Random thoughts and observations
The European wasp is a scourge on the Australian landscape.
Native to Europe, North Africa and temperate Asia, but not Australia, the stinging pest made its way to Tasmania in 1959. It reached Melbourne in 1977 and the first nest destroyed in South Australia was in Port Adelaide in 1978.
The European wasp can be serious pests. They aggressively defend their nest, swarming out to attack if disturbed.
A mouse just got caught in a trap in our bedroom at 1.37am, but didn’t die instantly; instead clattering about on timber floorboards and woke us up. What’s the correct response? Not sure of the ethics, but in a sleep haze I wanted to impale the mouse and hang a sign around it’s neck to [...]
The Southern Brown Bandicoot is a medium-sized ground-dwelling marsupial found on mainland Australia from the Mt Lofty Ranges in South Australia to Sydney, generally within 50km of the coast. The furry marsupial is listed as nationally endangered. We saw this little fellow today at the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens. We were enjoying a picnic when Maggie suddenly shouted “mouse”! He’s a lot bigger than a mouse. Southern Brown Bandicoots are about the same size as small rabbits with a long, pointed snout, small eyes, rounded ears, a compact body, large rump and short, thin tail.
We’ve inherited two kittens who basically adopted us. We don’t know what to do. Originally we thought they belonged to the people next door. Great, our kids can play with kittens, minus any responsibility. Wrong. The kittens are both black. We’ve seen the mother a few times, which we assumed wrongly was next door’s cat.
It’s another grey day on the Carpricorn Coast, no rain again though. I read in a tourist brochure that Farnborough Beach is very nice and good for surfing. We had trouble finding it because there are no signs. Eventually I followed my instinct and a side road took us directly there. It wasn’t very inviting. [...]
