I'm ready to talk...

Two weeks ago I had two Ladies (of the Leghorne variety). I raised them from ugly looking adolescents and while they haven't ever been the most reliable or prolific layers (as promised), they have nevertheless, become quite special to me. Their names: Margaret and Ann - and yes, not only are these ladies deserving of royal names, they are also deserving to share their names with the matriarchs of our young family (Mrs Margaret Palm and Mrs Ann Buchan).

Such beautiful birds with the frilliest knickers:

Two weeks ago, the TWO became ONE... Such a sad state of affairs. And without going into too much detail, it was discovery I would choose not to make. Given that I made this discovery in my dog's yard, I naturally assumed that she was responsible - despite the fact that she had be co-habitating with them for over a year without showing any signs of malice, aggression, or even interest! I didn't have time to investigate much further and I'm guessing the dog was relieved about that.

Thanks to several conversations since that day, I have learnt what I should have in "Chicken Keeping 101": When a fox takes a chicken, it leaves a tell-tale sign... a headless chook.

So Obi is off the hook. The remaining Lady is coping remarkably well and life seems to be back to normal... well... as normal as my life gets.

Little House of Horrors

Last night was pretty bad... on a few levels.

Losing power from midnight to 8am wasn't great - especially in a house that is still smoking from the day's heat. I guess the cooling appliances got to have a night off - lucky them!

Prior to that though, we had a few "house guests" that I don't recall inviting, or even allowing entrance. The first was a Huntsman Spider. It was huge. I have lived here on and off for the last 11 or so years and this guy matched what I've seen before - though I haven't seen one this large for quite some time. It's the kind of size that requires effort to find a vessel big enough to catch it in. This guy's legs spanned at least 15cm. Not many people actually believe me when I demonstrate how big they get out here. Needless to say, it was quickly recognised that he had outstayed his non-exsistant welcome and was removed as quickly as he had arrived.

Not too much later, we decided it was bed-time. After much preparation in trying to make the bedroom conducive to sleeping (for those non-Adeladian readers, it's reaching mid 40s during the days and cooling to a 'chilly' 30 overnight), we settled down for some shut eye. I had just turned off my bedside light but was still given some light by Andy's mobile phone as he went through his "bedtime routine". Thankfully, I still had my eyes open - if I had not, we may have had this next guest all night. An odd shadow was flying around our room - and if it were a moth, it would've given the last guest a run for his money on the "oversized for species" department. No... it was a bat... Again, not an unheard of occurance here, but still adding to our "eventful" evening. After some crafty catching techniques from "Batman" (aka my brave husband), normality was restored.

Five minutes later, the power cut out - for what turned out to be the entire night...

Encounter with the Pobblebonk

The saga of the outside steps continues. It has been severly delayed since it was this same job that caused me to lose my fingernail (see "Taimi vs the axe" blog). So we got back to it, finally, though today's interruption was due to an encounter with a Pobblebonk. What's a Pobblebonk?This is a Pobblebonk, aka Bullfrog or Eastern Banjo Frog... NOT a cane toad as I must confess cross my mind at first. It was about 6cm long, had warty skin and was all around pretty gross looking so you must understand my early conclusion.


Anyway, we made friends, then let it go a little closer to the creek where I think it meant to be!