Possum Magic

I was wallowing in bed the other morning, still whiny and grumpy with coughing and sniffing, when Steve hissed at me through the window to come outside quietly and bring the camera.  Outside our front door are an assorted collection of 'grubbing in the mud' footwear.  I have mentioned before about my love of lairy boots, particularly my dotty ones.  Well, it seems someone else likes them too.....what is this we spy sitting on my wellies.....

We weren't sure what this was at first, surely rats don't get this big I thought to myself.  Thankfully no, this little critter is a Western Ringtail Possum, who by rights should have been tucked up fast asleep in his treetop nest (called a drey, I educated myself) as it was daylight.  For some reason he had tucked himself up under the little table by the front door, keeping his bottom warm on my boots.  He sat there quietly for a minute, then bolted...

There he goes, see his white tail.  But he was very confused, running backwards and forwards on the grass, stressing me out that an eagle was going to snatch him up for its breakfast.  Eventually I walked down to him and herded him towards the peppermint forest, and eventually he climbed a tree and settled down.  I hope he finds his very own tree or else he will have to build a new drey.  He had gone from that tree by the next morning so I hope he found his way home.  We love wildlife experiences :-)

These wood ducks appeared out of nowhere the other day, they did this at the same time last year, spending some time grazing our grass and sitting in our trees.  I wonder where they normally live?

Steve is having a lovely time in his shed, now it is spick and span and his big boy power tools are at the ready.  Look what this clever boy has made.  See that manky piece of metal and chunk of wood at the bottom of the photo, that's what he used to make that knife!  He intends to continue perfecting his craft and the next knife on the agenda is a fish filleting knife.

 

 He used the last of the pieces of metal fencing that his mate Mel kindly gave him, and has made a very useful wood stacker for inside the shed, so we know we always have some dry wood somewhere.  Because by crikey we need dry wood, the fabulous wood fire in the house has been burning constantly for the last couple of weeks as the winter weather sets in.  Lucky for us our property has masses of wood and we have also just planted a few blue gums as our woodlot for a few years down the track. 

The planning process of The Chook Spa Resort Extraordinaire house is well underway.  Steve has had to think hard to design a house that wont cost us a fortune, that we can use lots of the leftover Hardie boards and Colorbond from the house, will be comfortable for the chooks and will be strong to keep out foxes, which are very prevalent around here.  He has just about got it sorted in his head, yay.

 

In the meanwhile I shall continue to wallow in my misery of illness.  Cheered myself up yesterday by making this.  It is called gluhwein, the German version of mulled wine.  Bottle of red wine, a quartered lemon studded with cloves, a sliced orange, a cinnamon stick, good pinch of allspice and 50 grams of sugar, all in a bowl and microwaved for about 6 minutes until almost boiling.  Then add 60 mL of brandy and drink while hot.  Very very nice.  This is the recipe you used to use mum, that you gave me a copy of, so thanks! x

 

I finished reading Dan Brown's Inferno this week.  Was good!  I'm all enthused about art history again, he really makes it interesting and exciting.