The Mystery Of Frogs

I've been away a lot,  choofing up to Perth all last week.  First I had big cook-ups at home, so I could take mum and dad some meals for their freezer - serves of their favourite soup, Cream of Celery (it is so yummy and tastes a bit like mushroom soup oddly), half a dozen meals of spag bolog and some serves of our rhubarb, stewed.  Glad you are enjoying it :-) xx

Then I progressed to vegan cooking.  A huge pot of vegetable soup, also a fruity vegan curry and some coconut sago pudding.  Then I was busy making a variety of Bliss Balls and Energy Bars for healthy snacks.  All packaged up into serves and popped into the esky for the trip to Perth.

I do like cooking :-)

Reason being that I wanted to be mum and look after this poor dear daughter of mine, who underwent a complicated removal of half her thyroid at short notice.  We had four days of TLC together when I gatecrashed hers and Michael's house.  I'm pleased to hear that she is well on the mend and ready to return to work, excellent.  Thanks you two for letting me stay and make you eat my food, it was great. xx

Then it was back home to my darling boys (the husband one and the fluffy one), the crackling fire and the rain.  The creek is running really well and the little waterfall is looking pretty.

The kangaroos are looking constantly soggy.  That's Growler on the left, her son Andre second from the right, Jane with the bulky pouch in between them, and I'm not sure who that is on the end.

The back garden at night is filled with the sounds of frogs.  I've been trying to find out which type they are, but they are really hard to spot.  I did find this though, which is fascinating.

I have Mondo grass growing along the sides of the garden steps, it is thick and damp, and blow me down, when I moved the grass away from the wall, I found many small clumps of frogspawn.  I was wondering where all the frog would lay eggs, as apart from one tiny bird bath, there are no ponds or puddles, just the dampness around the ground growing plants.  This frogspawn has been there for weeks, I've been keeping an eye on it, and it looks to me like the tadpoles are actually growing within the jelly.  Maybe this is a variety that doesn't need water to grow into a frog?  It's very mysterious.  I had a listen to a load of frog calls on Google and they sound like the Quacking Frog which is common in the Albany area, I must do some more research, in the meantime I shall keep watch on the taddies and see if they turn into frogs without leaving the jelly.

I love this time of year for the magnificent sunsets.  Beautiful.

Our bell chilli plant is dripping with colourful red fruit at present, making a pretty inclusion to the winter garden.  They are very mild if you only eat the red flesh, but if your tongue goes anywhere near the seeds it's a different matter entirely....hot!!

Yesterday we toddled off with the rest of Australia to vote.  I love country voting, no miles of queues at Perth schools, instead we wander into the tiny community hall in Young Siding, where about 300 Australians cast their vote.  Easy peasy.

Steve has been continuing his self education into woodwork.  His friend Laurie gave him a lovely piece of She-Oak, and Steve has bided his time, trying to decide what to do with it.  I think he has done a wonderful job of what he decided to do with it.

He has made a gorgeous box.  And he cleverly cut the block through, so the grain matches exactly from the lid to the base.  Apparently it is rather tricky to do this straight, he's done a great job hasn't he.  The grain in this wood is just beautiful, and the tiny brass corners and feet make it look really classy.  He's just got to find a nice little latch.

And here are the innards, he dug out the inner hole in the lid and base with a router, I gather it took quite some time to do.  Then he lined it with a piece of black leather.  It's going to sit on our coffee table and apparently it's going to be a lolly box!  Steve thinks he might need a padlock on it - cheeky bugger :-)

On a final note, it bucketed down with rain overnight, so as we always do, in the morning we took a walk along the creek.  It is running the fastest and fullest we've seen it for a couple of years, the first short video is the little waterfall over our one and only rock.

I'm so pleased that all my creek levee banks are holding, apart from sand that has moved down the creek and shallowed a few ponds I dug, it is running exactly as I has hoped.  It's very full here and thundering along.  So pretty.

This is the end of the creek on our land, it is politely overflowing over the final barrier I created, to then flood over to the neighbour's place, where it then drains into a creek along the side of a road and onwards.  Next season I have plans to dig another couple of ponds in the flood area.  Steve saw some wild ducks swimming in the creek pond the other day, wonderful :-)