Foul Integration

We had the pleasure of the company of our friends Anne and Ian, along with Ian's new pride and joy - his brand new V8 Mustang Coupe.  It's rather lovely isn't it, and that engine sound, wow.  Was great to see you both! :-)

 We have new neighbours.  Our dear neighbour Marilyn has moved into town and has rented her place out.  The tenants have a delightful menagarie of creatures great and small, so there has been masses of fencing work being done to contain them all.  These beautiful horses arrived today, and apparently there are miniature horses and an alpaca to come.  It's lovely to be able to see them when we do our boundary walks.

 

 We've also been able to see what's going on with the animals next door as we continue working on the creek area.  I'm continuing to dig out the accumulated sand in the creek bed, building up the edges, and Steve has been bringing the trailer down to take some of the sand away to fill in lots of little holes and hollows that have been bugging us around the place.  Check out the size of this tree fungi near the creek, it's huge!

 

 The kangaroos are a bit upset with all the fencing and treelopping and influx of new animals next door, so they are not around as much.  Needless to say, I expect they will spend more and more time at our place once they've got used to everything, where they know it's quiet.  We have the annual influx of galahs here at present, they arrive enmasse for three or four months.  They are adorable, Steve reckons they look like little men in suits.  I love it when they put their crests up and strut around, oozing attitude.

 

 Today is the start of the chicken/duck integration.  I opened the gate between the chook yard and the garden where the ducks are living.  The chooks trotted in, it's a treat for them to be allowed into the garden.  But it's really funny, they are scared of the ducks.  They are normally tough girls, afraid of nothing, but the ducks unnerve them.  So they all spent their day together in the garden, avoiding each other.  But no blood was shed and there was zero bullying so I am happy with proceedings.

 

 The next stage will be to persuade the ducks to go into the chook yard, as eventually I want them to sleep in there, on the floor of the chook house all snuggled up in the straw.  They are soooo nervous, they stick together like glue and wont let us near them, but I think we can probably herd them into the chook yard in a few days time, to force the issue. 

 

 We went for a drive up the road to West Cape Howe National Park , through the beautiful Karri forest and on to the lookout over the coast.  Look at this mess.

 A couple of weeks ago some arsehole decided to set fire to the bush.  It took the firies about 15 hours to get it all under control, not until over 200 hectares of bushland was destroyed.  Thankfully it didn't get into the karri trees, instead burning out heathland and small trees.  In the two weeks since we first went and had a look at the damage, it was promising to see just a hint of green appearing at ground level, nature is amazing how it brings forth life from the ashes.  It's sad to think of all the birds and wildlife that have lost their lives and habitat, I am thinking major evil thoughts about the person who did this.

 We had a rare evening out last week, we treated ourselves to a wedding anniversary present of tickets to see comedienne Judith Lucy at Albany Entertainment Centre.  We choofed in an hour early, had a meal and a wine at Due South next door, then wandered in and enjoyed a great evening listening to a funny lady.  Was good :-)