Solar power

Our sunflowers celebrate the Force which we will soon be using to generate electricity, as well as heating water. Six panels are now installed and we are waiting on the inverter and new meter. With all the recent reports on Climate Change it is good to be moving ahead.

Beans and corn

The bean screen is now yielding well with three varieties climbing two metres. Scarlet runners have red and white flowers and rough green pods, purple kings have purple flowers and dark pods, and Ann's beans have smooth paler green pods. The first crop of corn is now tasselling. With very little stored soil moisture we move from stress to relief and back again within a week of any rain, however the larger trees and shrubs are all showing good new growth and it is nice to see things moving ahead after months of decline this year.

Up the creek

This week we walked up Perseverance Creek to the junction with Pipeclay Creek. With three maps, compass and three GPS it was an interesting exercise and took four hours to do less than 4 km. In the past there has been a foot of water or more in in, judging by the banks but it is mostly dry with a few remnants of waterholes. The callistemons must be finished flowering but we did have a bright red king parrot fly overhead, also a large monitor which was not inclined to climb to get away from us. It just looked at us as if wishing us to move on and leave it in peace. We did not see any snakes.
We are like a group of kids mucking about in the creek, scrambling over rocks and under logs, but our age range is about 55-83. In many ways life is getting better.

Summer of sport

Horse racing is not really a sport but it is the start of November and the walking group comes here for lunch and a sweep on Melbourne Cup Day. It seemed a pity to all go home after our Tuesday walk so I decided to make this my social contribution to the group. We have around 12 of us each year so we each get 2 horses for $2. Last year one of mine led nearly all the way and was a surprising winner. This year,in the lead up to the race, I noticed that one of mine was a dark grey and it was exciting to see it emerge from the pack on the final straight and race successfully to the line.
The real summer of sport started later that day with Lee arriving from Canberra for another cricket party. We had a good time together with Em last year, watching the first test on TV for two days then going to it for a day of live action. It is a good combination of vision and feel.
This year Lee Jim and I went on the second day which turned out to be the best. Dick drove us down and we stopped for a steak at Plainland Hotel on the way home.

Man and nature

We are living happily with the plover family and the mulch was spread without any trouble. But they ran into trouble on neighbouring blocks a week ago and much time and energy was spent on calling and diving on at least one person and several dogs. We feared the worst and after a few days of quiet plovers, things seemed to have returned to a more normal state with them moving about the area and calling to their young. It seems that only one baby remains.

Snookered

Mr and Mrs Plover have 4 babies who are now exploring our front footpath. I have a pile of mulch which I am hoping to clear from the footpath but progress is halted today. The wheelbarrow stands abandoned as I beat a hasty retreat with the spade for protection. This intense parenting went on for quite a long while last year. They lost at least one baby then and only managed to rear one, but this did not diminish their effort. Long after junior had learnt to fly and grown quite large, we would hear their supervisory cries as they returned home at dusk.

Dear Roy

I had to wait for a full coal train at Willowburn on my way to our meeting spot on Tuesday, then an empty one other passed over us at Murphys Creek when we had finished our walk.
At Spring Bluff we counted the carriages on another full one travelling down the range while eating lunch, then the empty one came up. It stopped for perhaps 45 minutes, blocking the crossing so we were unable to get back to our cars.
We lay on the grass above the track for about 20 minutes then a third full one went down. When the empty one started moving in the opposite direction behind the full one I thought you might have enjoyed it. There were 42 carriages/hoppers each containing about 50 tonnes of coal.
This link has some great photos.

Red Rock

This week we walked up a spur from Murphy's Creek to Red Rock above Paradise Creek. It is quite a drop down to it - a popular rock climbing spot. We were looking across to where we have parked the cars in the past and it is a lovely spot. It was quite hot particularly in the sun and the only wildlife of note was Musca domestica in numbers.

We had our picnic lunch at Spring Bluff with some of the floral displays remaining from the Carnival of Flowers a month ago.