Nails and Bivvies...

A busy couple of days again.
Tish took Xanthe and Hamish in to town to watch Despicable Me 2 yesterday - Cameron was grounded following some interesting behaviour on Sunday when we were round at Pat and Annelies; not only did he not get to go and watch the film he was stuck with a grumpy Dad who had also wanted to go and watch the film but couldn't.....would love to say he wont do that again in a hurry but am not so confident about that.
Tish also went in to town to use one of her birthday vouchers and get a pedicure

Very snazzy.
Today (Thursday) Tish was out getting a Japanese Hot Stone Massage (another birthday pressie) - I had offered warm breeze blocks but for some reason she turned it down...
Anyway whilst she was out I stayed at home with the children as we had gained one more for a sleep over. Once Emma had gone back home (all the way down the end of the street) I nipped round to Alans to borrow the sprayer and sort out some of our weeds prior to a couple of days gardening with him and a tree surgeon next week. In typical style a quick trip round ends up with us spending several hours next door. I popped back and forth to do the spraying and hang the washing out whilst the children stayed and helped Alan with some mulching before moving on to make a little bivouac (or cubby house as they are called over here) in the corner of his garden.
When Tish came back from her massage which was very relaxing (am sure mine with the hot bricks would have been JUST as good but hey...) we went and got some sausage rolls, pies and chelsea buns and had lunch there. Well Tish and I had lunch at the table with Alan (Jen was out) but the kids stayed in their bivvie and had toast, marsh mallows and sausage rolls - the first two cooked on the brazier that Alan moved across for them

This afternoon has been spent relaxing at home as tiredness levels are rather high and tempers and attitudes are a little bit raised due to late nights the last couple of days.
I would say that it has been quiet but that really would not be the case as I have been typing this to a sound track of at least six of these little darlings...

and let me just say that when they get going they are LOUD

Super Moon Weekend

Its the first week of the school hols and Tish is off this week as well which is great.
We have been saying for the last few weeks it will be nice to have a relaxing time but in true Funnell style we have a massively busy week ahead.
Over the weekend we went round to friends who live south of Cairns - Pat took me out birding and Annelies and Tish were at home with the children - its their turn next and a morning of sitting drinking coffee watching the world go by is on the cards I think.
This weekend was also the supermoon weekend. On Sunday we had cloud so was not able to take any pictures but last night was clear (and decidedly cold) so I tried again.
The pictures whilst OK were not as good as I hoped - need to research how to take decent moon shots.
Here are my best two from over night

I then tried again this morning and took these

On the theme of slightly more artistic shots rather than in your face birds this is one of my favourites from Sunday

We took the children to Muddys Play Park yesterday but wandering around with a camera in an area full of children is not really on!!

Plays and Scouts

Today was another very busy day with the children. Following Hamish's Art Exhibition yesterday we were back in school for Camerons end of term play.
This was in fact four short plays based on four of the stories they have been reading.
Cameron was in a play called The Meanies

which was about "meanies" and what they did etc. He was surprisingly subdued much to our and his teachers surprise. As is the way with plays with five year olds it was organised chaos...
NB I have blurred all faces other than Camerons [and Hamish in the next set]

In the evening it was Hamish's turn and he was enrolled in his cub pack...

Art Show

Today was Hamish's class Art Exhibition

It was held in their classroom and was open to all parents and family. Hamish quite rightly was very proud of his efforts and we invited Alan and Jen to come along as well.

We all enjoyed it immensely.
Tomorrow is another big day for Hamish as he is getting invested at Scouts...

Lake Barrine Scout Trip

Today was the Far North Queensland Cub packs Mob outing to Lake Barrine on the Tablelands, we were going to go on a boat around the lake and then a walk through the forest. Tish unfortunately was just coming off a run of night shifts and decided to stay at home to sleep so I took the children along.
It was remarkably cold and for most of the day we were all in a jumper of some sort!
We got there a bit early as I was not sure how long it would take on a weekend, this gave me a chance to have a quick bird around the car park whilst we waited.
I took a couple of better shots Hamish in his uniform

as well as some of the terrible trio

It has to be said that the organisation was not as good as sometimes and the timings were completely out of sink so we ended up hanging around for over an hour before we got on the boat..

whilst we were waiting to board there was plenty to see...

The water in the lake (which is an extinct volcano) is amazingly clear which gave us great views of some of the aquatic life of the lake.
Terrapin spp

Eel spp

The boat trip was great and everyone enjoyed it

After the trip we went for the short walk round part of the Lake as the children did not feel like going the whole way

We were back home by 4pm having had a great day!

Scouts and Froggies

The undoubted highlight of this week has been the arrival of Hamish's scout uniform

My apologies for the rather startled expression he has not quite sure what went wrong!
His scarf is a deep burgundy colour and as his investiture is next week I will post another picture of him in his full glory (and use the proper camera for it as well).
The rest of the week has been taken up on work for my new venture - myself and Tony another ex pat birder are starting our own Bird Tour company specialising in tours in and around the Cairns / Tablelands region, lots of good endemic species as well as over 400 spp in total. The amount of work as you can imagine is quite daunting but with Tish helping out with the design of art work and marketing materials  we are cracking on very nicely indeed.
In addition to all the legal requirements we have been checking out timings and key sites over the last few days and will continue to do so until we go "live" so to speak.
We have had quite a run of good birds not least of which has been the return of the frogmouths!
In Darwin we had a great site where a pair of Tawny Frogmouth could be seen quite well, her the common species is Papuan Frogmouth and they are quite simply HUGE

The pictures are not quite in the same league as the tawnies as the birds are further away and in deeper shade but they are spectacular.
On our walks round a few of the key local sites we have run across many mudskippers including these digging out their own little swimming pools

A few other highlights from the week
Mangrove Robin

Welcome Swallow

And a slightly out of focus Yellow-Billed Spoonbill

It is now 0200 and Insomniacs R Us is going to close.......