RSSing

Manly Library has a very good local studies blog at

http://blogs.manly.nsw.gov.au/manlylocalstudies/

Fantastic Flickr and a fun photo

Finding my way around Flickr has been fun. Its a great way to store photos instead of keeping them all on a camera or my laptop. I love the NLA site which encourages the public to add photos of places. The trick is to get them labelled properly to make them useful for historical purposes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spelio/2330539562/

This is a fun photo. Its of a butcher shop sign at Nar Nar Goon near Melbourne.

Other residents

Check out this enormous Titan stick insect. I had one visit my laundry one evening a few weeks ago. It was a female c. 15cm, and more than twice the size of the male. I was so surprised and concerned to rescue her that I forgot to take a photo, but this is a good info site with photos.

http://www.mdavid.com.au/insect/insect.html

Bees, or struggling with the interface

My first picture successfully uploaded! This is a hive of Trigona carbonaria, native stingless bees, when we divided a friends hive and I got my very own hive.

The honey cant be harvested in Sydney, they need it all for themselves, but the bees are good for pollination in the garden.

Note the spiral shape of the cells, very different to European bees.

Adelaide in the heat

Ive come to Adelaide to visit my family and friends and to take in Writers Week and Womadelaide.

Writers Week has been exciting, so much easier to get to, and to get around, than in Sydney. Not too crowded, only 2 locations in adjacent tents, and under the trees. Lots of wonderful writers talking about their work. Heard Germaine Greer yesterday, wow, what an intellect, so impressive. Also saw Nick Earls who writes YA fiction, he's hilarious. And David Marr, and Geraldine Brooks, such a feast, and its all free!

But the heat. How can it be 35 or more degrees every day for 10 days? Appalling, and exactly the days I'm here. The huge old gums in the parklands opposite my parents place are dropping large limbs, the drought's gone on so long here its taking its toll.

But enough of this. I need to figure out what to do with this. Its all very challenging and will no doubt be useful for work when mastered.

Its raining again in Sydney

The plants love it, but so do the weeds. The bees dont though.