It seems to be my time for seeing unpleasant beasties at the moment. First there was the gigantic brown snake a couple of weeks ago and now this worryingly large spider was in one of the loos at our local swimming pool. I am telling myself it must have been a Huntsman (huge but harmless) and not a Funnel Web (deadly). Funnel Web spiders are attracted to swimming pools but on the plus side, you don't hear much talk about verrucas in Australia. I suppose this must be because most pools are outdoor and not the breeding ground for germs an indoor pool can be so - Funnel Webs or verrucas, I'm not sure which I would prefer! 

We are back to swimming most days now as the weather is nice and warm. Some sturdy folk swim all year round but although we were full of resolve to do this, we discovered that we are fair weather swimmers and chickened out during the winter even though the pool is heated.

Hibiscus

 Just to make you feel better about our lovely, warm climate I have included a couple of pictures of a walk we attended last weekend in support of the Greens who are trying to raise awareness about a local area of wetlands the council is selling off to developers little by little.  Although it was bucketing down the day was really well attended and began with various speakers telling us about the area and its flora and fauna then we all sploshed off through the woods with guides to look at the birds and try to spot koalas. It was quite interesting seeing the place in the wet walking along to the sound of frogs instead of the usual buzzing insects. The day was rounded off with the traditional sausage sizzle and everyone had a good time. 

Flannel flower

Pigface

We had half expected the event to be called off but when you live in a warm climate you learn very quickly to view rain as your friend, not only from a life sustaining resource point of view but you also know that if you get wet you are unlikely to be cold and wet and the chances are you will be dry again pretty soon. I asked Ian recently what he liked most about Australia and he said, "not having to completely dry yourself when you come out of the shower," it's the same principle really. 

Iris

Kangaroo paw

The other reason I enjoy a bit of rain these days is because I am a gardener and the garden is starting to take shape. It is no longer just a grassy slope and the things I have planted over the last 18 months are beginning to look established.

Bromeliad

 It is a strange experience having to re-learn everything I thought I knew about gardening. As you can see I am gardening on sand so most of my time is spent finding ways to get some sort of moisture retention going on. And then the plants themselves are mostly unfamiliar, even when I find one I recognise it often goes under a different name here, for example the Amaryllis in the picture would be called a Hippeastrum here. So I watch Gardening Australia avidly each week and go to the monthly talks at the local hardware store. I am having some success as I hope can be seen from the pictures. 

Hibiscus

Amaryllis

 Now the weather has well and truly picked up we have renewed our efforts to become boaties. Almost every other house here has a boat in the driveway and we are determined not to be among the few for whom the boat remains there permanently.

 Before we bought Bunny II (Ian's parents owned the first Bunny) we chortled at the people who appeared to never take their boats out but, since becoming boat owners, we've discovered how easy it is to do just that.
Taking the boat out involves a certain amount of effort which is not too bad once we have got the hang of it but, add to that the fact that the weather conditions need to be favourable and the opportunities for going out in it become considerably reduced.

 For us, that is. Most sailors are not phased by a light breeze but with our lack of experience, even the smallest gust seems perilous. And, of course, we always seem to be busy. I am reminded of my Dad who, after retiring used to say he did not know how he ever found the time to work....the excuses could go on and on.
Anyway, yesterday dawned bright and sunny and, most importantly - still, so we loaded up the fishing rods, life jackets, drinks and snacks and off we set. Launching Bunny is something we have managed reasonably well since the beginning so we don't cause any embarassing chaos at the boat ramp but we disagree about how the boat trips should be planned.

 Ian likes to set off across the bay at high speed without checking that he can work the sat nav until we realise we are not sure where we are and I prefer to creep sedately along the coastline to the nearest bay and drop anchor there so we can't get lost! I am sure we will eventually reach a point where our trips out become something between the two but we need to take the boat out a lot more regularly before we reach that happy medium.
So we bombed across the bay for a bit stabbing fingers at the sat nav controls as we went then scooted back to Tanilba Bay for a bit of fishing (Ian, not me. I am happy with my book) and it was beautiful.

 A magnificent catamaran glided in behind us and we bobbed around for a couple of very peaceful hours.
Monty has finally worked out that it is very uncomfortable to try and stand up when travelling at speed and retreated to the comfort of the cabin for the return journey. 

Getting the boat back onto the trailer is something we seem to have got worse at as we have become more confident so, a few rope burns later, we got Bunny back home safe determined to take her out every week, at least for the next 6 - 7 months while the weather is good.

 Spring is a wonderful time to be a volunteer at the beautiful Tilligerry Habitat. Ian and I man the information centre there every Sunday and Ian also administers the website and Facebook page. It has started to get quite busy there lately, I suspect this is partly because it was featured on TV as part of Sydney Weekender's coverage of Port Stephens but I like to think Ian's efforts to increase the web presence has helped too, he puts some excellent photos on Facebook and has gathered quite a number of followers. 

What used to be a relaxing day sitting on the deck reading or taking it in turns to go off into the bush and snap some wildlife in between talking to the occasional guest has turned in to a full on work day the last couple of weekends with over fifty visitors coming through each day, we enjoy it though and it is great to see people appreciating the place.

 The resident flora and fauna give excellent value at this time of year, koalas are on the move looking for mates so are more likely to be seen and the birds, lizards and butterflies put on a real show. Most birds are either nesting or have young chicks, like the Eastern Yellow Robin in the picture and the native plants are offering up plenty of food for the Honeyeaters, there are over 60 different types of honeyeater and the one pictured is a White Cheeked Honeyeater.

I am not very good at identifying birds yet and lot of those we see around here have yellow on them and look similar so I have to keep referring to my bird book to find out what I have seen. 

There was a koala quite near the information centre yesterday, they don't move much so if one is in a position where we can't get a very good photo for Ian to use, we take it in turns to go back to it every hour or so to see if it has got itself into a more photogenic pose.  Yesterday's koala was particularly tricky so I was setting off to check on it when the biggest Brown Snake imaginable shot across the path in front of me! It must have been 5 feet long and moved incredibly quickly. The Brown Snake is one of Australia's deadliest creatures and believe me, we have a few but they are up there near the top of the 'most dangerous' list. As I ran puffing and sweating into the visitors centre babbling about seeing the biggest Brown Snake in the world Ian asked, "Did you get a picture of it?" 

Spring has also seen me attempting to grow some veggies again. I had a go last year but as we live on sand I wasn't very successful, so this year Ian has put his carpentry skills to good use again and built me some raised beds to give the veggies a decent depth of compost to grow in. So far everything is growing and we are looking forward to being self sufficient in the green grocery department quite soon. Apparently tomatoes and onions can be grown all year round here so I am hoping to be able to stagger the crops a bit and not have a situation like my Dad used to where he would keep the whole village supplied with tomatoes and cucumbers for a few weeks then have none for the rest of the year. 

After the success of the bike shed Ian made from pallets, the car returned home with this lot on top the other day so I am hoping this means a garden shed is on the cards.