Cicada rescue!

Well what a surprise to find this cicada today- I think he has been tricked into coming out by the recent warm weather, poor thing only to find the weather was FREEZING today! We had snow for most of the day, and so my husband 'rescued' him from our front garden, he swears it was shivering!

Look at those amazing golden wings!

 

Alien-like face, strangely compelling!

Anne from Loopity Lou and Jacqui from Life in the Dome have both found these recently - and I'll trust both their opinions that this is a 'Masked Devil' cicada. Anne has some amazing photos of hers hatching (is that the correct term for cicadas coming out?) I just did not expect to see any this far up the mountains, this early in the season.

 

 

We brought him inside to warm up a little. He was pretty lifeless for a while, then started to move just a little. By the time he was getting quite lively, I thought it might be better for him to sleep in the garage tonight (rather than rattling around the house when we are trying to sleep!)

He can get out of the garage easily, but if he is still there tomorrow, hopefully we can find a suitable home for him again.

Fluffy Visitor

Well how cute is this guy? He came to visit this morning and sat on our fence for such a long time, we were all outside marvelling at how adorable he is! He is a Flame Robin, and the first I've seen since last winter, when I saw my first one.

OK, now the apology- I have been away from blogland for soooooo long its ridiculous. I have been popping in to read yours every now and then, but not doing the writing thing myself. And since being so lazy, I'm amazed to see I have picked up some new followers! So welcome to you :) Hopefully I will have something more interesting to read soon than, well, the nothing I've been doing. I think I've been in hibernation over winter. Coupled with the real-estate woes we have had (don't ask!) has not made for a happy blogger. But hey, although the woes are still pretty woeful, I am still here and although I'm not promising to do the blogtoberfest like those of you more energetic than myself, I promise to not go missing for months on end again.

In my hibernation mode I did learn to crochet and knit (yes, knit -much to my amazement!) did lots of baking, and started sewing again as I had a request for a couple of items- which meant a couple of sales, which in turn has lit my creative spark again. I currently have several piles of fabric lying around showing several unfinished projects! More on that later.

So, thanks for sticking with me through my winter of discontent! I hope Spring brings new life, energy and warmth to us all.

Australia Day - Mountain Wildlife style

Since moving here 12 years ago, we have celebrated Australia Day every year with all the enthusiasm of new immigrants proud of their new home! Since we arrived in early January, 1998, yesterday was actually our 13th Australia Day.

We decided to stay local and have a pretty low-key day .... however, that doesn't mean quiet! We managed to see some live music, go to a lookout, drive up a mountain track, followed up with a cafe visit for scones and milkshakes all round, and finally time for a play in a park.

The Blue Mountains - with distant views of the famous 3 Sisters

And in true Mountain Wildlife style - we started and finished with some true-blue aussie wildlife.........

While we were getting into our car to start out, Miss 4 screamed out "Aarrgghhh!! Look - a big giant spider on the car!!!" And boy was she right - a huge huntsman spider had taken residence on the rim of the hatchback. (For those non-locals - a huntsman is a horrible hairy beast, complete with monster eyes and big boots. OK, maybe that last bit is my imagination) I don't normally advocate the destruction of any animals, but anything that comes into my car and threatens my family is fair game in my book. So hubby did a quick-flick-with-a-big-stick, and that was the last we saw of Hunty.

And at the other end of our day, we met another scary local (karma perhaps?) We were in a park in Medlow Bath, when Miss 4 tripped over a tree root and landed too close for comfort in front of a snake. Now apparently, these snakes are supposed to flee at noise and commotion, but this one was more than curious to see what was going on, and slithered on over. Luckily our daughter screamed "SNAKE!!" and hubby (hero again!) grabbed her up and moved away. Less than a minute later, we couldn't see the snake anywhere (not a good feeling) until hubby and Miss 4 came back to the car and snakey decided to make an appearance yet again, right in their path!

A quick detour and we were all out of harms way, but I couldn't resist getting a photo or two.... no, I'm not THAT stupid, I used the max zoom on the camera, I was actually a fair distance away!

It was obviously after some water, there was a tap and bubbler nearby and someone had left a dish of water underneath (for a dog maybe?)

Anyone wanting to ID this slithery creature for me is most welcome - I can only guess at a red-bellied black, even though it was more cream-bellied-grey! they can look like this too.

When we left it was sliding into the grass, happy with it's cool drink, and seemingly unaware of the effect it had on our heartbeats!

It was a good opportunity to have a talk with our kids again about safety and what to do when we see snakes.

Happy Australia Day everyone!

Mamma Mia! - It's some real Mountain Wildlife!

The past couple of days I have noticed a couple of areas in the back garden have been mysteriously overturned ... too small an area for our dog to be the culprit, and our 2 chooks haven't been out of their fenced off corner. So we thought maybe a possum....?

But today our cheeky visitor showed his face - and his HUGE body !!!

brush turkey

He was running around our garden like he owned the place, then after a quick chase from our dog (with some panic on my part!) it jumped up onto our fence. Initially we thought it was a lyrebird while it was racing around, but once it settled we could see it was very different. (BTW- I know its a 'he' from the colouring- yep, we are nerdy enough to own a field guide to birds!)

As far as I know, brush turkeys are not usually found around our area. They are more common further north right up the eastern coast of NSW and Qld in warmer coastal-bush areas. I've certainly never seen one in the 10 years we have been living in the mountains.

Anway, he was helpful enough to stay perched on the fence long enough for me to get a few photos, then he hopped off into next door's garden and away. He had obviously been here before and was not at all bothered by us. I also realised later that our dog obviously hasn't been too bothered about the turkey's presence either (until we got all excited -oops!)

Despite their tendancy towards destruction, it was really good to see a brush turkey in the garden! (I am sure those who have them all the time will definitely disagree!)

In other news ....... on Friday night I went to Star City with a couple of friends to see Mamma-Mia- the musical, on its opening night. What a fantastic show! I am still smiling :)
It was a great night out, with a quick dinner before the show and then almost 2 and a half hours of amazing performances.

The cast were brilliant, very, very funny! Lots of dancing and of course - loads of Abba songs woven into the story, which was done really well.

If you liked Abba even a little bit- you will love this show! And I defy anyone to not at least do a little jiggling in their seats, if not a full-on dance in the aisle!

My Abba Gold CD had a dusting off and been played today, and my kids were dancing their little legs away, arms waving and bums wiggling! (I don't know where they learnt to dance like THAT! lol!)

The show started on Friday and will be touring Australia for almost a year, and in Sydney until next Feb. Get some girlfriends together and go see it - release that inner-Dancing Queen !!

Little Dragon

Spotted this cheeky Mountain Dragon (or is it a Water Dragon?) on my back deck today- on the side of a planter box eyeing up my lemon balm!


(Luckily for me it didn't want any, it took me ages to grow) It was only around 10cm long including its tail. Hung around for ages, posing for a few photos!


I also saw a swamp wallaby on Thursday morning, right on the side of the road only a minute away from our house! Looked a little lost there .... but bounced off happily into the bush as we drove slowly past.

Mountain Wildlife's Wildlife in the Mountains!