Posted on by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

The Long Grass

Regular readers will know that I have both a fascination for, and dislike of, rats that are not native to Australia. If you told me that the photo below was of a native bush rat, I would say, “Oh, poor thing!” However, if you told me that it was Rattus rattus, I would have no sympathy for it. I would have some sympathy for the magpie though, my first thought being that I hoped the rat wasn’t poisoned lest the magpie die of secondary poisoning.

Anyway, I have been hanging on to this photo for a while, since April actually. I was out walking, contemplating fording some long weedy grass – a wilderness experience – when I caught this magpie acting strangely on the edge of the sports oval. All of a sudden it darted into the long grass (magpies much prefer short grass) and pulled out a rat.


So the long tail tells me that it was Rattus rattus. Do you agree? I suspect it was a dead rat because it didn’t put up a fight and the magpie spent a good minute wondering what to do with it before she flew away with it. It is likely that the rat was poisoned. Or old. Anyway, anyway, there was nothing much I could do about the situation. After that, I decided not to head into the long grass.

You know how I love a good story. I cropped the photo for Show & Tell at my photography group. I think the members quite liked this photo and the story.


This may or may not be my final word on matters rattus. It depends …. Speaking of photography, I submitted some photos for a bookmark that my photography group is producing. I’ve never done anything like that before but why am I in this group if I am not going to participate in the activities? I am keen to know the outcome because I really liked the photos and I would love to share them with you.

Apart from that, my life is pretty ordinary. Given the events elsewhere, this is a good thing.

Take care and stay safe, everyone.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Posted on by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

One Of These Birds Is Not Like The Others

You may be excused for thinking this is Bushboy’s blog, readers. It isn’t! I suppose one of the consolations of having so many rats this year, is that we have had so many more little birds visiting us as well. Anyway, my True Love spent the three weeks of his holiday plugging tiny gaps to prevent the rats getting into the house, thus trapping most of the rats in our roof and wall cavities. We can hear them thundering across the ceiling, perhaps in some rat version of Lord Of The Flies. So maybe the little birds are more comfy to stick around for longer. Anyway, anyway, I digress. There were at least 30 little birds in my yard this morning. This is really extraordinary for our place. They usually never stop to bath in the bird bath but now … they’re into it.

However, one of these birds is not like the others. Equal opportunity here, readers. Well, apart from the rats.


Fortunately, I can now share the joy with you as my youngest son has repaired our internet cable. Our dog, Fynn, chewed through the data cable because he was convinced if he could just rip out the cable, he could start on the wall next, and thus have the starving rodents leap out of the wall cavity into his waiting jaws. Life’s never boring with a Finnish Spitz! But it is not just our house, readers. My vet told me that his cat keeps bringing live rats into the house through the cat door. I am so glad I don’t have a cat.

So, how have you been, readers?

Chat soon.

Kind Regards.
Tracy


Posted on by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

Stranger Things

When I was a kid, we used to sing a little ditty at school. It went like this.

“We had joy, we had fun, we had prickles in our bum,
and the hills that we climbed were a bloody waste of time.”

Do you know it?

For some reason that little earworm sprung to mind as I was thinking of how to break the news to you, or not, as the case may be. It seems that I lost over a third of my blog subscribers a week ago. Like many, I suspect I have a number of subscribers that don’t actually read. Because they are not real people. I hope it is these that have vanished, perhaps as a result of some mysterious internet purge. I don’t know why. These things happen. But you are here. Hopefully. So, hi.

Thanks for sticking around. We have fun. Or at least, I do.

Take care not to be caught up in the purge, readers.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Posted on by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – What’s Bugging You?

When my family got involved in the regeneration of our local woodland, I never imagined that one of our tasks would be to photograph the insects in that space. My True Love (TL) needed little encouragement as he already had an interest in insects. Suffice to say, he has found it extraordinarily difficult to get these small creatures in focus. The wind seems to blow constantly and the insects make haste to avoid being eaten or to eat others. Kudos to all the insect photographers out there. I’m not one of them. You have to take lots of photos to get one or two in focus, at least my TL does on his particular camera. Anyway, today I am featuring a few of the photos my TL has taken over the last six months. Let’s get started.

Bug eyes.

Purple-winged mantid – Tenodera australasiae

What do you think? Spider egg sacs?

Two-tailed spider egg sac?


Beetles seem to be the favourite prey of many insects, although to be strictly accurate, spiders are not insects.

Diamondback comb-footed spider – Cryptachaea veruculata

Apparently the Cerceris, or digger, wasp likes beetles too. My TL is lucky enough just to get the photo of the wasp, so no beetles were eaten in this photo. Cute, don’t you think?

Cerceris wasp – Cerceris sp. (genus)

My TL also took some photos of cuckoos. How about this tiny cuckoo wasp? It is only about 4-5mm long and super fast.

Cuckoo Wasp – Primeuchroeus sp. (genus)

And a Chequered cuckoo bee. Seriously, there is such a thing.

Chequered Cuckoo Bee – Thyreus caeruleopunctatus

Halictad bees are also tiny. At least, these ones are. The first one has just emerged from a tiny Wahlenbergia, our native bluebell, and the second is roosting in some grass.

Halictid Bee – Lasioglossum (Chilalictus) lanarium


My TL tried to take some photos of meat ants launching their queens. But it was a bit hard to get them in focus. I was hollering in the background because the ants were biting me as they were scrambling up my jeans. Definitely had ants in me pants. We had to move away quickly. I thought I would have to drop my dacks on the track to get them out. Just imagine if other walkers had came across a man doing the same thing? He probably would have got into some serious trouble for being a flasher. Anyway, back to the photos – a meat ant pushing a lump of dirt downhill.

Meat Ant – Iridomyrmex purpureus

Speaking of beetles being eaten alive …. We know ants gotta eat, but my TL nevertheless rescued this beetle. The ants would not let that poor beetle go. My TL had a devil of a job freeing it. You have got to be joking if you think I am going anywhere near those ants.


Well, I can’t leave you traumatised so I will finish off with this lovely photo of a Yellow Admiral butterfly on a scribbly gum.

Yellow Admiral Butterfly – Vanessa itea

Thank you to Donna from Wind Kisses for coming up with this theme. It is probably the only subject that I can talk a lot about but don’t have to do any of the work to bring the images to you.

Now bugger off (Aussie slang for “Off you go.” No offense intended.)

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Posted on by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

Silent Sunday

A grey day that melted into night.


Okay, a few words. Our cameras and the software can do magic these day to sharpen and lighten up soft photos taken in the gloom. I constantly debate with myself about using all this tech to massage the photo into what I’ve been told is the correct exposure. I confess that I did touch up this photo. Just a bit. There is no point in posting something that people can’t see, I chide myself. But I like dark photos where shapes and colours merge together.

Nothing wrong with being a bit gloomy, readers.

May you be gloomy in the best possible way.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Posted on by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

Pinkish

Hello Everyone, I am not quite in the pink of health but I am improving. I was feeling not too bad about my current circumstances after seeing the doctor for a pre-arranged check-up (not related to my illness) today. That was, until I got home ….

My True Love asked whether the doctor had looked in my ears? But no, he hadn’t. I told the doctor that I couldn’t hear well (ie. very limited), but he didn’t check my ears. There were other things to discuss that I could barely hear. My TL suggested that the doctor may have interpreted that to mean that I was just getting old and suffering from age-related hearing loss! Nothing to worry about that my hearing aids (left at home) couldn’t fix. My son suggested that the sloshing in my ear might be because I had puss on the eardrum. So I panicked and resorted to Dr Google. The prognosis is not good. I could have permanent hearing loss or cancer of the nose, or another two week wait to see the doctor for an ear infection that requires antibiotics now. I could have a prophylactic antihistamine and I did.

Needless to say, readers, it has been a shitty few weeks of flu-like symptoms. Since I was the only one in the family that was too busy to get a flu shot and the only one who succumbed to this horrible lurgy, then one and one is … I dunno. Anyway, I had my flu shot today.

Anyway, anyway, let’s have a flower photo to pink things up here.

Pelagonium rodneyanum – Australian National Botanic Gardens


Hope you are all in the pink. Take care, everyone.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

Posted on by Reflections of an Untidy Mind

Lens-Artists: Still Life

For the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Still Life. This week’s challenge is hosted by Patti. Thank you, Patti. If you are a lover of photo challenges and the Still Life art genre, check out Patti’s post here.

Still Life art often portrays a created scene/image of inanimate objects, but Patti gives us plenty of leeway to explore different types of still life images, not only the traditional “created” arrangement, but also “found” still life scenes–which we might discover in store windows, in a garden or museum, or just about anywhere. That is good for me because my photo archive is remarkably devoid of created Still Life images. Let’s get on with it.

I am often filled with wonder by the way Still Life images pay homage to ordinary objects. Attention to the small details matter in this art form. Perhaps it is the impermanence and fragility of the scene that I find so wistful.

I have chosen two photos from my archives that I think convey that sense of fragility and impermanence.


Next is a recent photograph I took. Though it be a contradiction, Still Life portraiture can also depict death. Here I have attempted to pay homage to the life that once was. Nature creates life but also takes it away.


It is your moment now, readers.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.