June 2014
Perfect June winter day, blue sky and sunshine and from the barn you can see over the mist all the way down the Tamar valley. Launceston is normally blanketed as well, but up here the hill is just 152 metres high and puts it above the gloom! The mist looks surreal, you would have no idea how deep the valley was below though the mist layer is only about 50 metres deep.
The crows (or Southern ravens to be correct) are having a convention in the gum trees, about thirty of them making a raucous din! Then there is the occasional white cockatoo looking lost flying over. Down in the other trees the larrikins of the bush, the black cockatoos are making their unique row!
The other wildlife has gone home to bed, the wallabies, wombats, bandicoots and echidnas have left their foraging signs from the night before, calling cards, holes dug looking for ants and grubs.
October/November 2018
The weather this spring and summer has been initially quite dry with some more rain in November. The fire season looks like being later in Northern Tassie but need to keep the grass down and litter cleared. Plenty of activity around the block, the same echidna seems to appear on the front lawn, how the mother possums manage to climb a steel barn with a baby riding on their back amazes me. The potoroos are always on the lawn outside the sliding doors, making sure the grass doesn't get a chance to grow. There are a few black cockatoos about, there was a flock of about 20 in prior years, I have seen a group of 7 or 8 getting about. The 'gang of four' magpies often visit, but they seem pretty wary so people must make them nervous, there was a very tame one last year.
The olives are flowering like mad, will see how the fruit set appears later in the summer, it may be a good season with the later rain.
Perfect June winter day, blue sky and sunshine and from the barn you can see over the mist all the way down the Tamar valley. Launceston is normally blanketed as well, but up here the hill is just 152 metres high and puts it above the gloom! The mist looks surreal, you would have no idea how deep the valley was below though the mist layer is only about 50 metres deep.
The crows (or Southern ravens to be correct) are having a convention in the gum trees, about thirty of them making a raucous din! Then there is the occasional white cockatoo looking lost flying over. Down in the other trees the larrikins of the bush, the black cockatoos are making their unique row!
The other wildlife has gone home to bed, the wallabies, wombats, bandicoots and echidnas have left their foraging signs from the night before, calling cards, holes dug looking for ants and grubs.
October/November 2018
The weather this spring and summer has been initially quite dry with some more rain in November. The fire season looks like being later in Northern Tassie but need to keep the grass down and litter cleared. Plenty of activity around the block, the same echidna seems to appear on the front lawn, how the mother possums manage to climb a steel barn with a baby riding on their back amazes me. The potoroos are always on the lawn outside the sliding doors, making sure the grass doesn't get a chance to grow. There are a few black cockatoos about, there was a flock of about 20 in prior years, I have seen a group of 7 or 8 getting about. The 'gang of four' magpies often visit, but they seem pretty wary so people must make them nervous, there was a very tame one last year.
The olives are flowering like mad, will see how the fruit set appears later in the summer, it may be a good season with the later rain.
Laverda
Getting the bike ready for registration, and possible sale. It needs some road miles to sort out the carburettor tuning and also some fuel issues. For instance there is no air filter, Slaters (in Herefordshire) where I bought the bike believed in no resistance in or out, so no air filter, no baffles in the muffler! Seriously load bike, now it has 10:1 pistons that should make it a tiny bit louder!
Getting the bike ready for registration, and possible sale. It needs some road miles to sort out the carburettor tuning and also some fuel issues. For instance there is no air filter, Slaters (in Herefordshire) where I bought the bike believed in no resistance in or out, so no air filter, no baffles in the muffler! Seriously load bike, now it has 10:1 pistons that should make it a tiny bit louder!