Artists Blog

A: The orthodontists’s quote this afternoon.

It’s around $6,000 to fill a teenager’s mouth with metal these days.

When we arrived home after the orthodontic shock, I noticed what seemed to be a patterned scarf near the back fence. It was under the Tree of Death, but as there were Peaceful Doves around it, I thought no way it could a Python. Again.

Wrong.

As I walked up to it I was able to see the final few gulps of wing feathers down it’s mouth.

How did he sneak up on a cocky during the day? They are usually nocturnal hunters. Cocky must’ve been really engrossed in something else.

The cat was freaking out, and performed 3 ft vertical jumps everytime it moved. The vets have warned about pets outside at night. Now I’ll have the joy of worrying during sunlight hours as well…

It wasn’t long before those final feathers were forced down that loooong throat.

Then lots of wriggling and stretching to force the whole “lump” further down it’s body. It almost looked as if the unfortunate bird was still alive in there.

It then rested it’s head in the fork of The Tree of Death for a while. It’s tongue was flickering every time I moved. Try as I might, I couldn’t quite capture the split second it flickered.

This was the smallest of the 3 pythons that have had a cocky meal here. This one was around 2 metres, maybe a tad more. The next shot is of it making an exit, stage left, with it’s head already under the fence. It did get stuck around it’s middle, and wriggled and danced till it made it through. Then it was back to the bush to sleep it off for a few weeks.

I hope that this is the last Python saga I have to tell for a good while, although word must be spreading in the serpent world about the smorgasboard by the back fence…

To finish on a more cute’n'cuddly note, someone else was enjoying a meal this morning:

I seem to be overrun with snakes and spiders.

“If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise….”

As I came up to the metre wide trunk of this tree, I wondered where the other half of the resident was - the pointy half.

Tip-toeing quietly around the tree trunk, (which was perched on a steep slope above a very rocky creek bed some metres below), I found this:

One ex-wallaby and a very satisfied Scrubby (Amethystine Python).

That’s dinner taken care of for the next 6 months or so. Would that be considered yo-yo dieting?

Some unexpected garden bounty over the weekend, pretty much all in miniature.

Salvaging my sweet potato vine from the marauding bandicoot brought this treasue to light.

Not more than a mouthful, so back into the soil he went. Something else that went into the soil was this little sweetie:

A gift from my neighbour, who has an extensive collection of bromeliads. This was just one of 2 crates of beautiful broms he gave me. The smell of this mini pineapple was just like an exotic cocktail. I almost pushed a straw into it.

An explosion of new mini critters in the garden - must be because of all the rain, and there has been a lot of it. This was one of the most inquisitive (and beautiful) jumping spiders I’ve ever encountered. He followed me all around the patio. Not bad for a fellow only a few mm long.

Not to be outdone with curiosity was this baby praying mantis. He turned his head to follow me about the palm tree trunk. He was about 20 mm long.

Oh for a macro lense….*sigh*

Male butterflies were quite aggresive in the backyard - chasing off any newcomers. The 2 species below have females which are very differently coloured.

The Eggfly below was almost luminescent in his purple blackness near dusk.

The Cairns birdwing below was one of the most erratic butterflies I’ve seen. It gave me a headache just trying to follow him. He was only still for a nano second. For every decent shot, there were a dozen blurry useless ones. Thank the lord we’re not using film anymore - it’d cost me a fortune!

I’ve a rather larger “friend” I met yesterday  in the bush that I’ll upload images of tomorrow….

It’s been such a busy end to the working week, isn’t it supposed to slow down after Wednesday?

But a good way to end a Friday was to call in to see my friend Pete, who has been working on a Great Wall.

Pete is a late comer to the world of painting. But it has in no way been a disadvantage. When asked to paint 30sq mtres of outdoor mural, he jumped in with both feet, regardles of the fact that he’s never painted one before.

When he asked me to come and have a look at his 90 hours of work thus far, I was amazed at what he’s created. He’s turned 15 metres of plain paling fence into a vast landscape, incorporating bush, desert and rainforest.

He’s had trying conditions to contend with, wet season at it’s wildest, crippling humidty and plants that “sting” you. I copped a 2 inch thorn from an agave in my bum yesterday!

“Skinning” of paint was also a problem, which he ingeniously overcame by storing the paint in syringes until he needed them. He was lucky enough to have a shade tent erected by the owners.

Left hand side starting with the gum trees of the bush. He’s still to paint in an old tumbledowned cottage in this section today. All up he’ll spend about 100 hours working on this amazing piece.

The middle section encompasses the red desert sands and ancient mountian ranges. I told him it reminded me of “Iron Knob” which we drove past over 20 years ago.

Next is the billabong, where’s he’s thinking about adding some more reflections/shadows, and maybe more clouds to the sky.

And finally the far right, which ends in the rainforest mountains that Cairns is surrounded by. He’s used the most gorgeous lilac to represent the shadows in this painting - just beautiful.

Congratulations to Pete & his Great Wall!

Found this skull at Clifton Beach recently.

I’m assuming it’s a fish of some kind.

Anyone have any idea? (I bet Tazar does)

UPDATE FEBRAURY 2010

Well, the mystery has been solved - Boffins at Murdoch Uni have declared it a BATFISH (see this post for my photo)

Thanks to all who offered suggestions!

Today the Governement sent in agents to launch a recon mission in my end of the street/creek and my yard. Their mission was to seek (and if necessary, destroy) a foreign invader - The Evil Electric Ant. 

In January, an infestation of these native South American Ants was discovered a few hundred metres away in the resort grounds across the bush from my house. They are not a friendly insect to stumble upon. These ants inject painful venom when they sting, they specifically attack the eyeballs of other animals, including pets, and can blind them. They attack birds and nestlings and farm scale insects. Bad for crops. All round nasty guys.

All week the DPI guys and girls have been laying baits to see if any had spread to our streeet and homes. Today was my turn.

That’s Steve checking bait traps on the banks of Deadman’s Gully. You can see the little pink ribbons where he laid traps inside my front fence.

About 2 dozen baits were laid around my yard, including the herb pots. The Electric ants are gourmets. They will only go for the expensive Don Sausage.

Steve checking the baits after an hour. He was such a knowledgable guy. We yakked for ages about the wonderful biodiversity of this area. He checked out a few insect species for me, as well as my tadpole ponds, which he’s hopeful are NOT canetoads.

This man has spent many years researching wild lion prides in South Africa. He says it’s was an amazing, sometimes heartbreaking, experience. To be checking for ants is quite a bit less stressful than facing a poacher with a semi-automatic machine gun!

We got the all clear - no baddies on our block.

Here is some info from their site:

The electric ant is golden brown in colour and 1 - 1.5mm in length

Overview

Description

Electric ants:

No, it’s not this beautiful girl. She was newly “hatched” yesterday evening, with wings drying out, and happy to be photographed. She was quite an uplifting sight after the sadness of the past few days, so I thought I’d share her.

This is my new Bouncer:

When my face, nor the dog’s, scared my 3.45am visitor, I resorted to desperate measures.

‘Cos when you gotta go, he’s gotta go!

And he did just that, back up the S Bend, after seeing the Cat.

Does anyone else have to face such Toilet Anxiety?

Another day of highs and lows for the country. Triumphs, no matter how small, are good for mind and spirit.

Seeing the fireman hold his waterbottle to ”Sam” the koala’s mouth was quite emotional. Apparently she’s made the New York and London Times news.The RSPCA and vets  are on hand at the site now to render assistance to those that cannot speak for themselves. Wildlife volunteers have a list of missing pets, and are combing the streets in search of them. Burnt horses, geese, goats, wallabies, kangaroos and koalas are all receiving gentle care. They even found a peacock in a toilet block!

Great to see so many people rally with goods/food (even hot pizzas!), sharing what they have with those that now have nothing. “Mateship” at it’s best.

Another triumph was the opening of the Highway up to the North today. 500 trucks are making their way up here to restock shelves. “Creative cooking” with limited ingredients will be over soon! I hope they hurry, more heavy rain to the south is bucketing as we speak.

Yesterday was a miserable day, with my head being crushed whilst “driving the porcelain bus” (luckily the Gree Tree Frog has moved out!). I was convinced that I had Dengue Fever. Today, a rapid recovery - obviously not Dengue, and therefore no more sympathy.

Off to the Supermarket. A waste of time really.

                           No meat,

          No yoghurt,

No frozen veg either. I did notice that they had some fresh potatoes left. They are occupying the space the bananas and other fruit used to.

However, if you are a Spectacled Bat, then the Beach Almond trees out the front of our house are all the sustenance you need. These guys were out very early in the evening (they usually appear after dusk), due to all the rain I think. (sorry the photos are pretty grainy as there wasn’t much light)

There was another one of him having a rather large widdle, but obviously too much in bad taste to post (and blurry!).

So we are still cut off from the rest of the country. I spoke to the Post Office today. No parcels coming IN or OUT of Cairns for the last 2 weeks, and maybe a couple more. Lots of red tape involved - if  the “No Dangerous Goods” sticker is not signed (as for all Road and Rail items), they cannot be loaded on a plane and flown out.

A last note - my heart goes out to all the people and animals involved in the tragic fires down south. It is so so sad, and hopefully the rest of us can chip in and help where we can. Every little bit counts.

Thanks everyone for your kind thoughts. Whilst we’re still cut off by road and rail, at least supplies are getting through. The charted ship from Townsville arrived overnight with 40 sea containers of stock. Supermarket shelves  were being restocked as I was raiding the Chemist’s Darral Lea chocolate stand. Emergency Managment Queensland (who look after disaster management arrangements) have chartered a Qantas 747 full of goodies from Brisbane to arrive in Cairns shortly. Not sure how long the petrol will last though….

Local producers have enjoyed the extra customers.  I should be buying direct from the farmer more often, even if it means going a little out of my way. Things are so much fresher and juicier. Today we bought some dragonfruit and red mangoes for lunch. Everyone’s seen mangoes, so I’ll just show you the luscious dragonfruit:

The colours were amazing, even more so when the last of their insides were scooped out:

    Such hot pinks I’ve never seen in fruit before.

We were even given samples of the fruit dried - just like crunchy cotton candy/fairy floss. I’ll be back for more next weekend for sure!

Another surprise was what was in today’s paper - another of my “Python eating a cockatoo”  shots. It seems to go on and on and on….

Here’s the better quality original:

The constant rain is sending us gifts of frogs and tadpoles everywhere. I had a big tub out the back which filled with water last week. This week it is full of tadpoles (not toadpoles thankfully). I’m pretty sure they are green tree frog tadpoles, although accurate tadpole identification is not one of my strong suits. They are happily munching away on lettuce and other goodies now.

Another froggie (2-D) has surfaced this week also. Whilst cleaning out my portfolio, quite a few illustrations from years ago surfaced (for an school educational DVD). When I painted this little guy, I had never seen a real Green Tree Frog, and thought it was unlikely I ever would. Just goes to show you should never say never!