Feathertail Glider

Well Carmen just came in with what I thought at first was a mouse on her shoulder, she said it was not a mouse but a gliding Possum which after having a look on the internet found it was a Feathertail Glider.
It was so small and she had a hold of it by the tail so I was afraid it would drop it's tail, as the chipmunks did back home when caught in a no win situation. It looked like it was a baby, so I did not want to put any more stress on it by taking photos.
I have since found this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feathertail_Glider
If you have a look, it is native to this area, and the small size and lack of stripes indicated a feathertail rather than a Sugar glider, which is larger.
It was found in the bathroom near the cat food and one of the cats was eyeing it off, so it ended up some distance from the house in a tree where we hope it will stay, and stick to it's diet of bugs nectar and pollen, gliding from branch to branch.

Lichens

I liked the look of the lichens on this tree, I boosted the colour saturation on this photo, to compensate for the overcast day.

Ironfest continued

As you can see in this photo the flags are horizontal the rain is falling the blue sky is disappearing, and the tent is almost being lifted by the wind.

Ironfest Day

Well the day started ok, I was up early, so we could get an early start. I decided to make a couple of egg mcmuffins and fry up some left over mashed potato a-la-hash browns, I had just finished the potatoes, and the muffins were just about to be toasted, when I noticed a trail of blood ...............

It was coming from the freezer section of the small fridge and worked it's way down to the floor ending in a crimson pool at the foot of the fridge Oh S#%t the fridge had defrosted, all the extra or overflow from the big freezer was in there, chicken, mince, sausages, as well as all the fixings for more Turkey croquettes!
I spun around in my wheelchair to grab a sponge from the sink to clean up the bloody mess, forgetting I had placed the plate of potato patties on the shelf of the wheelchair, the combination of gravity and centrifugal force was just enough to spread the contents over a nice arc on the kitchen floor! Great! way to go! what a great start, the next two hours saw me cleaning and cooking , not only the initial breakfast (potato patties for the dogs) but the defrosted mince sausages and chicken all of this before being able to get away, consequently we did not get to Ironfest till about 2:30, entry was half price, at this stage, and the battle recreation had just finished, the Jousting was due to start in half an hour, when we were assaulted from the sky by a blustery wind and cold stinging rain, this resulted in cancellation of the jousting....
Well we still had the stalls and shops but the outside ones were not too inviting due to the weather so we ended up indoors doing the rounds of the stalls had a coffee and a kebab for lunch and then made our way home, which because of the long weekend in conjunction with the end of school holidays meant we got caught in traffic on the return trip this resulted in trip that should have been 1 1/2 hours stretched out to almost 3 1/2 - 4 hours. Needless to say I did not get any great photos, in fact due to the rain I took 3 photos.
The first is an image of a Water Resonator, this is what the plaque on the bottom left said it was. I blacked out the background and increased the colour saturation, sort of what I had in mind when I spotted it in the park. sorry no knights minstrels or maidens.

Anzac Day weekend & Ironfest

Well the ANZAC day holiday is coming up and lands on a Friday this year making a long weeekend for All in Australia NZ & a few Island nations.
Anzac day commemorates the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose soldiers were known as Anzacs. The pride they took in that name endures to this day, and Anzac Day remains one of the most important national occasions of both Australia and New Zealand.

During the 1920s, Anzac Day became established as a National Day of Commemoration for the 60,000 Australians and 18,000 New Zealanders and Islanders who died during the war. The first year in which all the States observed some form of public holiday together on Anzac Day was 1927. By the mid-1930s, all the rituals now associated with the day — dawn vigils, marches, memorial services, reunions, sly two-up games — became part of Australian Anzac Day culture. New Zealand commemorations also adopted many of these rituals, with the dawn service being introduced from Australia in 1939.

With the coming of the Second World War, Anzac Day became a day on which to commemorate the lives of Australians and New Zealanders lost in that war as well and in subsequent years, the meaning of the day has been further broadened to include those killed in all the military operations in which the countries have been involved.

One of the traditions of Anzac Day is the 'gunfire breakfast' (coffee with rum added), which occurs shortly after many dawn ceremonies.

The other event on this week end is Ironfest in Lithgow which is where Carmen's mother was born, it is a steel and coal town and coal is still being mined for the 2 power plants in the area.

Ironfest was first held in April of 2000 to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the birth of steel in Australia, in Lithgow.

Last year was the first that we went to, as suggested by Kyle & Kris, there were Blacksmiths and and associated art & crafts everything being made in Australia.

The whole fair is medieval themed with Actors, shows, music, jousts, battles & demonstrations from sword and chainmail being made to sculpting jewelery & weaving. heres a link to the website, http://www.ironfest.com.au/index.html but I found it took a long time to load, so you may not want to wait, which is why I detailed what happens there above. photos from the fest will be in my next blog.

No surgery for me but Tom is not so lucky

Well latest info is that my surgery scheduled for Monday has been postponed till May the 12th, from all accounts this could keep getting postponed for a year or more! lets hope not.

In the mean time Tom Bourne, Kris and Kyle's mate who is like a brother, and son of ours, has had a severely broken leg playing Rugby, the break is below the right knee and the tibia is split as well as the patella being displaced, surgery to insert pins is planned for Monday the 21st of April, let's wish him luck, and a fast recovery.

Hibiscus

Well before I had that massive steak I spent most of the day taking photos of the Hibiscus we have growing around here.
I got jack of the fact my camera does not have a good close up ability so started to tinker to see what I could rig up, well I did certainly get a lot closer to my subject have a look at the slide show.

Hibiscus