Into 2009

Another case of forcing myself to blog. It's been a tiring xmas and new year break - only 3 extra days off, switching over to doing different things in my day job, lots going on with the house, the garden, and K. Trying to get in the swing of writing regular articles for the paper too - somehow I'm always up until 9pm on deadline night tapping away.
We've had another three big electrical storms, two leading to powercuts, and one knocking out my modem, router, and phone line as well... And, it being xmas, Telstra couldn't get anyone out for 10 days. Luckily we hit Brissie just before xmas anyway, so I could work from there, and hunt down a replacement modem and wireless router. Apart from the storms it's been sunny and hot, with much swimming at Ballina and Byron beaches, and general outdoor Summer goodness. The last electrical storm was also notable for its lightning - flashes of bright sheet lightning every few seconds for about 150 minutes, which is the most consistent I've ever seen. A few times it was like a club strobe light for 30 seconds at a time.
Anyway, here's a quick photo blog, normal service (hopefully) resumes next week.

K "helps" me weed the front garden.



















Sunflower almost ripe.... They've since ripened and I'm drying the seeds now.

Weeding the back garden I accidentally disturbed a handful of reptile (probably lizard) eggs. I put them back, but I'm told they're unlikely to hatch now, so I feel guilty.

When TreeShape took out five of our six pollonias back in the autumn, they accidentally poisoned the sixth one too.... So they had to come back and cut that down as well.










The solar panels go up on the roof next month - so we had to get rid of the palms that shade the roof... There's something ironic about cutting down a load of trees in order to get greener electrical power.

Pre xmas Brissie, looking down Queen Street from by the Brisbane River.

This tawny frogmouth has taken up residence by the shed just over the fence from our kitchen door - I'll try to get a shot of him performing the unique frogmouth "defensive" posture, in which they flip themselves upside down and do an incredibly accurate imitation of a broken branch prutruding from a tree.... though it doesn't work too well when your perch is a metal shed.