There was a group of 'new' birds in the garden yesterday. I was about to leave to go to the farm and went to the shed for something. Two birds flew away from the shed as I neared, I thought they were currawongs at first as they were quite large, but their backs were olive green colour as they flew away. It seemed they'd been pinching the dog minnies I leave on the sill for my blackbirds.
I had a better look at them when I spotted them in the blackwood in front of the shed where they'd flown. There was a number of them, perhaps five or more, in the top of the tree, chattering and clacking and making various noises unfamiliar to me. Not having my glasses on I couldn't see them very well, so I went inside and came back with binoculars. I managed too get a good look at one and amazingly saw something bright blue and red, but behind a lot of leaves so I couldn't discern what it was, before losing it while I moved, not seeing it again.
When I saw Jod at the farm I described what I'd seen and he immediately said I'd seen satin bower birds. He'd seen them twice only at the farm over the last few years. Only mature males have the satin colour which comes after the seventh year moult, which explains why all the ones I saw were olivey green with a pale chest scalloped brown. He said the red and blue colour I saw may have been something one of the immature males had collected. They love bright colour especially blue which they use to practice building bowers. They build bowers on the ground to impress females but they actually nest in trees in a nest made with a lot of bark. He said they have a beautiful egg streaked in colours.
While we talked he spotted two wedgies soaring high, seemingly playing in the sky, coming close, then parting, before diving back towards each other. He reckons they are getting ready to mate, they breed in the winter and will mate soon. Fantastic!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Sweet Pittosporum
I objected to the council being granted a permit to remove ALL sweet pittosporums from the roadsides a couple of months back. A letter came from the Planning Section of the Cardinia Shire Council last week, saying,
"Your objection to the above planning permit has been considered under delegation and I wish to advise that a Notice of Decision to Grant a Permit has been issued, a copy of which is attached. Your attention is drawn to the appeal provisions on the back of the Notice, in particular:
1. The applicant may seek a review of any condition in the Notice within 60 days of the date of issue.
2.You may seek a review of the decision to grant a permit, or the the proposed condition of the permit, within 21 days of the issue.
Information about Applications for Review may be obtained from the Cictorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, ( address and phone mumber)."
So I've got 21 days from 17 Mar to lodge an application for review with VCAT. I rang them, I have to pay $283.20 and submit the application form and then, once a hearing date is set, I have to attend on the day. I don't think I'm in a position to do this, especially as it would probably be a waste of time and money, but I asked them to send me an application form.
I'll make a stategic withdrawal, probably, and try and think of a plan B. Maybe write to the CEO and the councillors suggesting the council is making a grave error to attack this drought hardy, native tree following twelve years of below average rainfall. We should be grateful for its ability to provide cover for the earth, food and shelter for birds, animals and insects, as well as pump oxygen into the atmosphere while sucking carbon out of it, in this era of critical climate change. The trouble is it's one of the councillors who is driving the whole thing.
"Your objection to the above planning permit has been considered under delegation and I wish to advise that a Notice of Decision to Grant a Permit has been issued, a copy of which is attached. Your attention is drawn to the appeal provisions on the back of the Notice, in particular:
1. The applicant may seek a review of any condition in the Notice within 60 days of the date of issue.
2.You may seek a review of the decision to grant a permit, or the the proposed condition of the permit, within 21 days of the issue.
Information about Applications for Review may be obtained from the Cictorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, ( address and phone mumber)."
So I've got 21 days from 17 Mar to lodge an application for review with VCAT. I rang them, I have to pay $283.20 and submit the application form and then, once a hearing date is set, I have to attend on the day. I don't think I'm in a position to do this, especially as it would probably be a waste of time and money, but I asked them to send me an application form.
I'll make a stategic withdrawal, probably, and try and think of a plan B. Maybe write to the CEO and the councillors suggesting the council is making a grave error to attack this drought hardy, native tree following twelve years of below average rainfall. We should be grateful for its ability to provide cover for the earth, food and shelter for birds, animals and insects, as well as pump oxygen into the atmosphere while sucking carbon out of it, in this era of critical climate change. The trouble is it's one of the councillors who is driving the whole thing.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Heat Wave, Freeze Wave
I'm back home, as of last Sunday. Visitors arrived on Monday, stayed for two days and today is my first chance to blog. I'm as flat as a tack, forcing myself to write. I've lost enthusiasm for blogging, mainly, I think, because there's always so much else to do. I've chosen to continue, after thinking half an hour ago that I'd finish up. Don't buckle just yet, I tell myself.
I had to tell you this story. My visitor was Ian Sinclair*, whom I've referred to as Punjab in a couple of posts in the past. He lives in Canada, at Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, near Alaska. He's back in Australia with his 7 yo son for a month's holiday, the main purpose of which was to visit his 89yo mum who lives in a retirement village in Frankston. It's been an emotional time for him. This was the last time he would see his mum, and he wanted his son Jethro to meet her as a boy old enough to remember.
Ian rang me on New Year's Day to wish us Happy New Year, and to say that he was coming to AUS. in March and he'd let us know when he had an arrival date, and when he thought he'd get to us. We heard nothing further, which is not unusual, he doesn't like timetables and just 'turns up'. I had no way of contacting him once he'd left. I couldn't find his mother's phone number in her remarried name of Cantillon**, because, as I found out later, she'd moved into a retirement place. So we went to Lakes hoping he wasn't trying to contact us while we were away, thinking that with Robbie home all would be jake.
Ian called in last Saturday. He'd spent the previous 3 days in the mountains around Big River camping at our old haunts and catching up on eucalyptus scented air. It was hot with near 40C maximums. He and Jethro coped well considering they came from the northern winter and temperatures of more than MINUS 50 degrees in January. Robbie told him we were away and he went to see his mum and returned on Monday evening.
Yesterday before he left we were talking about the March heat wave and the worry of bushfires. I'd just renewed the house insurance and mentioned that I'd meant to check the fine print to make sure our house was covered against bushfires, but forgot in the haste of the last minute. He said he'd checked his because despite all the ice and snow there was still a bushfire threat in summer as there was 21 hours of sun per day in summer, when sunny of course, and the surrounding pine and spruce forests dried out and were flammable because of the volatile oils.
Ian went on to say that insurance companies in Whitehorse have rigid conditions and are as tough as nails. You can't just go away on holiday and leave the house, without making arrangements with neighbours or contractors to inspect it every 24 hours, recording that everything is in order. For example, during freezing and thawing, water and ice is dangerous, pipes can burst and a basement or cellar can catch water and freeze, leaving it filled with 50 tons of solid ice. Claims of $50,000 or $60,000 are not uncommon, when automatic furnaces have failed to keep houses above freezing point.
There was a case recently, Ian said, where a family went away and a tap was left running slowly in an upstairs bathroom, the exact circumstances of which he was unsure. Whatever, the inlet to the tap didn't freeze, but the outlet pipe did, so the water banked up and overflowed and ran onto the floor and throughout. As it hit the gaps, where it would run outside in normal conditions, it froze, so the house slowly filled with water which slowly turned to ice. The house wasn't inspected regularly and filled with water/ice which, expanding as freezing water does, crushed everything and pushed out walls. The house was fit only for demolition, the returning family losing the lot.
* Ian Sinclair attended Mt. Waverley Primary school 1955-1961, as did brother Jod. Ian's younger brother Colin was in my year 1957-1963. Jod was looking forward to Ian's visit and had copied and framed a 4th grade photo from 1959 in which he and Ian were standing next to each other, and which he gave to Ian when we visited the farm Tuesday. Ian and Jod went to Syndal tech and were both in the railways as firemen (trainee drivers) in 1969 when Ian was called up for National Service. After a term in Vietnam, Ian was discharged in 1971, his two years NS completed.
He could not settle in his old job, resigned, and unable to settle into any employment, took off to the Kimberleys. He roamed Australia and Asia for many years, eventually in the company of a Canadian girl, now wife Elke with whom he lives at Whitehorse, in a house they are buying on three acres out of town backing onto pine and spruce bush. At some point he was granted a TPI pension for post traumatic stress and has resisted convention for 37 years. He spends much of the summer fishing and hunting moose. He turns 59 next month. He has another son, Cullen, who is 17 and was born in Nth Queensland.
** Ian's mum married Reg Cantillon, who lived about 5 houses up from us in Mt Waverley with his wife (who died later) and family which included twin girls who were in Ian and Jod's year at school. Their older brother who became a mechanic died as a young man when a car he was working on fell off the jack and crushed him. Ian's father died in the summer of 1971/1972 of a stroke while recovering in hospital from a minor operation. It was the day Garfield Sobers made his famous 254 for the rest of the world team against Australia. Ian told me this visit that he said to me while we watched the cricket, "Dad died last night." I had said, "Should you be here?" He remembered answering, "Why not?" Don Bradman said Sober's innings was the best he'd ever seen.
I had to tell you this story. My visitor was Ian Sinclair*, whom I've referred to as Punjab in a couple of posts in the past. He lives in Canada, at Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, near Alaska. He's back in Australia with his 7 yo son for a month's holiday, the main purpose of which was to visit his 89yo mum who lives in a retirement village in Frankston. It's been an emotional time for him. This was the last time he would see his mum, and he wanted his son Jethro to meet her as a boy old enough to remember.
Ian rang me on New Year's Day to wish us Happy New Year, and to say that he was coming to AUS. in March and he'd let us know when he had an arrival date, and when he thought he'd get to us. We heard nothing further, which is not unusual, he doesn't like timetables and just 'turns up'. I had no way of contacting him once he'd left. I couldn't find his mother's phone number in her remarried name of Cantillon**, because, as I found out later, she'd moved into a retirement place. So we went to Lakes hoping he wasn't trying to contact us while we were away, thinking that with Robbie home all would be jake.
Ian called in last Saturday. He'd spent the previous 3 days in the mountains around Big River camping at our old haunts and catching up on eucalyptus scented air. It was hot with near 40C maximums. He and Jethro coped well considering they came from the northern winter and temperatures of more than MINUS 50 degrees in January. Robbie told him we were away and he went to see his mum and returned on Monday evening.
Yesterday before he left we were talking about the March heat wave and the worry of bushfires. I'd just renewed the house insurance and mentioned that I'd meant to check the fine print to make sure our house was covered against bushfires, but forgot in the haste of the last minute. He said he'd checked his because despite all the ice and snow there was still a bushfire threat in summer as there was 21 hours of sun per day in summer, when sunny of course, and the surrounding pine and spruce forests dried out and were flammable because of the volatile oils.
Ian went on to say that insurance companies in Whitehorse have rigid conditions and are as tough as nails. You can't just go away on holiday and leave the house, without making arrangements with neighbours or contractors to inspect it every 24 hours, recording that everything is in order. For example, during freezing and thawing, water and ice is dangerous, pipes can burst and a basement or cellar can catch water and freeze, leaving it filled with 50 tons of solid ice. Claims of $50,000 or $60,000 are not uncommon, when automatic furnaces have failed to keep houses above freezing point.
There was a case recently, Ian said, where a family went away and a tap was left running slowly in an upstairs bathroom, the exact circumstances of which he was unsure. Whatever, the inlet to the tap didn't freeze, but the outlet pipe did, so the water banked up and overflowed and ran onto the floor and throughout. As it hit the gaps, where it would run outside in normal conditions, it froze, so the house slowly filled with water which slowly turned to ice. The house wasn't inspected regularly and filled with water/ice which, expanding as freezing water does, crushed everything and pushed out walls. The house was fit only for demolition, the returning family losing the lot.
* Ian Sinclair attended Mt. Waverley Primary school 1955-1961, as did brother Jod. Ian's younger brother Colin was in my year 1957-1963. Jod was looking forward to Ian's visit and had copied and framed a 4th grade photo from 1959 in which he and Ian were standing next to each other, and which he gave to Ian when we visited the farm Tuesday. Ian and Jod went to Syndal tech and were both in the railways as firemen (trainee drivers) in 1969 when Ian was called up for National Service. After a term in Vietnam, Ian was discharged in 1971, his two years NS completed.
He could not settle in his old job, resigned, and unable to settle into any employment, took off to the Kimberleys. He roamed Australia and Asia for many years, eventually in the company of a Canadian girl, now wife Elke with whom he lives at Whitehorse, in a house they are buying on three acres out of town backing onto pine and spruce bush. At some point he was granted a TPI pension for post traumatic stress and has resisted convention for 37 years. He spends much of the summer fishing and hunting moose. He turns 59 next month. He has another son, Cullen, who is 17 and was born in Nth Queensland.
** Ian's mum married Reg Cantillon, who lived about 5 houses up from us in Mt Waverley with his wife (who died later) and family which included twin girls who were in Ian and Jod's year at school. Their older brother who became a mechanic died as a young man when a car he was working on fell off the jack and crushed him. Ian's father died in the summer of 1971/1972 of a stroke while recovering in hospital from a minor operation. It was the day Garfield Sobers made his famous 254 for the rest of the world team against Australia. Ian told me this visit that he said to me while we watched the cricket, "Dad died last night." I had said, "Should you be here?" He remembered answering, "Why not?" Don Bradman said Sober's innings was the best he'd ever seen.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Lakes
It great to be on holiday. I just emailed an apology for not attending tomorrow's museum meeting.
This morning we walked at Shelley Beach with the dogs. It was young Pip's first look at the ocean. She tore into the water then got a hell of a fright when a wave hit and dunked her. She didn't go in again.
It's so nice to see seagulls, black swans, people relaxed lying on the foreshore grass eating ice cream cones, and picking up shells and stones worn smooth.
This morning we walked at Shelley Beach with the dogs. It was young Pip's first look at the ocean. She tore into the water then got a hell of a fright when a wave hit and dunked her. She didn't go in again.
It's so nice to see seagulls, black swans, people relaxed lying on the foreshore grass eating ice cream cones, and picking up shells and stones worn smooth.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Holiday
We're off to Lakes today. Till Sunday. Lib, me, Gord and two dogs. Rob is staying home as he has Uni and will water my plants in pots and the vegies. It could be interesting. A dog holiday! But a change of scenery is inviting and I plan to read a lot and write 3 letters, two to friends who don't access computers and therefore don't read this blog, and one to a 'celebrity' whom I've never met but I'm going to ask for an interview as the kickstart for a story I hope to write. It's a five year plan but if I don't show a little courage and kick it off, it won't happen.
There's an internet cafe at Lakes so if I can escape the dogs for a time I'll do a post from there.
There's an internet cafe at Lakes so if I can escape the dogs for a time I'll do a post from there.
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