Winter in the Perth Hills

We had a lovely dawn the other day.  In summer the sun comes up behind trees but in winter it comes up across next doors' more cleared land. I see it each morning when I wave Andrew and his motorbike goodbye at the gate.  It isn't usually this nice, though, and in the very middle of winter it is just a promise on the horizon.

Cyrano continues his winter hibernation. He likes this spot for a change, hiding upstairs in his kitty house in the mezzanine, while still seeing all that goes on below. Can you see the shine of his superior kitty eye watching over his minions below?

You'd think he never moved apart from changing sleeping spots and eating, but actually it was only last summer that we got this footage of him chasing Tuppy while she is playing her fetchy game.  He got OTT after a while and really started having a go at her claws and all, and we had to stop him, but it was a shame he couldn't control himself a bit better, because he enjoyed it so much.

Our firewood guy also grows Proteas for the cut flower market and he generally brings us a bunch when he delivers the wood, since they flower in winter. 

I've been dealing with some pretty agitated brainery this last week.  The private school across the road is mangling the bush 'buffer zone' again and once more we have to go into battle to save it, or what's left of it.  I hate that arrogant assumption of nature automatically needing to make way for more dollars.  Think that school's motto should be, "Cram 'em in and take their money!"

I get so upset to see the trees go down, and when you add that to the after-effects of Lyme inflammation on my brain, it can be hard for me to handle.  It stirs up the anxiety and obsessive thinking and then my peace is very hard to maintain. All isn't sweetness and light in the world of me. A lot of practice and learning has gone into keeping myself mostly sane.  :P     

Ah well, there's always amigurumi!  This is my latest amigurumi finished.  He is a little mini Cthulhu for my hubby who is into H.P. Lovecraft.  The wings and tentacles were a bit of fun to do!  It is this lady's very first pattern and she did a great job! 

We've had some foggy mornings this week.  Doesn't look much like the usual images of Australia, does it?
  

And then we had a bright sunny morning, and the early sunlight picked up every little web on the fence and plants.  So pretty. 

My current batch of orange chooks like to pretend they are wild chickens in the trees, although all they can manage is this low branch.   Nanny Ogg the Black Australorp thinks they are nuts. She stays firmly on the ground apart from her bedtime roost in the chook dome. 

The blue tarp is part of their 'pergola'. I put in an old bit of curved tin and the tarp when we had a few new youngsters that the old girls were chasing out of the chook dome.  They all like it so much that I've kept it in there.  They use it for shady snoozing by day in summer and for avoiding quick showers in winter.  I've also seen Nanny Ogg shift her fluffy pantaloons to run to shelter under it when she saw something fly over that she didn't like.

It looks messy, but eh, what can you do?

A couple of times this week the Pink and Grey Galahs have been in town at dawn.  They are a noisy gaggle of birds and like to act the clown, hanging off branches upside down and deliberately doing aerial tricks around the trees. I tried to capture the noise of them for you.  Turn up the volume!

You can also hear the odd "Wark!" from the Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, some of whom were also hanging about, probably watching the Galahs with dignified horror.   Red-Tails would never indulge in such silliness!

I started working on the second draft for Bunyip Dreaming this morning. I've been away from it for, hmm, maybe four months, while I wrote the first draft of Freya and the Hairy Goddess. A bit of time away from a manuscript is very helpful.  It's good.  I can tell that now.  I don't want to stop reading and editing it to go do other things.  I'm already hooked up into the story!   

Next post will be one of those 'stages of art' posts, showing the making of the art for the cover of Dog Slobber!