Cate Ellink's Blog, page 15

Wildlife Wednesday - mangroves, smoke, river

The other afternoon we were covered in a smoke haze. I went down to the river and I snapped this shot. It's much more atmospheric than the afternoon appeared to me :)

These are some young mangrove trees growing at the quiet end of the river. I hope they get a good establishment. They've been growing for a couple of years now and they're mighty slow. I'm worried that if the river gets really stagnant and polluted again (like when we first moved here and it hadn't flooded in years), they may die before they get established.

Mangroves are an important ecosystem, vital for healthy rivers. They allow for nurseries where young fish and other river critters can grow relatively protected. They also work as a filtration system. And their pneumatophores (snorkels poking out of the ground to get air at low tide for the tree to live) are one of the niftiest plant adaptations :)

Wildlife Wednesday - Lorikeets bathing

I often overlook the Rainbow Lorikeets that inhabit my backyard. They're noisy and pushy and they screech often in an ear piercing manner. They are beautiful, and I should pay more attention to them, but mostly they just annoy me with their sheer volume!

The other day, I was sitting out the front in the winter sun and I was joined by some lorikeets having their ritual morning bath. I don't know if it's the same ones who come each morning, but there's a distinct time for lorikeets. Rosellas come later in the afternoon, but the lorikeets have the mornings.

There's a concreted dip in my lawn underneath a tap, so it's a perfect swimming hole for the birds. It's about the size of a medium saucepan I guess. I didn't put it there, but I do fill it most mornings.

Grabbing my camera while basking in the sun, I took a few photos hoping to always remember the joy and pleasure these birds were getting from their baths - or at least it looked like joy through my human eyes!

There was some sort of pecking order, and system, and maybe even a time limit for different birds. There was a bird who seemed to be doing a lot of dictating - head down screaming and screeching at the others and herding them away.

There also seems to be a security system. Some birds inhabit the trees around the water, shouting down if people, dogs or birds come past, where everyone jumps out of the water and flies to the trees.

Birds seemed to take turns in the water, splashing and preening, before sitting on the side fluffing their feathers while friends bathed.

It looked like a lot of fun and I was a bit sorry that only my toes would fit into this bath!

Do you watch birds bathing?

Phallic Friday

I've been remiss in not having a Phallic Friday post for a long time. I've had my non-sexy hat on while I try to get a "clean" book finished for the other me!

And while I've been battling with that book, I've gone onto a binge on non-fiction. I've read about 6 writing craft books, and I'm trying to develop stronger stories with more conflict. I'm even thinking I might plot, or at least have some sort of an outline on paper.

I have a Glebe Gannets story in my head though, to follow on from Team Player. Actually, two stories. I had one started, but the second one is calling more loudly to me. It's Ashton, and a polyamory story. Ash is the least likely person to break rules and do something that 'society' frowns upon. So I'm going to try putting him in a relationship that's going to confront him and make him question everything. He's already abrupt and questioning, so heaven knows how this will go! But that's my plan for when my "clean" book's done.

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to getting my smutty mind back out and letting it loose :)

Until then... I'll try to pop some random posts up so I keep myself entertained!

Wildlife Wednesday - the Moon

Moonrise, during sunset - 26th July 2018I know the Moon isn't wildlife, but I've no place else to categorise it, so we're calling it wildlife for today!

If you follow astrology, it's the eclipse season, where lunar and planetary energies are causing havoc among many people with eclipses and retrogrades during the recent few weeks and a few weeks to come.

I've been following a few posts about this, which is maybe why my interest in the moon has moved into my photography - or maybe it's just the upgraded little point-and-click camera that has some nifty things that's making me try moon shots.

Now, the camera isn't so good as to get great, clear, up close moon photos...but it's better than the shiny blur I used to get, hence my excitement!

So here are some recent moody moon photos from my place :)
Start of the eclipse at 4.30 am - Mars in upper left
As the moon went red at 5.30 am

Moonrise at sunset over the ocean on the 28th July 2018
Moonrise with Mars above, 7.30 pm 29th July 2018

Wildlife Wednesday - Laughing Kookaburra

I'm really lucky that my town has quite a few kookaburras, and even luckier that a family of them have my backyard in their territory. For the last few months, there have been some young kookaburras trying out their wings, feeding, laughing, and mixing with humans. I'm refusing to feed them while their parents teach them to eat...but boy oh boy, do I want to have them eating from my hand. They've completely captivated me.

They sit and pose for the camera now. They'll watch me as I walk around them trying to get a shot I haven't got before - like that's possible!!

I really enjoy their company as I sit outside. They'll often sit on a branch above me, or they'll perch on my clothesline as I peg out the clothes. In summer, when it was hot, they loved to have a bit of a spray under the hose.

So here are a few photos of them.

If you want any info, it's here on Birds in Backyards. These are Laughing Kookaburras. Even though they have some blue on their wings, it's nothing like the large, strongly coloured blue of the Blue-Winged Kookaburra found in the northern coastal parts of Australia.

Wildlife Wednesday - Satin Bowerbird

Oh my goodness! I know it's Thursday, but I was just so thrilled I had to share.

There's been a medium sized, black bird, who flashes past with his white beak/head/neck, for the last couple of years. He's the most elusive little chap. A bit later in the year, he'll start making all sorts of incredible noises - courting - and I wait happily waiting for his mate. Sometimes I sit with my camera but I never get a good shot, and he moves so quickly and hides so well, I've never gotten a good look at him.

Anyway, today, by sheer chance I had my phone with me when he fluttered in the bushes. So I waited and snapped a shot. Then I took two more -terribly blurred. The first one had no zoom, so he was this tiny thing in a bush. I cropped.

The photo here is all I have. So, out came Pizzey, my bird book. I thought he may have been a whipbird, or something like that...but no. And he's all black, white bit on his beak, light brown legs. Nothing looks like that! I'm despairing because how I am ever going to know what he is besides and elusive black bird in my yard.

I flicked to the last plate. Holy shit! Is that him? I'm almost beside myself as I look. A Satin Bowerbird. The Australian Museum has a beautiful photo and info here.

I've never seen a Bowerbird for real. When I was a kid, I helped out at Brownies and one group called me "Bowerbird". So it's a bird quite close to my heart. And I have one, in my yard. And I've had one for years and stalked him but never never imagined who he was.

Here's some more photos and info from Birds in Backyards.

I've seen the females passing through but I didn't associate them with him, or identify them. I think I know where his bower is too - in an area I need to weed, so that won't be happening!!!

Oh, if only they sat still long enough for me to get a nice photo. I might need to build a hide and sit in a corner somewhere and wait patiently for the bowerbird.

Wildlife Wednesday - Beachcombing

It's winter here, and some days have been raining, cloudy and miserable, so to console myself, I go beachcombing rugged up and looking like the blue Abominable Snowman!

But after wild weather, there are some nifty things that wash up on the beach. Here's a sample of what I've found in my most recent trip.

Do you like beachcombing? Or roaming in the rain?

Wildlife Wednesday - wasps

I think these are wasps and a wasp nest in my spruce tree - but...I could have everything wrong!

Sometimes looking these things up really deflates my belief that I have some knowledge of the natural world!! And I always wish I paid more attention to the creatures and got right up looking at them, taking notes, while I shot the photo!

So, the Australian Museum has a lot of information on wasps, which you can find here, and then finishes with this (and that's where all my doubts come from):

"What looks similar?Bees are closely related to wasps and share many features. In general the following features distinguish bees from wasps: legs and body hairy with forked hairs; hindlegs enlarged to form baskets of hairs to carry pollen; wings have cells; movement generally restricted to interaction with flowers and returning to nests.Ants are closely related to wasps and share many features. To further complicate matters some wasps look and behave remarkably like certain ant species. In general the following features distinguish ants: constricted 'waist' with one or two knobs; antennal segment closest to body very long (five times as long at least) to any of the remaining segments; presence of certain glands (microscope and taxonomic expertise required). Wasps never have all of these features.Sawflies are closely related to wasps and share many features. Sawflies can be distinguished by a lack of constriction at the 'waist' and more complete wing venation. The wings have more veins and cross-veins that form cells, with at least one vein extending to wing margin. They are nearly always plant feeders (one or two are parasites of wood-boring beetles), and females have a saw-like ovipositor folded into a groove when not in use.Some moth families are wasp-like in appearance. Some species of case moths (Family Psychidae), cup moths (Family Limacodidae), clearwing moths (Family Sesiidae), forester moths (Family Zygaenidae), and hawk moths (Family Sphingidae) have adults which have clear membranes on their wings, with scaling restricted to veins and the body of the moth. This can sometimes give a wasp-like appearance (eg. Family Sesiidae), and may result in incorrect identifications. The scales on the body should still identify these insects as moths."

Phallic Friday - mega bucks vibrator

OMG! I saw this last weekend on the news.com.au website and I had to share it. You can find the article here.

It's a $1.8 million (AUD) vibrator!

An Aussie jeweller, Colin Burn, has made the Pearl Royale vibrator. It's taken him 15 years. It looks like a silver bullet vibrator, but it's adorned with gemstones and the end (where the battery goes - if it has something as mundane as a battery!) is designed like a crown! @Fornicari on Instagram has an image.

Oh, no batteries ... and no scratching from the gems. They've thought of everything! Here's a snippet from the article:

"The vibe, Mr Burn says, is “weighty” — weighing about a pound — and runs on two hand-engineered motors. Its platinum body is covered with 2,000 diamonds, some royal-blue sapphires and “very rare” pink diamonds, all provided by Russian diamond merchants who are backing the product. (Don’t worry, you can’t get cut on the gems. “They’re flush-set,” Mr Burn says.) The lucky user twists a platinum key to get it started."

He says he created it because he wanted to "...create something that shows the value people place on sex". I'm not quite sure how to take that comment.

So, when I win lotto, I might add this to the wish list :)

Sunday Story - Mateship WIth Birds

It was my choice of book for Book Club this month, and after telling them about my award last month, imagine my horror when the book is about sex!

I chose Mateship With Birds by Carrie Tiffany because it has won the Stella Award a few years back (2013), was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, and had been on my TO READ list for quite some time. But over the years, I'd forgotten what it was about. I just saw it on the list and ticked it as one of my selections, which is what we do in our book club.

I've been struggling to read lately, months actually. It reminds me of the period after Mum died when I also struggled to read. A very good friend died towards the end of last year and my father-in-law recently, so I'm thinking it's a similar reaction. Plus I spent so long last year sick, maybe there's a reaction to that too. I can't explain in - but it's a bother to me because not only does it stop me reading, it's affecting my interpretation of those books I have to read.

Anyway, back to this book.

It's set in the 1950s, in Australia on a dairy farm and has a lot of focus on birds and nature. All things I should be loving. And yet I struggled to read this. At times, I devoured chunks, and then got brought to a halt. There were confronting parts to this story, that was in other ways quite gentle. And maybe that's the point of the story. Life isn't all roses. It's made up of horror, shock, crudeness, revulsion, lack of knowledge, floundering, beauty, sweetness, gentleness, kindness, cruelty...and in the mundane every day tasks we often do unthinkingly, there are elements of these too.

A proportion of the novel is about sex. It's bluntly written, with a distinct uncomfortableness, which reflects the character, Harry. Sex is written in a style which seemed quite well portrayed for Harry who is a dairy farmer who I guess is in his 40s or so. He's a naturalist, a farmer, but was uneducated in the ways of romance and human sexual relations prior to his marriage when he was 33. It had disastrous consequences for him (ending in divorce), so he takes the opportunity to share his knowledge with his young neighbour, Michael, who is just becoming interested in girls.

There are some cleverly written sections, but this one had me bursting into laughter.

"The internal skin of the female organ is pitted with oil-producing glands that release on arousal. In my experience a slight dampening is the usual state of play, but this particular afternoon Edna was irrigated full-bore." (page 120)


Later in the same section (a letter to Michael), when explaining female lubrication, Harry writes:

"Is it water? No. It's thicker than water, but thinner than oil. And it doesn't wash away with soap. Sticks to the skin so the smell (muddy) can be carried for days - especially on the pads of the fingertips and under the nails."

The characters in the story were difficult for me to like, however I felt they well depicted country people and I imagine how things were in the 1950s. I thought Carrie Tiffany did a good job with drawing parallels between humans and animals, and showing some of the horrible traits that were human alone. I felt there was a thread through the story where sex and death were shown as 'normal' parts of animal life, and yet were hidden and brought shame in human lives. I just wonder if that was a thread others found, as when I looked at reviews I haven't seen that mentioned although there was lots about anthropomorphising and the animal-human interaction.

This wasn't a comfortable or easy read, even though the book is rather small. It packs a punch, which I guess is why it attracted the attention of those judging literary awards.

Unfortunately I won't be able to be at the book group discussion on the book. I'd love to know how others found the story.