I've updated this posting with an "after" shot of the site of the former nice little 1930s brick house in our neighborhood which was demolished for probably something modernistic with cathedral ceilings, heated tile floors, and a soaker tub with jacuzzi.
And if you received it twice it's because one of the videos didn't load properly.
Last Sunday was a glorious day in terms of weather - although it's really the equivalent of the beginning of March, it was really more like mid-April. The cherry trees are in bloom, the Magpies are commencing their "swooping" behavior because they are protecting their nests (this also means the commencement of seeing bicyclers with straws sticking out of their bike helmets to fend them off), and spiders are appearing in all sorts of places.
I got up very early (hungry cats help) and decided to walk down to the lake, where the ballooners were out and floating about...
Here's an artsy video of a balloon reflected in the ripples of the Lake; Australia seems to be having that effect upon me. next thing you know I'll be signing up for freestyle Martha Graham dance classes and dancing along the lake bank:
Untitled from Charles Ikins on Vimeo.
There was still frost on the field behind the house:
A flock of cockatoos flew in from the park across the lake and headed towards the house, so I started walking back. I heard strange noises coming from the neighborhood, and there I encountered the 1930s-style house just down the street being torn down so someone could build another modernistic-style home in a neighborhood where that architecture really doesn't belong. I love it when they complain here about not having "history" but don't make the connection with tearing a 70-year-old home down. One by one, there goes your history. I was thinking "Well, there goes someones memories." That's the kitchen sink you see in the claw at the end of the video. Kind of put a damper on my walk.
Untitled from Charles Ikins on Vimeo.
Here's all that is left of the site now. Yeah, "we don't have any history in this country." I wonder why.
But I digress. Back to the Cockatoos. I wandered back home and there were the cockatoos sitting all over my back yard. Now, I have been trying to get them to come in for a couple of weeks (the King Parrots too), with no success. But once I put out two seed cakes, that allowed them, the Galas and the Rosellas to feed simultaneously. The Rosellas have to feed on the ground because the Galas and the Cockatoos are much bigger than they are. It was like Wild Kingdom in the back yard:
Rosellas, a Gala, and in the background a Cockatoo all in one shot.
Untitled from Charles Ikins on Vimeo.
It was such a beautiful day we decided to take the kayak out for a shakedown cruise, which meant unchaining it from the tree out back and seeing what had taken up residence in it during the winter. Hose in hand, I wasn't disappointed:
That's your Huntsman spider. Painful bite but not fatal. I carefully relocated him and a compatriot at the other end of the kayak to a nearby wilderness preserve. I don't like killing them because they are beneficial. But I don't want a repeat of a few months ago when we were in the middle of the lake and one came crawling out of the hatch just behind Debbie.
I noted that the cherry trees and other fruit trees are beginning to bloom:
And the wattle:
Just like the flowers on the Order of Australia ribbon:
Lilac?
And more cherry with one of the pretty little wrens that are all over the place:
And even the lizards came out for a sunning:
And no morning here would be complete without a cat lay-in in sunspots in the living room:
So that's a weekend morning here in Australia. It's starting to warm up so expect a lot more of these kinds of photographs. Hopefully by then the election will be decided....
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