Birdlife at Casa Pelicano

I spent the weekend at the holiday shack all by myself last weekend. It was a much needed break away from my usual mum and wife duties, which if you ask me were causing some grief for me. 

I sat on the front veranda, wine perched next to me, camera in hand and took in the sounds and sights of all the life around me. 

It was a delight to find a blue wren family has bred three babies in the horrible Portuguese laurel tree in the front yard. There is an upside to being too lazy to chop it down!

I came out of the weekend with a new affirmation after feeling a bit woe is me about feeling not cared for, which is bullshit. We all have two sides to our brain, the emotional side and the thinking side.  My emotional side has been getting a bit carried away. 

"I am cared for and appreciated in all I do"

I can now add this to the other affirmations I have written down in my journal, which I don't refer to enough!

"I am loved and supported"

"I am my own person. I am individual and unique. I am good enough"

"I am worthy of love and respect. I love myself enough not to give myself away to other people"

It is not uncommon to see kangaroos bouncing around this paddock in the mornings.

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Fungi of the Mt Burr forest

In an attempt to get out into beautiful nature, I visited the Mt Burr forest last week. This patch of forest is only about 8km from my home.

I was looking for the elusive ghost mushrooms which glow in the dark at night. I did find a few, but they were a little worse for wear, but in hindsight I still should have taken photos of them! Darn hindsight! I did capture lots of other interesting specimens of fungi on the forest floor.

Ghost mushrooms are quite the drawcard in our area, with self and tour guided night walks through the forest near Mount Gambier. It has featured on The Living Room on TEN, and as recent as this week, being visited by Cosi for South Aussie with Cosi on Channel 9. We did the self guided tour last year as a family, and it is worth rugging up for. Don't forget your torch!

The forest is so peaceful during the day, the echoing chirp of birds and the crackling of the forest underfoot. Looking forward to bringing the kids back during the night, to see if we can see any of the glow in the dark ghost mushies.

My first scaly encounter at Lake Mac

Lake McIntyre is as good as place as any to get out of the house, out into nature. I visited last week with my camera for a stroll around the walking trail.

This is when things got interesting. I walked away from the walking trail to photograph this bird. I think they are what people in other parts of the country call bin chickens aren't they? Well in these parts, so far at least, they stick to their natural environment. I've never seen one raiding the garbage, just as well when visiting here you need to take your rubbish with you as there are no bins. 

I was fairly aware there are snakes here and the weather has been pretty hot of late. This particular day last week, it had cooled off, but I was still looking around for them though as I stepped of the track to get a better view to photograph the birds.

I caught the sight of some small wrens and butterflies flittering about in the reeds and moved about four metres to the left to try to capture them. I think I should have been taking a bit more notice of what was on the ground instead of what was in the reeds, because I looked down and there I saw a snake!

In that quick moment the first thing my brain registered was a plastic toy snake to the snap fast reality I was looking at a real snake. A real snake, less than a metre in front of me! Dark brown scaly skin, which wasn't shiny at all, and a yellow underbelly. It had found a patch of sun to bask in, to warm it's cold body.

I turned on my heel and ran as fast as I could to the safety of the trail. As I turned I could hear the russle of leaves as the snake moved, in which direction I do not know. I think I startled him as much as he scared the hell out of me.

I think my brain was working much faster than my legs, as I nearly faltered running away. My heart was beating so fast and it took me a minute to register in disbelief at what had just happened. I am thankful it was a cooler day and this scale creature wasn't so active as would be normally. I'll keep telling myself that, and thank goodness I looked down and not taken a step forward or crouched down because it could have taken this story to a whole different level.

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Adventure into Western Victoria

Saturday afternoon our neighbours joined us as we convoyed to Penola, fifty kilometres away and crossed the border into Victoria near Dergholm.

Brett had boasted the night before about knowing where some great dams were, hidden away in the scrub, so an expedition was planned. The dams were nestled amongst pine forest and natural scrub he'd spotted while driving the truck to chippers.

It was beautiful and peaceful, as much as it could be with five kids introduced to it. They all had a ball, Summer had a little to much fun.

The wildflowers were out, so pretty and dainty, and there were loads of creatures for the kids to find.

We ventured on to the Dergholm pub (the pub in the scrub) to see if they were offering wood fired pizzas, but we were a day early. Dergholm is a small hamlet, a stones throw from the South Australian border. I wouldn't blink, you'd miss it. However, the landscape is true scrub country, worth a visit, especially with Bailey's rocks down the road too, it is a must see (check the blog tomorrow, it's amazing). Don't forget to go on a Sunday to catch the firing up of the wood oven, and the cold beer.

We arrived back in Penola just as the fish and chippery shut, but decided to drive on to Mount Gambier and catch drive through Maccas plus it's annual show's fireworks. It was a fantastic but tiring day, we all slept extremely well.

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An autumns' afternoon at Lake Mac

Saturday arvo I took myself off for a drive to Lake McIntyre. It's like five minutes down the road.

I ducked into Woolies on the way and grabbed a pizza and some garlic bread I could chuck in the oven when I got home for dinner. Easy peasy. Rolled into the adjoining BWS bottlo for a bourbon can for the five minute road trip. Bob's you're uncle.

I spent an easy hour walking around, taking my time and taking photos. I was lapped three times by an avid afternoon walker at one stage!

By the time I'd got home Brett had nipped down to Woolies and grabbed some pizza anyway, obviously filled in by Izzy, and had it in the oven. I added the garlic bread and we spent a Saturday night watching a movie with the kids. Awesome.

Brett nursed his knackerbags after his day surgery 'snip' on Friday. Funniest thing ever! 

We are still finding things to laugh and joke about regarding that! Good on him though for taking one for the team. What a legend.

Joke's on me though, he's home off work for the next few days! Gawd sake!

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