New Addition

Glenn found this little furry thing on the doorstep yesterday morning.

He or she is not a feral cat. He or she doesn't mind being picked up, uses a dirt box and has made his or her presence known to all inhabitants of the house in no uncertain terms.

We googled "cat sexing" and looked closely at the diagrams.

Then we put on our glasses, shone a very bright light to the area in question...

and not finding this terribly interesting, enlightening or pleasant,

thought we'd leave it until later.

Hence, he or she is still unnamed.

Who's sleeping in MY bed?

And who's playing with MY tail?

We all slept well last night. Yep, all four of us slept well, together!

Good thing we have a king size bed.

Give me more orchids!

This little 'garden' is in a tree stump.

There is a Jug Orchid and two mysterious buds. What will they be?

Woody is certainly fascinated!

(click on image to enlarge)

There are dozens of Silky Blues.

These snail orchids are so tiny.
These are the Yellow China orchids that only appear after a fire.
They are actually a pale yellow - like primroses - but I seem to have lost their colour
with my photo.


Below is a Fringed Mantis.

A Rare'un

This little yellow orchid is rarely found unless there's been a burn.

Thanks to an arsonist, we had a burn back in Feburary.

Every cloud...

It's a Yellow China orchid.

(complicated people call it ixiodes, tut!)

These are silky blues.

The Woodster thought orchids grew underground so dug huge holes, ripping out roots with his bare teeth! Bless...

Orchids after the Burn

Here is living proof that bushfire encourages growth. We have all sorts of orchids blooming now and in amazing numbers!

These are all quite small.

We have to tread carefully as we walk.

August 2009

Our morning walk after the rain was a delight.

The scent of the eucalypts rises from the earth where the sap has dripped.

Months of dust has been washed off the foliage. Everything is bright.

Orchids appear amongst their burnt surroundings.

Shoots appear from the base of charred trees.

The Grass Trees (Xanthorrea) are well on the way to recovery.

Although, let's face it, fire doesn't destroy them, only gives

them more reason to live.

And the Zamia Palm in the foreground is better than ever.

And we have an addition to the family...

if he lives!

As you can see Woody is extremely interested in this little being.

Glenn and his girls brought "Billy" (no, not very original but never mind) back from the bush.

He had a brother but he died.

When Billy walks around the house Woody 'escorts' him, everywhere, drooling.

He has even been seen to place his jaws around Billy's neck! But he didn't clamp them (not like he did with a certain hamster!) So we are keeping an eye on things.

Rottnest for the Day

Rottnest Island is 19kms off the coast of Fremantle. I have lived in Perth for over 20years but never been there! tut tut. So we decided to take the ferry over there, but not direct from Fremantle which is only 30minutes; the enjoyable alternative is to take the ferry from the city. This means you cruise up the Swan River which takes about an hour, then out to the island.

There are no cars on the island except for service vehicles so most people hire bikes. There are some lovely old buildings on the island and the wildlife seem to treat them as their own.

There are perfect beaches all the way around the island.

We weren't quite sure why this snake was laying in the middle of the road.

Rottnest Island is famous for its population of Quokkas. They are sweet little marsupials who wander around the island like they own it. Well, they do!

This is where Helen discovered she had her hat on back to front.

May 2009

A couple of weeks ago we had a storm and the air turned yellow.

Looking out from the balcony at the burnt side of the block the bush went a rusty orange colour.

There's no 'photoshopping' here!

We discovered our first Bunny Orchid last week. They are tiny and stand only twelve inches high. there must have been hundreds previous years but were in amongst the bush. The fire has left the ground black and bare and we can see these sweet little blooms popping up everywhere. Glenn found this little fellow under a drum the other day.

Don't worry, he put him back where he found him after the photo shoot.

Woody found him VERY interesting!

Talking of Woody... took a snap the other day just before he left to go to the gym.
There is a definite likeness, don't you think?

New growth

It's just over four weeks since the bushfire claimed half of the property. It is still all black and covered in ash and it still smells burnt too. But...

The Zamias will not be beaten! Bright green growth is appearing from the centre of many of the plants!

I have read that Zamias have much of their stems underground, which means it is protected from fire. Hence the new growth appearing so quickly!


And we've had very little rain!
When I looked closely at this grass tree I can see new spines in the centre that are all green, no brown tips like the surrounding spines!

Another large tree fell down yesterday, unfortunately. The fire must have got into the roots.