I have an urgent non-fiction writing "assignment" to complete by next Sunday, so apologies for the short blog post.

Heavy rain again this week - photos to come - forecast for near zero temperatures again mid-week. NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Fiction writing: one scene speeding faster than I can write it, another doing the opposite, editing other pieces. I've set myself a deadline for mid-September to complete this edit of The Isthmus.

Bird news: depleted numbers again this week. I did see a few wrens, spineys, acrobatic thornbills, RBFs, one fantail (heard a few more), and encountered a bunch of (always fun) babblers. Think they're all recovering from the deluge last Thursday (26 July).

And of course there's that even in London at the moment. I do hope they're all safe. Prayers for Syria.

Happy writing
Bo
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Hi All

Back to work = ploughing through the writing. Worse, I've hit a difficult "addition" scene, and it's proving tough to get right. I KNOW what has to be in there, I've planned it, but...

Not much bird activity at MtBS this weekend. No fantails (???), did see some wrens, thornbills, clogs, spineys, and Mrs Golden Whistler. Apart from that: nothing. Saturday was cool but sunny in the morning, then the cloud rolled in, turned into fog, and stayed the rest of the weekend.

The good news: the rain tank is in at last (long story), the bad news: no rain.

Only a few days to the Olympics. After what happened in Colorado, may everyone just be SAFE. Winning is uplifting, but staying alive beats it hands down. RIP to those innocents who just wanted to watch a film.

Planting at Mt Barker this Sunday with the National Tree Day crew from the MtB Council. Starts at Cameron Road oval at 10am.

And I'm improving with the phone. Like I said, a week. I love the 159-page manual...

Happy writing
Bo
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And the pics: What a difference a day makes!

New phone. New headaches.

Does this sound familiar. I went in to get a phone charger, came out with a new phone (effectively cost me zero). Of course, now I have to learn to fly the thing.

Downloaded my first app today, and snapped my first photos. Looks good so far. Who knows? It might even RING people!

More soon.

And sunshine today! Apparently, that's the shiny thing in the sky?

Happy writing
Bo
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Hi All

As slow as a wet week? Winter sure hates us this year. It's been a miserable cold week, little sun, heavy rain and damaging storms, hail like snow (see previous post), and even more terrifying:"Back to Skool" tomorrow!
 
Where did the two weeks go??

I'll start with "The Singing Tower." I first heard of this effect in Yeppoon, Queensland, where they have a beautiful sculpture at nearby Emu Park called The Singing Ship - a bicentennial memorial to Captain James Cook. Part of the ship's sail has holes drilled to work like a flute when the wind blows. Yes, you guessed it: After a short time most of the holes had to be filled in because the townspeople couldn't sleep! Or that's the story.

So back to mine: The winds were blowing hard up there today, and walking on the west side, I thought I could hear music. I discounted the idea, thinking I was losing it, but as I returned to the car park I could hear it again. Yes, it was the tower! (see photo from 9 July below) With the winds funnelling through holes etc in its superstructure, it was "singing" - and rather well too. No, nothing as melodic (?) as from the radio station dishes, but pure WINDSONG. Wish I could've recorded it (then posted it as subliminal messages to our politicians - "We need a proper weather station at Mount Barker..")

Writing: This week's been expanding "The Isthmus" (a bit slower than I thought), and updating the blog and social media sites. Check out Robert Lee Brewer's blog post on time management for social media.

Thursday night I spent an enjoyable evening at the Police Museum in Adelaide, courtesy of an invitation from the SA branch of The Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society. Such history! Amazing photos and equipment, interesting displays and information, fabulous old cars including "The Black Maria" - and friendly and funny tour guides! Oh, and one incredible letter! Thank you SA Police Force and ANZFSS!

And to the birds (amazing any appeared this week, but hey, they have to eat): Little (yellow) thornbills, golden whistlers (male and female), superb blue wrens [it's cold, that's why they're blue], grey fantails, yellow-rumped thornbills, yellow-faced honeyeaters, eastern spinebills, rosellas, and further out: a black shouldered kite and an australasian kestrel.

In a rare burst of sunshine, took Mum to the beautiful Larantinga wetlands on Thursday. Mind you, it hailed later in the day (see previous post). Saw wrens, wood (maned) ducks, chestnut teal, spoonbill, bronzewing, pacific black duck, grebes, white-faced coots, purple swamp hens, thornbills, and a bunch of galahs, cockatoos, corellas, rosellas and wood ducks all fighting for nesting spots in  two massive eucalypts. NESTING??? NOW??? Take a look at the temperature, you idiots!

And speaking of idiots...

Birds with a death wish this week: the Springs Road Willie Wagtails (stopping to collect insects as my car is bearing down on them...I braked, of course), and the Bald Hills Road Wood ducks (same colour as the road) and waddling across from the creek. Oh dear...Duck soup?

Happy writing
Bo
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Thunderstorms that brought hail so dense it resembled snow on the hills. Check out this great pic of South Australia's beautiful Barossa Valley from ABC Online and submitted by Richard E. Henderson: http://bit.ly/NNKr71

Hi All

Back on deck, and in the process of remodelling the webpages and blog. So it's definitely "Under Construction" at the moment, a bit like half the roads in Adelaide.

So I'm in the second half of a two-week "break" at the moment and I'd have to say relieved that school term is over. It's been really tough. The good news: I've managed to get several writing pieces away for competitions (that's the fun part), and a couple of "non-fiction" articles away to meet other deadlines (fun, but with a serious edge) - wish me luck on those.

Apart from that, I've been helping out the local Trees for Towns group at Nairne. We've planted several sites - nearing the 500 seedling mark now! The cold wet weather meant the postponing of our Bush Action Team weeding session at Mt Barker summit; I've been out there anyway and grubbed out some clumps of that most obnoxious of all weeds: "bridal creeper." And walking, of course. Just harder to negotiate the track with a bloody great mattock on my shoulder (preparing for "The Hobbit" maybe?)

Did I mention it's been cold? Several mornings at or just below zero, and it is hard with no heating. I rug up like the Inuit people! The bird-baths froze solid, but the fog's been fantastic (I love it)!

No trip away this break, catching up with friends (thank you)!

The birds: Quite a few returning to the summit/Mt Barker/Nairne area, even though it's mid-winter. The pardelotes are cheeping this week; the thornbills are travelling in flocks of about 20 (brown, little, yellow-rumped, weebills) and tend to mingle quite happily with grey fantails, RBFs and blue wrens. I actually SAW a yellow-faced honeyeater perch on a fence (they're normally never still) and look for...nesting material (maybe?). The babblers are chuckling away like they do, currawongs were carrolling, and the Fire Track kookaburras apparently thought I was hilarious this morning (they were dry, I was wet, yeah that is funny).

And thanks to Lisa Picciau (from Lisa Picciau Photographic Productions)  and Lauren Hagger from Make-up by Lauren (mum of little Mia, born June 2012) for the photos and the excellent makeup - so patient both of you! The heavens opened just as we arrived at the Botanic Gardens in Adelaide. We dodged showers, drank coffee, visited a photo gallery, partly froze and somehow managed to get some half-decent photos - even thought I'm in them! Check out Lisa's webpage - it's cool!

I'll sort my web page ideas with Weebly (the host site) and get these pages done!

Happy writing
Bo
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