I’ve noticed in the last few weeks that the Dragonflies in our garden have become super territorial. They have always chased away any dragonfly intruders, but now they are telling us, and the cat & dog, that the backyard is THEIR domain and we’d better keep our distance from THEIR chosen spot. (Pretty much anywhere near the pool).

No longer are they happy to sit still on a leaf or twig, now they are constantly on the wing and in your face if you venture too close. I thought I’d try and capture these flying jewels with my camera - much easier said than done!

Look you far square in the eye they do, that glittering head swiveling to follow your every move.

Bling in the backyard - beautiful.

 

Watercolour study of Dysphania fenestrata  (ACEO size 2.5 x 3.5 inches)

One thing I miss about FNQ are the flamboyant, even gawdy, butterflies and moths that are everywhere. The Four o’Clock Moth was one of my favourites. Named as it usually appears late afternoon, it is one of the very few FNQ moths that flies during daylight hours.

This fellow was in no hurry to leave me - he just didn’t fly anywhere, even though his wings seemed in perfect shape.. He just hung around for days, so in the end I fed him nectar from a little dish which he sucked up with gusto.

The colouring of this moth is just awesome. Tiny scales shimmering and glittering in the late afternoon light kept me fascinated for ages - what do they say about shiny things and small minds….

His wings are translucent in the white patches - letting subdued sunlight shine through onto the leaf below. Just gorgeous!

 

I think I’ve written about this little guy before on the old blog. I did manage to grab screen shots from the old Bigblog before it was turned off - when I have time I’ll process them all and upload them retrospectively. Could be a long wait - there was a LOT of blogging back then!

For artists who work from a Home Studio, constant distractions are never-ending - the phone ringing, the drop in visitors, school commitments… even the housework can seem like a pleasant diversion when your creativity has hit a brick wall.

Then there is the Studio Muse/Supervisor.

I’ve had my fair share of these creativity companions. I  scanned in some old photos of this ”muse” from waaaay back (must have been the 80’s - look at that typewriter!). She may look sweet but she was an absolute spit fire of a cat - only the dog could get near her without being shredded. I blame the family I rescued her from - a gaggle of kids who threw kittens around like tennis balls, and the fact that they wanted rid of her at just 5 weeks of age.

A Muse can take many forms…

 

This Male Orchard Swallowtail butterfly was having a lovely drink of watercolour.

Fingers crossed the cobalt wasn’t toxic!

My current puss is a real bugger when it comes to knocking things over, putting paws in wet paint, and generally getting her whiskas in where she shouldn’t. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

My last post was about an image I produced at an illustration workshop I did some time ago. On the weekend I bumped into the artist with whom I did the workshop, what a lovely coincidence!

You may recognise him from the newspapers and telly as the only WA artist left in the running to win the $50,000 Archibald Prize. (Finalists were announced just recently.)

It’s South Perth Artist Peter Kendall (whose book “A sausage went for a walk” still gives me a giggle).

To see some newspaper photos of his massive portrait of boxer Danny Green, click here. Took him 3 long months he said.

Best of luck Peter!

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….

“Phasmids” - sounds exotic doesn’t it? It harks back to the Greek word meaning apparition or ghost. Pretty accurate for these critters, commonly known as Stick Insects. These guys can sway in the breeze like a twig, brilliantly disguised so that they are virtually invisible. It’s only when they venture onto man-made territority that they magically appear.

Well, until our move to the Tropics, I never realised they existed in such sizes or quantities. See if you can spot a couple of the smaller ones in the photo below:

                                     

                        Here’s a closer shot:

                                     

                              Then there was Big Mama…

                                 

                    …who happily wandered around my desk…

                            

                                            …over my materials….

                         

         …over my painting (that’s one of her many eggs that she laid)…

                

…making acquaintances along the way.

Time to spread her wings, although she can’t fly with those (which were very impressive when fully spread).

                      

         To finally find a place where she can hang upside down in comfort.

                 

                                A perfect place for me to sketch her!

              Future Phasmids below:

All these guys appeared at our windows in the evening, trying to get inside. I knew our early morning visitor (below) would like a tasty brekkies of Phasmid, so I brought them in for a resort break overnight. All the Eucalyptus they could ”poke a stick at” was supplied.

Poor Kookie waits outside my kitchen window until treats magically appear. She thanked me by shaking off all that water over my face.

This was Jez earlier with another Phasmid friend (from the same house that brought you the enormous Golden Orb Weaver Spider from a couple of posts back - they breed ‘em big in the rainforest).

It’s raining raining raining still. We’re cut off now (at Cardwell), with the rivers bursting their banks and flooding towns like Ingham. Townsville has copped a hammering as well. On the 6 o’clock news tonight they showed a crocodile that had been run over on one of Townsville’s main roads:

Run over croc recovers in Townsville bathroom

A wildlife carer in north Queensland is sharing her bathroom with a 1.6 metre crocodile run over by a car in Townsville early this morning.

Lana Allcroft from North Queensland Wildlife Care says the reptile has a sore eye, some gravel rash and is missing a couple of teeth.

She says the injured croc has not been as snappy as most people would expect.

“We keep a towel over his head to keep the stress level down for him,” she said.

“We had to move him out of the bathroom this morning so we could have a shower and he wasn’t real impressed with that, got a bit feisty.

“Also when we had him in the car bringing him home last night he was a bit upset, but once he’s in a place and his head’s covered he’s fine and he’s nice and calm and quiet.”

The croc will be collected by rangers later today.

Flooding and torrential rain in the north is creating hazards for other wildlife too.

Eleanor Pollock has an injured turtle in her laundry tub.

“He was run over going from one puddle to the other on the side of the road,” she said.

Mrs Pollock says carers are also looking after sodden baby possums separated from their mothers, and tiny birds whose nests have been washed away by the rain.

story courtesy ABC news.

There’s plenty of rain to come yet, and even the return of the cyclone of Thursday.

This was my mountain this morning. Still visible, with low clouds sliding down it’s sides.

The same mountain this evening, obscured by thick curtains of water soaking everything to the core.

The frogs have never been happier!

Out in the garden this morning to smell the heady citrus blossoms of the Orange Jessamine trees and “WHACK!” hit in the head by a flying green missile. “BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ WHACK!” Hit again. BIG irridescent flying green beetles - these must be the Christmas beetles that I’ve heard about. Never really had them in Perth (In Sydney they were golden, smaller and not so kamikaze!).

The orange scent has filled the garden, so thick you could almost carve it. I can’t get enough of it and neither can the bazillion or so beetles covering it this morning.

 

 They were oblivious to anything but drinking that nectar - they almost seemed tipsy from it, the way they kept crashing into things.

 

 They are very beautiful though, and are sparkly all over, even their legs and bellies. And then I spied a purply beetle, or was it green or bronze? It changed colours in the sunlight, like those chameleon cars you see around. It’s colour depends on if it’s coming towards you (metallic bronze) , or going away from you (metallic purple).

Even the native bees (spy one deep in the flower above) are pulling up stools at the bar - it’s happy hour!

It’s been overcast, drizzly and HOT. Steamy like a Costa Rican jungle. Not that I’ve ever been in a Costa Rican jungle, but I almost feel as if I need a machete to cut through the air, it’s so thick.

My Mountain is in there somewhere….

 

Uni today was using cameras in different ways. I’ve used my telephoto lens as a macro lens for these  luscious red berries. Like bunches of miniature pomegranates.

“Spring” in the tropics has unleashed all manner of triffid-like growth with berries and blooms.

My lecturer told me today that he saw my photo in the weekend newspaper - all news to me as I didn’t bother with the papers this weekend. I did hunt a copy down this afternoon.

The competition has now closed, and judging begins. No cash prizes, but a chance to have your work printed in some limited edition posters.

Back now to the drudgery of homework…..

In the pre-dawn light I followed the flight of this bee, who with a single mindedness of purpose, gathered pollen from the waterlillies. No other bees about, just herself and her determination.

That crazy Sunbird is at it again. She is obsessed with singing, and now dancing with her reflection. Over coffee yesterday with our neighbour, he told us that she has ruined the rubber strips on his car windows, where she will sit for hours with her reflection as companion.

If she can also see herself in the wing mirror as well as the window, she goes into raptures.

Today she was dancing, which was something new.

She doesn’t seem to mind if you watch her either.

An OCD Sunbird for sure. Who leaves a trail of poop wherever she dances.

Another yellow guest is raking in the native bees on our front deck.

I try and save them, but they constantly hurl themselves into the sticky web. Every little white blob in the web was a hapless tiny native bee. How many bees can one Northern Jewelled Spider eat?

He is so shiny and stripey, just like an enamelled brooch sitting in the middle of a perfectly shaped web.

Underneath he wears polka dots.

I am not a fan of spiders, but there is something quite mesmerizing watching this one go about his day. He’s never in a hurry, ambling slowly over to the latest bee, injecting it with something horrid, then going back into the middle of the web for a snooze. He’s about the size of a 5 cent piece now, and will get to about 20c worth. If he lasts that long. He has precariously built his web right alongside some huge hairy monster who’s web is well over a metre wide. This little jewel may well be dinner for his neighbour some night soon…..