Sunday, December 31, 2006
Red Wattle Bird
These guys make a squawky 'clacking' sound when they reach maturity. Quite an interesting bird, they tend to do things we associate with smaller birds. It belongs to one of the larger species amongst the 'honey eater' family of birds. I suspect it is classified in this way because of its behaviours.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Happy Anniversary!
For interest's sake, these photos were taken in 2003 on a borrowed Kodak (?) digital camera which was already then 10 years old. It had optical zoom to 10x and used floppy disks (!) to store the photos on. It could take around 25 photos per disk. Amazingly, each photo was between only 45KB and 80KB. When it was new, apparently, it cost three thousand dollars (?!). Looking back on it, an amazing piece of industrial gadgetry - evoking similar feelings to an antique singer sewing machine. Its optical zoom capacity set the benchmark for me when it came to purchasing a camera of my own.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Gingerbread House
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Happy Christmas!
Hope your christmas was as peaceful and full of gentle affection as ours was...
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Christmas street light display
Disappointed, I drove home. On the way, I came across this light display a couple streets from our place. There's a steadily growing number of such displays in Adelaide's suburbs over recent years. Even at 11pm, there's still a semi-regular flow of viewers which passed by. All part of the new age christmas culture I suppose.
Cocky visitors
Oddly enough, there were also a couple of galahs there, though they were a lot more shy than they usually are. This guy kept his back to me until he departed.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Backyard Hibiscus Flowers
My Rant about Big Brother on Blogger
You know, I hate bullies. And uncle sam is one of the worst.
But, for you my viewers, I will make the sacrifice.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
More Mishka Kitten Photos
Constantly on the lookout for adventures, he gets himself in a bit of trouble occasionally.
Like last night for example. Mishka got himself shut in the cupboard under the stairs and it took about 10 hours before he got let out by his 'saviour'. He was a little perturbed after that adventure!
Friday, December 15, 2006
Full Moon
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Dracaena
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Gibbous Moon and Plane
This was a slightly earlier shot, and this ...
has had Arcsoft's Photoimpression 'enhance' done to it. The image is breaking up with noise, so I used 'neatimage' to clean it. I gotta say, I love stargazing etc, and it's pretty impressive what my 12x zoom can pull up. I think that (in theory) I should be able to catch Saturn's rings and Jupiter's spot (can see them through binoculars with less power, so we'll see).
Botanic Park Duckwalk at Dusk
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Front Pergola Plants
The only downside to it all is that I have to water them each day. Thus, although there's little gardening to be done at our house, what there is needs doing every day. Which makes it at least as much a task as the more infrequent cycles required at our previous abode.
Not that I mind doing it. It's just the 'have to' bit ...
Critters
Hidden amongst the cluster of pot plants under the shade cloth is this wooden bird.
If you look carefully, you can see one of our gnomes peeking out from beneath the fern trees.
I know there's a third gnome out there somewhere. When he's sighted next, I'll try and grab a snap.
Front Yard Pot Plants
This pigweed is quite happy, spreading sideways along the white wall.
We were given these 'Pony Tails' for our housewarming in Mid November.
The above Stag Fern was bought at the local garden store.
This healthy Swedish Ivy is quite happy growing alongside an odd koala jug.
All these plants are in our front pergola area. With the advent of warm weather and sunshine, they have really taken off. Within a couple of months I expect it will be a bit of a jungle.