Animals – Page 5 – Reflections of An Untidy Mind

Posted on October 8, 2020October 12, 2020 by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

Walking With Magpies

This article contains material of a satirical nature that may offend some readers. Please note the photos are awful, but the story is good/scary/funny.

For months now I have been in serious training. Magpie training. It’s full on magpie breeding season here in Canberra (Australia) and for the unlucky few, a walk, cycle or broomstick ride, may lead to being dive-bombed by a rampaging magpie. As of a few minutes ago, the count on the number of magpie attacks that have occurred in Australia this year is 3798, with 466 injuries (see Australia’s Magpie Swooping Map 2020). The number of attacks and injuries are likely significantly under-reported. But have no fear, ladies and gentlemen, there are a couple of ways to mitigate the risks.

Posted on August 31, 2020September 6, 2020 by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

The Changing Seasons – August 2020

Canberra, Australia – Last days of winter. Mostly cold and wet. Still no Covid in town.

There have been no new cases of Covid-19 in Canberra for 51 days. Too good to be true or too good to last? As for the weather, it was mostly cold, wet and miserable with the occasional sunny day. It was a 3Cs month for me – cleaning, creativity and cranky. As usual, I took a lot of photos.

Posted on July 3, 2020July 3, 2020 by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

Surprise!

Life is full of surprises. Some surprises we even get to photograph. Are you ready for some fun, bizarre and hairy surprises?

Posted on May 19, 2020May 19, 2020 by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

All My Trials – Ms Irrepressible

Today, I thought I might do an experiment and try posting a short video of the irrepressible one. I have no idea whether the file is too big for readers to view, so your feedback would be very much appreciated. The irrepressible one is of course my little dog, Ama. When she wants her dinner, she engages in some remarkable attention seeking behaviour. What do you think? Should we surrender to her will?

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Posted on April 2, 2020April 5, 2020 by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

The Changing Seasons – March 2020

March — Australia creeps toward lockdown. The weather is good but.
Warning: this story contains many bird and nature photos.

It seems an age ago that the smoke of bushfires polluted my lungs and we hunkered down for the summer in our small abode. Then the drought broke and the new corona virus reached our shores, causing chaos and disruption, and threatening to kill a generation. I confess that my summer experience made me hyper-vigilant for danger. Like the virus, my preparations and anxieties gathered momentum as March marched in. Read more

Posted on March 30, 2020March 31, 2020 by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

Land Of Milk And Honey

It seems an age ago that the aphids were attacking my newly sprouted garlic chives. Now as autumn makes its long anticipated appearance in the temperate areas of Australia, the black aphids are back. This time they are attacking a beautiful succulent that my friend gave me last year. The ants are milking the aphids for honeydew. It is a good system. Read more

Posted on March 10, 2020March 13, 2020 by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

Suck It Up

For Sunshine’s Macro Monday #32

It was a public holiday in Canberra today to mark the anniversary of the official naming of Australia’s national capital in 1913. And a beautiful day it was. It is such a privilege to live in this gorgeous city. As well as being the seat of the Federal government, Canberra is the home to a number of research institutions and universities, so we have an abundance of very clever people living here. Some of those people have developed and maintain the Canberra Nature Map, an online map of Canberra’s diverse flora and fauna. It is a live map updated regularly by members. As a result of this wonderful resource, we now know the name of the funky fly I posted photos of recently (see original post). Read more

Posted on February 26, 2020February 26, 2020 by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

Bee-tiful

My contribution to Sunshine’s Macro Monday #30.

Hello readers, you all know how I love to share my True Love’s beautiful photos. He took this photo a couple of months ago. The photo was lovely in colour but someone else invited me to participate in a monochrome photo challenge, so I played around and converted it to B&W. I’m not sure if B&W conversion is allowed in macro photography? Any idea?

Anyway it was a very windy day so the photo is a little blurry, but still turned out nice, don’t you think?

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Posted on February 14, 2020February 20, 2020 by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

The Future Is Ours

I am not a curious person, ladies and gentlemen, so it is well that I ended up sharing my life with my True Love and that we had two lovely, inquisitive boys. It is a truism, but without them, I would be the lesser.