: someone thought it was amusing to make the spider illustrations on this website jump about unexpectedly. 

mobbed

Had given up my habit of watching the sun go down whilst eating fish, chips and salad on Coogee beach following gym sessions on Thursdays after being mobbed - and I mean seriously attacked - by seagulls on every occasion. (The photo here is of only one seagull because I was in the process of a forced leaving, with one hand on my food, one hand trying to frighten away the feathery hordes, and one around my camera...)

But it was such a beautiful evening tonight that I tried again. And although there was some keen interest from a couple of inquisitive gulls, the only other birdlife around was a bunch of small noisy miners - for yes that is their name - being given flying practice by their parents.


Note: As another blog notes, it is very easy to get noisy miners and indian mynas mixed up; so here is how to tell the difference.  

about devils

This picture is for A, who like me, first heard about Tazmania as a child through the Looney Tunes cartoon character of Tazmanian Devil. If I knew where the country was, I think it was a while longer before I knew devils were real, and even longer to be sure how big they are (small dog) and what their actual rather than cartoon characteristics were. However, as with A, the devil is the first thing I think of when anybody mentions Tassie.

And now the devils are at risk, their numbers seriously depleted by devil facial tumour disease. Despite the sign I did not see one (perhaps because they are nocturnal) although I did see a wallaby –shaped thing, which could have been, I learn from the parks and wildlifeservice, a potoroo, pademelon or bettong.

following the pipeline

After a day underground, I had a fabulous 3hour walk from Fern Tree down the side of Mt. Wellington, all the way back to the waterfront. I had originally planned to take a tourist bus up to the summit, but was stymied by a huge group off a cruise liner, so got the local bus half-way up instead. Lucky really as I took what was called the easy bushwalk from Fern Tree - the pipeline track - since I was stupidly wearing flip-flops, and it still involved a steep and dangerously uneven incline at Gentle Annie’s Falls (ha, not gentle at all!).

The track follows the original construction of Hobart water supply from the 1860s and its various additions from stone to metal to concrete pipes; the sound of underground water follows you most of the way down to the waterworks reservoir; and the views are fantastic.

christmas time

Finally beginning to feel a bit Christmassy. Have been out buying presents and decorations; was given a freebie sign saying 'let it snow' in silver glitter which is now hanging on my front door mosquito screen - hilarious! Have found this plant - kangaroo paw - as a suitably appropriate floral arrangement. Better than a poinsettia or a Christmas tree, both of which are of course also available everywhere.

true or false

And whilst I am on the birds - is this notice a sign of typical Aussie humour ("doesn't have a name but may respond to James") or a real cry for help?

PS: Australian magpies are yet another of those slightly over-the-top local species; they are renowned for physically attacking people, if you happen to walk or cycle past their nest. 

10 of the best ...

Worried this blog could just end up as a set of lists - 10 of the best skies, 10 of the noisiest birds, 10 of the most ridiculously strange plants, 10 of the most eccentric building details. I have the photos already. Just planning to slip them out now and then.

So welcome to the lorakeet. Very bright plumage. And very noisy in a squeaky kind of way.

cat on the mat

Find myself unexpectedly in charge of a cat. Very happy with this state of affairs, as am most definitely a cat person,  and this is an especially nice, very affectionate, version. Her favourite game is to jump up the newly installed net curtains in the bedroom - held in place with drawing pins - so that she can ping these out; first to chase around the floor and then hoard under the bed (as a responsible person I have, of course, now removed the pins).   Luckily she also seems to have an inordinate amount of fun sniffing and pushing around the doormat, so is keeping busy.