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Bubs and Bubbles

My photo series on Junior Miss, our resident brushtail possum, was short-lived because I am a slack wildlife correspondent and because shortly after starting the series, she disappeared. My True Love told me that the possum jaw bone we found at the nearby park around the time she disappeared was purely a coincidence. Hmmm.

Well, I don’t need to tell you that the world is going to hell. And as further proof of that, the H5 bird flu has finally arrived on Australia’s shores with distressing consequences. So does that mean I should never again post a bird photo in case all our birds die? Hell, no! You can be sure I will be taking as many photos of live birds as possible. However, few birds have flown past my lens, so instead here are some photos of our new resident possum, Bubs. Bubs is Junior Miss’s little sister. She is very sassy.

Bubs in the dog bath that is hanging up in the shed.

Bubs used to do a lot of very loud hissing which she used to great effect to evict her sister from the shed. Her hisses have since mellowed with occasional outbursts of mild chagrin. The exasperation is due to her becoming a mummy and needing to keep Bubbles in line. Bubbles is female and becoming more of a pouchful.

I suspect that it is not good for Bubbles to become habituated to humans. Time will tell.

My TL checks on them every day. We get worried when they choose some other motel and it is always a relief when they show up again after a couple of days. Anyway, I hope I haven’t jinxed them.

Should I mention that I have a photo of the jaw bone? That’s a photo for another day.

Take care, everyone, and stay well.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Posted on by Reflections of an Untidy Mind · 41 Comments

Fynn Is Getting Old

Hello! I think I have excelled myself in the length of time between posts. However, I could not let another day pass without celebrating the old boy’s recent birthday.

I’m not referring to my True Love, but to our youngest member of the household, Fynnie Puss. Fynnie Puss is not actually a cat, but a Finnish Spitz, so that makes him rather like a cat in nature. He loves his couch, especially in winter.

The big news is that he has turned 10. Can you believe it? Here is a quick snap of him.

Not a bad photo, eh? The other big news is that I’ve got a new camera and I feel so relieved. I have barely posted a single photo taken with my other fancy new camera and that is because it is sooooo heavy. I can barely hold it for more than a few seconds. Most of the images are blurry because of my tremor so I have faced the reality that it isn’t right for me. I’ve gone back to Micro FourThirds and although I’ve only taken about 20 photos in total, I think this new camera will be much better for me.

So the moral of this story is that time passes, even for Fynnie, and bigger is not always better.

I hope you are all well, especially my friends on the other side of the world living in an inferno. In my part of Australia, Canberra, your discomfort (or hell?) means that winter has finally arrived. It is bliss, at least for a month or two before our hot weather arrives again.

Take care, everyone.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

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My Precious

Raining cats and dogs.

I take every drop of rain I can get at the moment. We are expecting dry times and hot weather ahead due to the influence of an expected super El Nino. My dogs however, take each day as it comes.

Fynn is not a happy chappy when it rains. Why “go” outside when it rains when the hall wall is a perfectly suitable alternative? He’s so precious. Did I tell you the story of how we had to rush him to the vet earlier this year because he drank too much and nearly died of water toxicity? Clearly, drinking water is not a problem, but standing in it is.

Don’t make me!

Makea, on the other hand, loves to chill in the rain. She also loves to come inside and rub herself dry on the lounge chair. She’s so precious.

This is the life!

Ama fares well. She is perky despite some arthritis and continues to surprise us. The other day I glanced out the window at a man walking his dog past the house. Dogs have a sixth sense about how to embarrass their owners. His dog chose that moment to crap on my garden verge. The poor man looked toward the window and saw that I had observed this indiscretion. So he signalled to me for a bag so he could clean it up. That was nice of him. As I opened the door to pass him the bag, Ama flew past me and attacked his dog. She moved fast for an old girl. I don’t know who was more embarrassed. I’m so precious. Ama is a little cow.

Take care, everyone, and remember that life is precious.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

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How Do Your Roses Grow?

Middish May 2026 – Canberra (Australia).

Autumn fades but the roses are still blooming. I find that odd. Perhaps it is to be expected considering we haven’t yet had a frost.

It has been quite dry so my rose bushes are unaffected by black spot. I’m curious. Is black spot also an issue in damper climes of the Northern Hemisphere? T

Thankfully some rain has arrived to top up my water tank, and no doubt, winter will arrive soon. Floriade, the forthcoming annual tulip festival, will be a desultory affair without winter’s intervention.

I’m curious. Do rabbits eat tulips?

I’m in a desultory mood myself, hence a lack of doggerel on my part.

Stay curious, everyone. It beats doggerel any day.

Kind Regards.

Tracy.

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The Anzac story is bigger than we remember | Pearls and Irritations

The Anzac tradition honours sacrifice, but the broader, global contribution to the war effort remains under-recognised in Australia’s national memory.
— Read on johnmenadue.com/post/2026/04/the-anzac-story-is-bigger-than-we-remember/

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My Little Cheat

I was writing my blog and turned around to see Makea Nurse Fluffy. When the doctor takes my blood pressure, I picture Nurse Fluffy in my mind and my BP is perfect. My True Love tells me I’m cheating. I should cheat/treat myself more often.

May your heart’s desire be kind and fluffy.

Regards,

Tracy.

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Summer Nothin’

Is it okay to be safe and sound, and relatively happy when so many people are trying to survive under incredibly difficult circumstances? Dunno.

I concentrate on the small things. That reminds me of Arundhati Roy’s novel, The God of Small Things, which was one of the most depressing books I’ve ever read. But I digress.

Another hot summer here in sunny Canberra (Australia). We had no rain and then fortunately the rain arrived. Plant reprieve. While we waited for this momentous event, we sprinkled some little birds which made them and my garden happy.

Check out this cutie.

Waiting.

For a boy like you.

And the whole extended wren family. Must have been over a dozen. My camera didn’t know where to point. But they were too fast. And the grass too long.

The bird garden is tiny like its inhabitants. When the garden closes in, there is always neighbourhood weeding. A few hectares. With my friends. Sometimes by myself. Note the long thin strip of newly green African Love Grass that is currently the focus of our combined attention.

Having weeded the outsides, we are now meeting in the middle. Not bad considering we don’t have elephants or power tools. Everything is done the very old-fashioned way. By hand.

The next drain photo is from another angle. We’ve woman-handled the ALG, the festuca, goose grass and paspalum from this once rampantly weedy area. My True Love helps but he still has a big to-do list that he is working his way through. The reeds and native grasses are doing their job too, filtering the run-off.

Small steps. And then there is the admin and advocacy for our natural spaces. So I sleep a lot. And the photos sit in their catalogue and another Silent Sunday opportunity slips by. And yet, here I am. It’s not even midnight! The crickets sing summer nothings. Sounds of autumn. Time to get even busier.

And to all my lovely readers, I hope you too are okay, and are able to breathe in a few small things each day. Take care.

Kind Regards.
Tracy

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A Canberra Gardening Story – Restoring Native Habitat – A Gamochaeta-Led Recovery

2025 was the year I tended my neglected backyard veggie garden and went wild.

In 2024, my TL and I (mostly my TL because I hate gardening) abandoned the veggie garden due to the rodent plague and possum party. Now with three years of Aussie landcare under my belt, I was horrified that my veggie patch had been overtaken by every exotic weed known to box gum grassy woodlands and natural temperate grasslands. So much fleabane (the weed you never walk past) and Gamochaeta (the latter an exotic cudweed)! I’m not sure whether the soil is so good because of the Gamochaeta, or the Gamochaeta so happy because of the soil. I also had some Euchiton (local cudweed), oxalis and other weedy natives, plus one small kangaroo grass (Themeda) tussock, a remnant of a bigger patch that I had exterminated due to the seeds not agreeing with the dogs at one point! Dogs now shut out due to noise issues associated with their favourite prey – rodents.

Our backyard soil is what’s known as “seasonally damp”. In summer 2025, I took to the weed whacker with gusto. I planted a couple of native forbs but they didn’t thrive due to the summer sun sapping the life out of the soil. I also threw in some Euchiton seedheads from plants growing up through my pavers. Anyway, by Spring 2025 I had lots of Gamochaeta and Euchiton. Ta da!

That dead looking shrub in the background of the above photo is a Tumut grevillea. The birds and insects loved it. A week ago I saw its tiny offspring in the Euchiton patch! I hope it survives the heatwave.

Anyway, have you ever seen so much Euchiton in your entire life?

Themeda, Dianella, and a glimpse (back right of photo) of the Indigofera. Also, Euchiton ….

I am keeping some pink salvia because the Blue-banded bees love it. They are experts at buzz pollination. Varroa mite has recently spread to Canberra so the honeybee population is likely to collapse and their numbers not expected to rebound for several years. Blue-banded bees will also pollinate your tomatoes so please keep the pesticides and herbicides to an absolute minimum to support our native bees.

The next step will be to cull some of the Euchiton to make way for some other local forbs and to give our cheeky (and apparently declining) wrens, a space to forage. The native crumb weed (Dysphania pumilio) has now begun its surge. Gosh, the wrens love it. It will also keep some shade over the bare soil when I pull out some Euchiton. Canberra landcarers, please get in contact if you need a colonising species.

Take care, everyone, and happy landcaring.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

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Possum Tales – A Series

30 Dec 2026 – A Christmas wish and a possum tale.

We are fairly certain that Junior Miss has been very naughty this year.

Not me!

I’m so hot!

Brush-tailed possums wee on themselves and lick their paws to cool down. It is currently 33oc in the tinny.

No matter the time of year, a kind word and a kind deed are worth more than all the riches in the world. My TL and I hope you spread your warmth and kindness generously over the festive period and we wish you all the very best for 2026.

Kind Regards.

Tracy