Happy New Leak! (Bean)

So we had a lovely New Year's Eve around the pool when we noticed a mains water leak. The poly piping that runs around the property is about twenty years old and this is becoming an annoying trend.
I dislike fixing them even if it isn't too hard. It's just ... well, bothersome I suppose.
Anyway first thing on New Year's Day we leapt out of bed so we could enjoy the thrills of fixing it. To share how exciting it really is we made a video!
Yes, I don't really know why. Would I recommend someone viewing it? No, not really, but then the world is full of strange opportunities.
You know, sometimes we plumb in life and sometimes we don't.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Vale first road bike (Al)

All a bit sad really, as this old girl has done sterling service since I got back into cycling nearly a decade ago.

Ironically enough I only mentioned the other evening to B how much I'm enjoying her again (too hot to run so road riding it is). 
So, I was out towards Hermansberg and pushing a bit into the westerly wind and felt something rather catastrophic happen when I tried to change gears.  The derailleur had sheared off from its bracket and hit one of the back forks, cracking the carbon fibre.  Luckily I was still in phone range so Bean came out in the Troopy to rescue me.  Unluckily, significant carbon fibre fractures are not repairable, as I found out later in the day when I took the girl into the bike shop.

And she's so old now, a new frame isn't a go as most of the bits on her don't fit the new frame specs. So a new bike it is, though I'm not sure it'll fill the gap left by my first cycling romance.  Ordered and arriving next week. Next year's birthday and Christmas presents combined.  Hoping to start enjoying the anticipation and cease mourning the old girl.  Carbon fibre eh.  You know (in your head) there's a price to be paid for such a lovely ride but, really. 

Video Stuff. (Bean)

So I have realised I/We have various clips of video bits and pieces that I could play around with. In the past I would create a DVD with chapters and titles etc. I understand that these days it is not the way to go. Shame - but hey, never mind.
Now we have satellite internet out here we are almost within the range of the modern world. Youtube is still rather oddly new to us (don't laugh - if you paid $149 for 21gb data cap per month as we used to, well then it would make sense). I have posted youtube videos from my phone in the past which I think cost the same as a small bungalow in Wales but now with our new $124 per month 90gb peak 140gb off peak let me introduce to you a youtubey video slideshow thingy.

Heck. That was a long sentence.

Next post will include "Small weed looking-like flora and why one shouldn't step on it".

Until then, stay focused. ('They' say you should)

Or is this actually The Pixel Diaries? (Al)

Insignificant little thing, you'd think (fellow on the left of course . . .  we all know the chap on the right is pretty much running things around here these days).
And yet, combine with 40 plus temperatures with added humidity just for fun, a kitten in his major midday hunting frenzy, mix well and there's a well made recipe for disaster, or heat stroke at least.

So, the clue was when Pix charged out the catflap to hunt the swarm of crickets that were being all flittery and unresistable, and after a short while began panting like a very hot thing.  Now cats don't pant.  We know.  We googled it (at the time, after calling the vet about 'it is ok for them to ingest crickets, cockroaches, centipedes, large spiders, but before the panting started).  So.  Tempt kitten hunter king back in to the (relative) cool.  easier said than done.  Finally got him in, offered him bowl of cold water and cool tiles.  Cat cools.  Stops panting.  Drinks water.  Licks forearms (as roos do to cool down as they too don't sweat).  Then decides he wants to get back at the crickets.  REALLY wants to.  We locked the catflap, pulled the curtain, put basket in front on said catflap.  No go.  Cat pushes basket out of way. Gets behind curtain.  Begins headbutting catflap like small child having a tantrum.  So we cleverly (?) disguised catflap as piece of cardboard, which seemed to do the trick with the tantrum, but not with the sulk. 

 Which he kept up for most of the afternoon, interspersed with 'MOOOW' (not even a 'miaow', way more plaintive and irritated).  After some play in the later afternoon when it got cooler, primarily as a means of self-preservation on our part, to get the expression, below, resolved . . .

 He did finally calm down enough to 'help' me with my messing around in the sketchbook, trailing coloured pencil drawing of said beast.  Ironic really, that he was chewing the images of him that I was trying to draw.   But after a bit of chewing, he reverted to nice cat again, the one we collected from the shelter (as we remind him)

 

Of course we did get the last laugh (at him, as I don' think he joined in).  Later that evening, coming down the spiral staircase, I noticed young Mr P curled up on the lid of the laundry basket at the base of the stairs.  Very sweet.  On hearing me coming, he woke rather suddenly, moved rather ill advisedly (given the lid of said laundry basket was not on straight) and promptly flipped the lid like a flip top bit and deposited himself in the basket, with the lid back on top.  Really rather humiliating.  I wasnt fast enough (clearly a local problem) to capture the moment of him in the basket so just imagine a very embarrassed and really rather annoyed large kitten amidst the laundry below.,

Festive times - sort of. (Bean)

It had only dropped to 29.7 degrees at 5am one of our warmest nights so far this summer.
Yes we were up at 5.40 to hit the Ranges before the heat got too ... er, hot.
Loaded with a flask of coffee (just in case it suddenly got cold?). Up we went. A wonderful peaceful view with a few hundred flies and the odd mosquito. Luckily the roos didnt bite us though.

A great start to Christmas day as the last few have always been a bit overcast.
On return we decided to have a 'first look' at our trip blog. As has been mentioned, this proved somewhat difficult so a change of blog host went underway.

We tested out the floaty device which wasn't too bad really:

As the thunder rumbled nearby it soon started to pour with rain. A hugely welcomed relief.

Turns out that the cloud and rain stayed with us for the evening which was lovely. The only downside meant that on the 26th it was cloudy - 39 degrees - no rain and very humid. Not too nice.

Today, the 27th, it is back to hot sun and possibly some rain later? You can kind of guess how this cycle of hope re the weather goes on at the moment.

Only other news is that it seem the Mr Blue Wren Family have added Hooters as a firm big friend. They love him. Might have to try Falcon McFalconface.

That's it for now.

Oh apart from the fact that I've eaten way too much and there's a bat in the shed.

Four Seasons in One Day . . . kinda (Al)

So that'll teach us (in a good way I hope, you know, positive reinforcement ala operant conditioning and Skinner's rats) to actually DO Christmas . . . ie have a plan other than 'it's a day off'.  And did we have a plan .. . . well sort of.  And did the weather mess with it . . . well also sort of.  Perhaps because it wasn't much of a plan, the weather didn't mess with it that much.  But I digress.  So, a  bit of a photo story of the day from here:

 So we started the day with a dawn clamber on the range.  Alarm went off at 5am, but we didn't get out till 5.45 so had a bit of a 'quick, lets go before the killer 43 degree sun dessicates all memory of who we ever were' scramble up the steep bit to the top (yes, recipe for disaster that thankfully didn't get made)

This is Bean setting up the low chairs for our morning coffee with a view.  Finally found a place that was flatish, with a viewish, and without too many MASSIVE black ants.

 The views of home and roos, as always, were splendid

 And as always the clamber down was more nervy than going up.  Extra large spinifex and precious few handholds didn't help.  No photo from me, but I also found loads of Arrethe (local bush herbal balm bush, Eremophelia Freelingi for those interested) which was fab, given the hunt I had to go on for it when out a few months ago on a research trip).  They're currently in a pot in the kitchen, scenting the place (well before the turkey came in from the BBQ)

So, back home and some present unwrapping.  As with our traditions (*) no spousal gifting occurred, but Mr Pix particularly enjoyed some elements of the opening of the lovely gifts from friend and family.

Yes, really, here it only looks like he's spitting in some kind of horrified frenzy.  He really was enjoying the whole, tear, shred, chew, spit, repeat routine.
Until he found some new stuff.

And then decided the coloured stuff was better to rest on (more obviously subdued?)

Until he realised that plastic coated kitchen utensils are GREAT to relax on too:

When you're killing the cardboard insert from a calendar of course.

 He also quite enjoyed our attempt to watch the WA trip blog on the big screen (more than we did, and I'm sure Bean will share the issues there, which led to us dumping Wordpress for Blogger as a blog home) . . .  he got almost as much fun out of chasing the cursor as he does out of bouncy mouse, or squeeky mouse, or stripy mouse or the mouse catcher ipad app (over-indulged cat? no way .. . hm)

So . . .  morning fun and games over, we put the turkey on the bbq and spent the time it took to cook transferring the blog from Wordpress to Blogger so we could watch it on the big screen.  And then watched it on the ipad.  Hm.
But THEN, after turkey came in to cool, we went out to warm up in the 41 degrees it was outside at 3pm) with the new pool toy that was, surprisingly, about the size it looked like on the box.  We were not expecting that.

 Nor were we expecting the storm (yes we did see the black clouds, but . . .)

 So then the thunder, lightning, wind and rain happened, and the temperature PLUMMETED to a mere 33 degrees.  SOooooo we went back in the pool, but with shoes on, because you do that when it's raining . .. . (?)

 Of course, poor young Mr Pix didn't much appreciate the thunder, or being abandoned for the outside, so spent the afternoon under the bed, until coaxed out.

 And yes, what you see is the mood he was in.

 The afternoon ended with the 'can he really get that into the van'?

 And yes.  That's it.  The answer.  Yes.

 A few final words now from our sponsor . . .

No not really.  Though I didn't realise that Speedies also like the cooling rain as much as we do.

Christmas Eve starring Hooters the Owl (Bean)

Well, it's that time of year again. The Christmas tree is out (plastic with optic glowing lights), the turkey is in the car fridge in the spare room ( no room in the main one). Unhealthy food has been bought and already half devoured. Does it have that festive feeling? Good grief no.

It's currently 43.4 degrees and that is only good if A) You are very very very very cold and want to be warmed up in 1.5 seconds. B) You are the Sun C) Your are 'Flame Man' or 'Flame Woman' from the planet 'Flame' and have stopped here for a holiday. D) you need to cook a flat egg but don't have any cooking equipment apart from a sheet of metal (yes - that can be done here). E) You like sunny days and escape the heat by using air con and swimming in a 30 degree pool (heated by the sun of course).

We tend to choose E. ( we can cook eggs on our cooker - so D isn't really necessary).

Our plants struggle at times like these and during the day look like this:



At night (with no moon) when the temps drop to their rock bottom of 27 degrees they look like this :



Which rather neatly brings us onto Owls.

It finally happened. One of Mr Blues family decided to hang around in the 'GIANT KITTEN CAGE OF CERTAIN DEATH'. Pixel or Pix or Mr Pix proved the point and brought in a baby Mr Blue.

Dead.

Yes ... after all we have tried to do to stop him from harming the native fauna it seems the native fauna is determined to off themselves. I'm quite sure the victim in this case snuck into the GKCOCD, saw Mr Pix asleep, decided life was too hard, and forced his way into the mouth of our defenceless sleeping kitty cat.

Of course that's not true. He hunted it down like a professional killer that he is.

So what's the answer? Well can't get smaller caging, and no point in sticking shade cloth all over the enclosure since it would defeat the purpose. (Doing that would also defeat the porpoise as well, so just as well we don't have one. Plus it would be cruel to put it in a cat enclosure).

A bell on a collar? ( for Mr Pix - not the bird as that would just weigh it down). Unfortunately the Splendid Wren family are know for 'weak flying capabilities'. So they look pretty but are a bit slow on the flying part.

A natural predator to scare them away? Yes!

One suggestion is a fake cat. Hmmm - you can see the problem with that one. If a real cat isn't scary enough then a fake one would have to be ... well, weird I suppose.

A bird of prey is another suggestion. Yes! Let's try that. Anything is worth trying. First choice is a 'realistic looking owl'. Luckily we have owls that live at our place but I wonder if the wrens have ever seen them since they only come out at night. Still, my ornithology facts are sometimes a little lacking, so let me introduce you to Hooters - the realistic owl.



Yes. Looks like someone has painted skulls on his chest. His head realistically spins all the way around in the breeze. Just like a real owl.

I think it looks scary and Mr Pix thinks it's pretty scary too. He's filled with sand. (Hooters - not Mr Pix). Interestingly the Wren family have not been around this side of the house since. Could it be working or is it due to closing the window that lets some of the cool aircon out of the house that might have been attracting them?

I think it's Hooters because he cost $12 (about five British notes or something like one US $ at the mo ... well that's what it seems like).

We have a back up. Oh yes.

Let me introduce you to Falcon McFalconface.



We will put him into action if Hooters needs some back up. He's not filled with sand because A) he has no 'sand hole' B) he wouldn't be able to fly as gracefully as he is here.

So with luck we can still try to protect those 'stupid suicidal but amazingly pretty when not dead' wrens.

Pixel in the meantime just continues to do cat things like sleeping heavily:



Investigating old diving helmets ( he can climb in from underneath):



To trying to work out why his favourite attention seeking scratching area is covered with bubble wrap and fake fur rugs.



So, tomorrow we will cook our turkey in the BBQ. We could just leave it in the sun I suppose but where is the tradition in that?

We also have a floaty thing to try out in the pool. The box does look suspiciously small though.



Until next time - or the time before that - bye bye and Happy Holidays etc etc.

Pixel Palace complete ... ? (Bean)

So it finally happened. The joining of the 'very well made but with a few unique quirks' cattery enclosure to the 'very well made' professional house enclosure.

The cutting of the final mesh was done as Pixel looked on:



The idea was to have a step to aid him to get to the 'airway' run.



Turns out he didn't need it as he barged pass me to explore his new domain.:







Remember, this is a six month old kitten. His new measurement (when laying flat ) is the width of an average corridor.



He seems to enjoy it very much and thankfully is using the kitty litter tray out there. The gravel was supposed to be big enough for him not to dig into. It turns out that due to his massive freakish kitten paws he can easily dig down to the underneath chicken wire and proceed to pee everywhere.

To stop this a layer of chicken wire has been layered on top ... which was not easy to do when he was 'helping'.



All in all he is a lovely addition to our little household. Having said that, he is a cat. He will not be allowed outside. His interest in our back door has lead to the installation of a 'zap mat':



If he steps on this he gets a slight shock ( like static electricity on the lower setting). He has done it twice. Now he doesn't go near it. We however have been zapped several times. Still, it's a good ' wake me up' every now and then.

Speaking of electricity and kittens, here's a picture of our spring onions:



I actually don't want to pull them up after all the effort they've made.

Also, the weird 'alien tropical plant that 'do we really want it there' by the back door' secretly does this at night:



Sneaky heh?

I'm thinking of naming him Brian.

It's always a bit of a challenge to end a blog post neatly.

Well, that's how I find it sometimes.

Then I think why should they be ended neatly? I mean surely if Aristotle ca