Dragons, Cockys and Starlings

As the more observant may have noticed Cameron's birthday cake was curiously unadorned with icing figures - this was because Jen (not our neighbour another Jen) had been ill and was not able to make them in time.
Never mind the perfect excuse for a second (smaller) cake...

This time it features characters from How to Train Your Dragon - Toothless and Hiccup
Much appreciated by Cameron it was too

Our flock of feeding Sulphur Crested Cockatoo's has increased from the family of three to at least six....

although the new arrivals are not as tolerant at the moment and tend to look from afar until you are not close before coming in to feed.

As in UK a feature of the autumn are the flocks of starlings that we get, they are migratory and leave to winter in PNG.
At the moment they are feeding on the fruits on all of the palm trees in and around Yorkeys

The flocks are not as large as those in the UK and as you have probably noticed they are also not of the same species - although the European Starling is an introduced pest in parts of Oz.
These are Metallic Starlings

stunning birds!

One of the joys at this time of year are the sunsets - during the summer and spring the skies are invariably clear which does provide some stunning colours can be a tad uniform; at this time of year there are plenty of clouds to offer variation and I end up taking far more shots than normal. Here are a few from the past week or so
Even without the sun the sky still offers some great pictures

 And one with the sun

I tried to take a panoramic shot from the roof today but the pictures were very poor so will have to try again tomorrow before I give the ladder back to Allan

Green Island Part III

Slightly later than intended here are a couple (well five) of the shots from the underwater camera. I think it was a case of snap away at anything and hope for the best, these are the best of the bunch not bad for a first effort

 The coral in this section of the reef comes in round growths often seperated by beds of sand and eel grass

 Fish swimming away...

 Top of a clam

 Slug n the grass

Intrepid explorer Hamish!

Birthday and other things

Time to play catch up. After a busy ten days with work I promptly caught / developed sinusitis and have felt horrendous for the last two weeks, it is clearing up now but still have that horrid taste / smell in my mouth.
It was Cameron's birthday this week but due to Tish's work schedule we had his birthday early over the weekend.
As you would expect from a six year old it was a quiet, laid back affair with no over excitement or anything....this was of course helped by certain presents - well one in fact THANKS Auntie Jo!!!
Our nice tidy bedroom was soon turned into a tip by the whirl wind that is Cameron when he starts unwrapping things...

All of which was great, the last one opened was met with two completely different reactions

The lady who makes the cake decorations for our birthday cake has been ill so our order was not ready so the cake is unadorned other than by normal candles - the proper decorations are now in our cupboard and will be put on a small cake over the weekend.

When the rain had stopped we set up the "Pole Tennis" or whatever it is called in the garden and chaos ensued!

Cameron is practising with this frequently and prior to a certain someones arrival later in the year will be placed in that persons bedroom with strict instructions that it is to be played daily at 0500 for at least 30 minutes, revenge is sweet.....

As the wet draws to a close we are getting some superb sky scapes

Thats all for mmoment will post some more over weekend

Rain, Rain and yet more rain

We may have only had about half the normal amount of rain this wet (1.2m as opposed to over 2.5m) but it is determined to go out with a bang. It started to rain yesterday afternoon and continued throughout the night - at one stage we had over an inch in twenty minutes during the night and to say that it was deafening would be an understatement.
I dodged the showers in the morning to take a few piccies