Visitor!!!

0633 this morning found me on the deck taking pictures of a plane as it flew overhead

CX103 was not just any plane, this one had Grandma aka Diana aka Tish's Mum on board!
The children had no idea when Grandma was arriving so we hid her next door at Allans

the reunion was as one would expect a tearful affair (and that was just Tish and Diana!!!)
We came back home for some quality time before Allan and Jen came round for a BBQ

Showing off their new T-shirts!

We then sat down on the deck with a glass of wine...

Welcome to Australia Mum!!!!

Oops another week gone by....

....and no blog! Apologies for lack of updates but have had a few technical problems - the laptop decided to play silly buggers and kept crashing.
It has been a quiet week - the weather has definitely turned summery with temps in the 30s most days and only dropping to 24 at night, the humidity is on the rise with it being over 75% most days and regularly over 90% - we have also had a fair amount of rain which is good for the garden but if I'm honest I was hoping it would hold off as I was hoping to chase down a few budgies in the next couple of weeks but with this rain I suspect they have moved back West.
Aside from a couple of walks along the Esplanade we have not been out much - Tish having "enjoyed" her gall stones so much a couple of months ago decided to go for the set and has spent several days this week in agony passing a kidney stone!!!
I managed to spend about 45 minutes watching these Welcome Swallows - unfortunately the light was bad so the pictures are not as good as they should be

the youngster was very approachable and I was slowly edging closer when they were flushed by a couple walking directly in front of me- given that the gap between me and the swallows was only a couple of feet they could have walked behind! They can to an extent be excused as they were clearly distracted by this beast that had been patrolling the shoreline

I think it is a Reef Shark but I could be wrong - it was reasonably large (4-5 foot)

Back home we have a reasonably tame Cockatoo that visits the garden on a daily basis

as well as the friendly young Black Butcherbird

Most afternoons we are getting clouds building up on the hills behind so we have not had any decent sunsets, this is the best that I managed this week

the colour was far stronger.

Big news for next week is the arrival of Diana - house has been cleaned in preparation!

Trees, Bee's and other odds and sods....

Another week passes and the weather continues to hot up - although to be honest its the humidity that causes the real problems. Summer is looking like it will be another good one, they are predicting an average cyclone season so we will just have to wait and see....
I went out with Pat early this week to try and locate a couple of things for work but unfortunately due to circumstances beyond our control failed miserably - perfect excuse for another visit!
The trip was still very productive, most notably for non avian species; the highlights being

another Lumhotlz's Tree Kangaroo, and this bundle of fur

a Green Ringtail Possum - one of the few things that can eat the leaves of the Stinging Tree.
We visited my friendly Golden Bowerbird as well and noticed that he is really putting some effort into his bower, the main column at the back has grown fatter and taller, there is more decorations on it and an additional column has appeared near the front

The light was pretty good as well so I was able to take a semi reasonable photo of the male without needing a flash

We also found another bowerbirds bower, this time a Great Bowerbird

I love the way they utilise man made objects as well as shells etcCloser to home (in fact about 100m from our front door) one of the local pairs of Rainbow Bee-eaters..

has started to breed in a small patch of grass on the corner of the main road into Yorkeys

their nest I fear is doomed as all areas of public grass get mowed within an inch of their lives...

Undoubtedly the main event of the week though was Xanthe recieving this in the post

she had entered the competition to design Ramsay, Cairns Xmas card and she won!!!

Here is a scan of her design - the theme was Framing the Christmas Family...

Well done Xanthe!!

Walkies

After school on Monday we "borrowed" Parker...

from Allan and Jen and went for a walk on the beach.

He is a lovely little dog that Allan and Jen are dog sitting for a few days whilst his owner is on holiday.
As he is not ours and we are not sure how well he would come back we kept him on the lead, not that it seemed to bother him in the slightest

The tide was very high but there were still a pair of Pied Oystercatchers that were not too concerned by us

We finished off with Mango Smooties

Pond Dipping Aus style

Over the weekend the minions were gainfully employed helping Allan remove fish and tadpoles from one of ponds as he was re-alligning the drive and up grading his pond at the same time.

There was non of the extensive H & S compromises here - on with the swimmers and jump straight in...

The pond was full of a variety of life  - and not just our three
Cameron was less impressed with this rather large water spider

The time was well spent and the children caught and moved several hundred tadpoles

Some of which have since then emerged