A few weeks ago I noticed a cluster of these bright red and green Jewel bugs on one of the branches of the Witchetty bush and over the past month or so I've seen several sets of eggs laid, the tiny bugs emerge and then grow through several moultings before spreading around the yard and beyond.
Out here fires can sometimes run for weeks - if not months - and burn-out huge tracts of land - I'll try to keep a watching eye on this fire over the coming weeks - if you have any information on its progress please log in and post a note about its progress.
Andrew -- a proud sort of bloke -- has always refused to go on the dole, so has scant resources to fall back on. That's why his friends and colleagues are staging a "Living Wake" to raise funds for his needs until he is back on his feet again. The idea of a Living Wake has some appeal to Andrew – he will be around, in the words of Big Bill Neidjie – the Kakadu Man – “to hear the nice things said about me”.
Fires trash these mini-plant communities - bushfires are the main threat to snails here - it directly cooks the animals and destroys their food. In the long run I'd like get around to trying to identify some of the main crust plants they eat but that might be impossible. I'm told there hasn't been a lichenologist through central Australia in living memory so I suspect few species here are named.
The Andrew McMillan Living Wake will kick off at 7pm on 3rd December at the Darwin Railway Club in Parap. I reckon a lobster will get you through the door for what looks like a great night. Hopefully no-one will be writing an obituary for Andrew any time soon...who knows, he might hang around for us to do another one next year...and the year after that!
The Swamp Jockeys were (are?) in that great tradition of Australian bands that form and play just for the sheer fun of it - they must have run out of fun after a few years or found something else to do and for most of us have passed slowly into the happier realms of our memories.
As you do when you've had a few beers you eventually need to use the sanitary services provided...so I got a very pleasant surprise when I walked into the ground-floor facilities to see that the have fish in the bogs.
I rose early to a cock crow from the house next door, went back to bed to pay off some sleep debt and woke again later in the morning to a fierce heat.
Longo is still active in cycling as of 2010 and is widely considered one of the greatest female cyclists of all time. She is famous for her competitive nature and her longevity in a sport where some of her competitors were not yet born during her first Olympic competition in 1984.
Frankly it was a crappy morning that greeted me, and I battled through a very dreary Sunday morning in Alice. A photographer friend suggested going for a drive to see if we could find a break in the cloud cover anywhere - we couldn't...I'd had enough, so I started the trudge back to the car, when something flapped in a red gum over my shoulder, and I looked up to see two Grey Falcons studiously ignoring me - as is their regal right... what a bird!
