Red in tooth and claw

Tennyson's phrase about the apparent callousness of nature was in my mind today when I saw a young wedgetailed eagle flap ponderously into our ironbarks, carrying something quite large that turned out to be a recently deceased brushtailed possum.

It sat still for quite a while, with the little furry body dangling over a branch and was furiously swooped again and again by our resident magpies.

Eventually they gave up and it flapped to another branch. A great ruckus of alarm calls by other birds erupted when it moved. Then it began to tear open its prey. Not a pretty thing to watch, but that is how these magnificent birds survive.

Here is another kind of prey animal, but this particular one has the protection of human servants to keep her in the manner she has come to expect. Not that she shows any gratitude. In fact she chews your things if you leave them on the floor, just to teach you a lesson. Such as the new panama hat you bought your husband for Valentines Day. Just a couple of little nibbles on the edge of the brim...Don't leave things on the floor OK?

I have just been in Canberra and this naughty rabbit is Mae's Evie. She and the cats are a great distraction  for Mae while she copes with the awful business of chemotherapy. Here is Gus being as cute as his limited brain allows. He was trying to text me, but he doesn't spell well.



The weekend before chemo day, Mae was well enough to manage going to the Bus Depot Markets, but needed to go home and rest instead of coming with me to the political cartoons exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy (a.k.a. Old Parliament House) This (below) was my favourite, commenting on the asylum seeker issue.

I wished I could have stayed longer in Canberra but I had to be back for a meeting in connection with going back into the workforce. So early Tuesday morning, Keir rolled out the Mid-Life-Crisis-Machine, his red sports Mazda and drove me into town to catch the bus to Sydney. Thanks Keir, it was a fun ride. 

It's been pouring on the coast. A cyclone up in Queensland brought gale force winds and huge amounts of rain. Diamond Beach got over 220ml in the five days I was away. The train journey from Sydney to Taree passed through luridly green countryside nearly all the way. This is looking west from the train, near Wingham.

Back home the butcher birds (below) came in out of the rain and sheltered on the terrace. For quite a long time, judging by the amount of bird poop left behind on the chairs!

David's drainage system got a real workout. We have named the new creek below the dam "Sue's Creek".  Here it is still flowing a couple of days after the biggest downpour. Doing exactly what David planned. Very satisfying. All in all the earthworks, pipes, swales and drainage pathways that David has engineered are working magnificently. The rainwater tank is full. The dam is also full and only overtopped its banks marginally, which is fairly easily fixable. The land drains without scouring in heavy rain and harvests water by slowing and directing the run off into swales on the contour lines.

Final picture today is yet another bird. I am delighted by the birdlife here as must be obvious. This is a young white necked heron making itself at home on a chair on the deck. It seemed oblivious of me only a couple of feet away, snapping photos from the window.