The Year Without a Summer

J M W Turner 'Chichester Canal' c.1828

Artists took up their brushes after the eruption of Mt Tambora in 1815 as the high levels of ash in the atmosphere caused spectacular sunsets.  The yellow haze was the prime feature in many of Turner's paintings following the eruption.

A similar phenomenon was seen after Krakatoa erupted in 1883.  William Ashcroft painted several and made thousands of coloured sketches of the red sunsets around the world after the explosion.

William Ashcroft 'On the Banks of the River Thames' 1883

The pall of darkness inspired poet Lord Byron to write 'Darkness' the year after Tambora.  Below is an excerpt from the poem.  The writing of this poem also occurred only months after the ending of his marriage.

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.

The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars

did wander darkling in the eternal space,

rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth

swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;

Morn came and went - and came, and brought no day,

And men forgot their passions in the dread

of this their desolation; and all hearts

were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light...

The Mud Dauber

When in the laundry the other day I saw that my yellow and black friend was back again, building a nest. I stood and watched it for a while, wondering how it was done. It flew off for a few minutes, then came back. All I could see it doing was rub its head with its two front legs and walk all over the dome.


I googled 'Australian wasps' and found out that it is the 'Black and Yellow Mud Dauber', Sceliphron caementarium. The female builds the nest and daubs with the lower mandible (jaw). Each nest contains only one egg. The nest will last for years and is quite often used by other types of wasps and bees.


Apparently they're non-aggressive but will sting, if handled; who'd want to pick one up?! They do pose a threat to aeroplanes, as they build their nests in small openings and tubes, which can impair the function of the craft. In fact, they're held responsible for the crash of Birgenair Flight 301, killing 189 passengers and crew.


I had a look yesterday and found that the construction had been completed. Unfortunately, I'll have to destroy it in a couple of months' time; it's just a job that has to be done, otherwise the house would be covered in them.

Coconut-shell carrying octopus

In this December 10 photograph taken near Indonesia
and released by Museum Victoria, a veined octopus hides
in a coconut shell. Melbourne scientists have filmed the
octopus collecting coconut shells for shelter.
Picture: AP Source: AP

I had to share this with you. The article was in the Melbourne Herald/Sun today and the following text from the newspaper and website. As the scientists, I find it absolutely gobsmacking!

Melbourne scientists discover octopus that carries and hides in coconuts


The bizarre antics of a coconut-shell carrying octopus have been caught on film by Melbourne researchers in a startling world first. Watch how this octopus uses a coconut shell to get up and running.

VIDEO: Coconut-shell carrying octopus

Scientists from the Museum of Victoria couldn't believe their eyes when they saw the creatures using coconut shells as tools in the waters off Indonesia.

"The first time I saw it I just about drowned," research biologist Dr Julian Finn said. "This was the first recorded tool use by an invertebrate and what it shows is that it's not a skill just limited to humans and apes.

"These animals were collecting shells for use later when it would put two halves together. That shows anticipation from a creature and it's exciting stuff for us."

Dr Finn and research partner Mark Norman spent more than 500 hours diving in remote Indonesian waters to observe and film the animals between 1999 and 2008.

Their findings were included in the journal Current Biology released for the first time yesterday. As part of the project, the pair witnessed octopuses dig out coconut shells from the ocean floor, empty the shells of mud using jets of water, stack two empty shells hollow-side up and carry the shells underneath their body in a unique lumbering gait they call "stilt-walking.".

The octopus antics are the most complex ever recorded.

Dr Finn said while many octopuses used available objects like shells or rocks for shelter, the veined octopus (also known as the Amphioctopus marginatus), went a step further by preparing, arranging and carrying pairs of coconut shells up to 20 metres to reassemble as a shelter.

The research and accompanying video footage has sparked a huge response from world-wide media outlets with the two scientists fielding interview requests today from as far as the UK, France and Japan.

The response has been enormous," Dr Finn said.

Feathered Visitors This Week

here's our little Thrush friend

visits every year

so pretty

Crested Pigeon

having a rest between showers

Blue Wren

there's a family 

living in the 

Grevillea rosmarinifolia hedge

eastern slender-billed Corella

Cacatua tenuirostris

and look what blew in,

an old, scruffy, rain-drenched cocky

he was as funny as a circus,

a spooky bird

with a lump of bread in his left claw

they all eat with their left claw,

never the right

with every mouthful

he'd jerk his head around

making sure his little morsel

wouldn't be stolen

hilarious

magpies having a ball

in a pond

it rained all day on Sunday

it is the wettest September

we've had in nine years

and look what waddled over the block

last Thursday

a black swan walking her chicks

to another stretch of water

there is a beautiful 40 acre property

next door to us

16 acres of it ponds

thus, it's called "The Ponds"

she would have nested there

and was on her way 2km

up the road to The Pondage

where we saw her this morning

on our walk
she had found her mate

she only had three chicks left,

two probably taken by eagles

luckily I'd taken along the little Olympus
but couldn't see in the viewer
so just took a punt that
I'd captured them

and, thankfully, I had!!

A HAWK BEING A HAWK

Steven (the golden fish), I found the shots of the Hawk and it was just over a year ago on 29th August '08. I don't know if they go to warmer climes in Winter, I haven't looked up their habits but if it's the same one, it's here again, same place, same time!

As I said, the photos are poor, as it was about 5pm on a dull day, so the light was fading. The Hawk and the Crested Pigeon had just crashed into the window with an almighty bang and our dear little pigeon friend was lying there and Hawky had flown on to the roof to recover. I was as jittery as it was but grabbed the camera to show DMJ the event when he came home.

I went out there, which, in hindsight, was a stupid thing to do and it swooped me, I ducked and it landed on the doorstep. I picked up the pigeon, our Woo (that's how they communicate with us, 'woo, woo') and took it around to our laundry sink. I buried it later. DMJ said that I should have left it there for the Hawk but I couldn't bear the thought of it being carried off! I know, I'm a sook!

Poor 'Woo'

A Noiseless Patient Spider

A noiseless patient spider,

I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,

Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,

It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,

Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,

Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,
seeking the spheres to connect them,

Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,

Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

Walt Whitman

BENNI THE KOALA

Healesville Sanctuary's baby koala Benni

pops out of mum Mia's pouch

Healesville Sanctuary's baby koala and newest rising star has been christened Benni. The moniker recognises the Gippsland township of Bennison from where the sanctuary's first koala population hailed. And it also recognises the significance of the 75th anniversary of the celebrated fauna park.

Herald Sun reader Laura Doorty nominated the name in honour of her late dad Frank Doran, a cattle farmer charged with capturing and transporting the marsupials from his property to Healesville's Koala Sanctuary.

Now 87, Ms Doorty remembers her family's involvement in the establishment of the Koala Sanctuary at Healesville. "Dad was approached by Mr Jack Lindupp, a postal official at Healesville, to catch and supply the first koalas to the Healesville Sanctuary," she daid. "A permit was secured from the fisheries and Wildlife department and Dad captured the koalas by felling the trees and restraining them."

Ms Doorty, who was aged about 12, "stood there while they were caught and helped hold the bags open while they went in." Her sister Gladys Clavarino, now 91, was also present. "Word was then sent to Healesville that they were ready to be picked up. They were transported to the sancuary in kerosene tin cases, (one in each case). "Some cases were inside the car and there were three of the tins with koalas in them on each side running board."

Ms Doorty was "totally thrilled" the name has been adopted by the koala keepers. "It is real history from way back to the start of it all," she said. "All the koalas arrived in perfect condition and quickly settled down in their new surroundings." - Kelly Ryan, Melbourne Herald Sun.

Check out Benni's picture gallery here.

WINTRY SCENES AT 'SEDGEMERE'

the nest waiting, last leaves of birch, loyal magpie, red 'rooms' adding colour,

weeping cherry, buds already!, lichen, apple needs a prune!

Winter's here!

haiku

limbs without shelter
chilled carpet of rime -
roo flees the dawn

Ladybug

POEM

Eildon Pondage January 2006

Here, where my breathing is the sound of Life's whisper ...

I hear the Voice of my Heart's prayer ...
I know the Reality of my truest Yearnings ...
The Longings that no one else could understand ...
Are clear to me here.

And I want to linger ... hold on to this fragile Treasure ...
Lest my senses have stolen from them an instant of Aliveness ...
And my breath be lost in the clamour of the world's noise.

Please, Life ... grant me this Place ...
for my Soul's eternal dwelling.

John-Michael
31st January 2009

COOTAMUNDRA WATTLE

I took this pic last August when our Cootamundra, Acacia.baileyana, was looking its best.  The Cootamundra has a short lifespan, 7 to 20 years, and this one has been there for ten.  Sadly, shortly after flowering, the tree split in two, leaving one side dead.  Today we have a wonderful neighbour coming with his chainsaw and a team of his Easter weekend visitors to put it to rest.  

I made some patty cakes for my family visitors and later this morning will make a carrot cake, which will go nicely with the hot Earl Grey on their break.

We all ventured up the street yesterday to the very popular Easter market.  I bought some novels and a delightful little handbook, Writing, The Story of Alphabets and Scripts by Georges Jean, published by Thames & Hudson, London, on which I'll elaborate at a later date.

ASK ME WHY

You Ask Me Why I Live Here - Anthony Nosworthy, Strathgordon, Tasmania

So, you ask me why I live here, then let me tell you why,

In this rugged wondrous place where the mountains reach the sky.

Here, where man is an intruder amid the forest and the ferns,

Where sunshine into rainfall so often, quickly, turns.

You ask me why I live here, when most would find severe

The mist-enshrouded mountains and deep-enchanted mere.

Where the mist and fog will swirl among the button grass,

Where sun and windless day turns the lake to a looking glass.

You ask me why I live here, when each new dawning day

Is never the same as the one before, in any conceivable way.

Where the sun caresses mountains and changes every hue

A kaleidoscope of colour from scarlet into blue.

You ask me why I live here, when the crimson sun does

Set upon the lake and mountains, ere night has cast its net.

Where the evening sky is bathed in light under red and yellow clouds,

Then twilight settles in again before the night-time shroud.

You ask me why I live here, where the birds and insects sing,

When across the lake and mountains their joyous voices ring.

Where cries of cockatoo and currawong will often break the peace,

Whose calling is a ritual, which never seems to cease.

You ask me why I live here, when by the lake I stand

With rod and line and tackle gripped firm within my hand.

Where fishing is a pretext for what I try to find,

A peace and oneness with my world and for me, my peace of mind.

SPIRITUAL

We arrived home last night after an idyllic two-week holiday in our 'Apple Isle', Tasmania. We were really looking forward to it after the previous trip was cancelled when the bushfires were heading our way. We had a great trip over on The Spirit of Tasmania; a delightful meal at Seasons Restaurant and then lulled to sleep in our two-bed cabin with winds of 50 knots and 3 to 4 metre swells! The next day I was still feeling those waves!

My new header pic is one I took of the first view I had of Lake Pedder at Strathgordon in the South West. This exquisite sight knocked me for a six and I returned to the car with tears in my eyes. This was the first but not the last strong reaction I was to experience in this beautiful State, where the mountains reach heaven, I'm convinced. Around every corner there is a breathtaking view!

Here are a few more shots of the beautiful beaches on the East coast. I hadn't been to a beach for many years but sat on the rocks at Bicheno and splashed around, then walked the beautiful, white sand, the tide finding my feet, followed the seagulls and collected shells. DMJ said I was being a little girl again and it felt wonderful!

GLYCINE'S SONG

by: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

A sunny shaft did I behold,

From sky to earth it slanted:

And poised therein a bird so bold -

Sweet bird, thou wert enchanted!

He sank, he rose, he twinkled, he troll'd

Within that shaft of sunny mist;

His eyes of fire, his beak of gold,

All else of amethyst!

And thus he sang: 'Adieu adieu!

Love's dreams prove seldom true.

The blossoms, they make no delay:

The sparkling dew-drops will not stay.

Sweet month of May,

We must away;

Far, far away!

To-day! to-day!'

I don't think it was an eagle in Coleridge's prose but I saw one of our wedge-tail eagles just now, hovering above, looking so tiny way up there. A couple of weeks ago we saw one coming from the smoke to safety; flying so slowly, as if it had no energy left. Our magpies were attacking it as if saying, 'go away, this is our territory'. It landed in a paddock opposite; it was huge and these little magpies, in comparison, were relentless. It took off again, travelling so slowly into the distance.....

NATURE'S EPITAPH

NATURE'S EPITAPH - William Herbert Carruth (1859-1924)

Who knows where the graveyard is
Where the fox and the eagle lie?
Who has seen the obsequies
Of the red deer when they die?

With death they steal away
Out of the sight of the sun;
Out of the sight of the living, they
Pay the debt and are done.

No marble marks the place;
The common forest brown
Covers them over with Quaker grace
Just where they laid them down.

But a few years, if you see
In summer a deeper green
Here and there, it is like to be
The spot where their bones have been.

Thus, not more, to the poor dead year;
No grave, nor ghostly stone,
But a greener life and a warmer cheer
Be the only sign that he's gone.

Victorian Bushfire Appeal
www.redcross.org.au

BLUE-TONGUE

The blue-tongue lizard found in our garage this morning.
Unfortunately he didn't stick his tongue out.