This will hurt me...

Henry and Ezra tame the wild beast.

Happy birthday! Geilston Bay Community Centre, Geilston Bay. July 2013. Sunday Top Five ? How about July 19 Through The Years! #5! #4! #3! #2! #1! Cake drafting. Geilston Bay Community Centre, Geilston Bay. July 2013. The cake! Geilston Bay Community Centre, Geilston Bay. July 2013.

Creepy crawly. Russell Falls, Mount Field National Park. April 2013. This Sunday Top Five I hand over to Ezra, who gives us Ezra's Top Five Queen Tracks! Bohemian Rhapsody We Are the Champions Fat Bottomed Girls Don't Stop Me Now Under Pressure

Ocellate seastar. Flowerpot Point, Blackmans Bay. May 2013. Wordless Wednesday. Ocellate seastars making love. Flowerpot Point, Blackmans Bay. May 2013.

Theme Thursday and something MAGICAL is in the air. The last time that he saw Billy, he was being hit about the head and shoulders with a block of firewood. To be fair to the woman that was hitting him, Billy was not a very nice person. Billy had a problem with his temper. He did not take kindly to rejection. This was a special challenge, because with Billy’s temperament (among other things) he regularly face people rejecting him. Billy also had a problem with his vocabulary, his personal hygiene, his emotional intelligence, time management skills and his general sense of self. While these things are not unrelated to Billy’s assault; they offer an interesting insight into the nature of alienation in post-industrial societies, the failures of our modern welfare (post-welfare) state, the nihilism inherent in a capitalist, consumption-oriented world whereby success is measured by the wheels on your car, the size of your television set and the specific shade of orange on your girl...

Alive or dead? Little Conningham Beach, Conningham. January 2013. C'mon dudes, I'm on holidays !

Hungry Trout. Salmon Ponds, Plenty. March 2013. This Sunday Top Five , I'm considering My Top Five More Appropriate Adjectives Than 'Friendly' In The Nomenclature Of 'Casper The Friendly Ghost' ! Casper The Malevolent Ghost Casper The Sanguinary Ghost Casper The Mendacious Ghost Casper The Resentful Ghost Casper The Discombobulated Ghost Any others?

Crab #1. Little Howrah Beach. March 2013. Theme Thursday again. GREENERY. Hmmmmmmmmm. Ummmmm. Give me a second. Crab #2. Little Howrah Beach. March 2013. (tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick) Crab #3. Little Howrah Beach. March 2013. Yeah. Sorry. I've got nothing this week. How about I post this up now and promise to add a drabble this afternoon on the topic?

Mr Krabs? Is that you...?

Collecting jellyfish. Denison Beach, Tasmania's East Coast. January 2013. With regards to these jellyfish (above), the lads and I assumed a peacekeeping mission to fish these stinging beasts of the deep out and lock up in a specially designed Jellyfish Maximum Security Prison! Indeed, once we received orders to cease activities, we'd detained at least forty of the beasties. It was all to nowt though, as it seems that the East Australian Current - which you might know from Finding Nemo - shifts warm water from the tropical Coral Sea right down to the Tasman Sea, all the while depositing creatures of all shapes and sizes well out of their element. That is, the water here in Tasmania was far too cold for these jellyfish, and they were all dead by the next day (as confirmed by the amount of dead jellies littering the sea floor seen on our snorkelling expedition the following day). Anyway, to the Q and A! Again, I've pilfered it from Sunday Stealing: The Meme From Suburbia...

When emus attack! East Coast Natureworld, Bicheno. January 2013. As you know, the Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (and RSS feeds.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning... Danger, you’re at serious risk of … no, sorry, it’s all relative... The effect of the supermarket duopoly in Australia. The Art of Kissing: A 1936 Guide for Lovers. The Gruffalo defends libraries from Horrible Histories' attack. The U.S. government is developing new computer weapons and driving a black market in “zero-day” bugs. The result could be a more dangerous Web for everyone. Goethe's account of the philosophy and artistic experience of colour, bridging the intuitive and the visceral in a way that, more than two hundred years later, is still of interest . Blame Barney: Students' perception of T. rex is outdated . ...

Ezra's found lunch down at Wineglass Bay Beach!

The G.O.A.T. meets the goat.

Southern brown bandicoot. Howrah bike path. December 2012. Theme Thursday and it is bushfire season AGAIN . Every year it seems that the combination of heat, wind and a whole lot of plants that have evolved a variety of strategies to survive/ require bushfires make for a torrid time down here at the arse end of the world ™. Yes, even the plants are against us. A whole host of our native flora posses epicormic shoots or lignotubers that sprout after a fire and have developed fire-resistant or fire-triggered seeds. Thus, they don't dislike fire, they love it! Indeed, the most dominant species actively encourages fire, as eucalypts contain flammable oils in the leaves that have probably evolved as a way to eliminate competition from less fire-tolerant species. So AGAIN we face the unenviable truth of another period of nail-biting and stressing. Here in Hobart it's been 33°C with strong winds with the forecast of 38°C tomorrow and with 45 km/h gusts spell a whole world of ...

Lizard on a rock. At the ferry terminus outside Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney. September 2012. This Theme Thursday , I'm considering the POSSIBILITIES. For example, I might well end up accepting a dare today. Perhaps a doorman who is sensitive to others' auras might enter into the equation. You never know, I might have to prove myself to a psychic judge with transphobic tendencies. These things happen. Like the time that that guy told on that other guy. And the journalist who wants everything done by the rules got involved. It’s a dangerous business admitting to a fantasy, especially to a necromancer who has amnesia! We live in a colourful world. I knew a girl once who got into a bit of trouble when she started at a new school. She’d fallen into the wrong crowd and under the influence of a vampire who was trying to cover up a previous crime. It got a bit messy, there was a power-hungry weather announcer. The trouble was that he was trying to save his marriage but the vampir...

Dozing gator. Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney. September 2012. The Milkman in the Night , Andrey Kurkov Andrey Kurkov is my favourite author of post-Soviet blackly comic, absurdist tales. This isn't really his best (a little too much telling rather than showing for my taste), but it is an enjoyable little romp through modern-day Kyev. C+

Wallaby. Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, Brighton. May 2012. Wordless Wednesday.

So not only has Henry found a kangaroo, Exra has FOUR of them! [Note the joey in the pouch on the left.]

Sheep on a hill. Clifton Beach. November 2011. Blogger seems to have buggered up the header (again). Fingers crossed that it will correct itself without any need for me to lift a finger (again). A very special Sunday Top Five today, with the now annual Top Five NINE Books That I've Read This Year ! The rationale is pretty straightforward, it doesn't have to be a new book, just something that I've read this year. The nine were decided from the marking system I've been using on Goodreads (a handy tool for tracking your reading habits). All of these books received the illustrious Five Stars . If you click the link, you can read the review. I generally avoid giving spoilers. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively Animal Farm by George Orwell The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene Götz and Meyer by David Albahari The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald One Day in the Life of...

The guinea pig - Cavia porcellus - is also called the cavy . Despite their name, these animals are not pigs, nor are they from Guinea. Guinea pigs are high in protein and low in fat and cholesterol. As versatile as an egg, they are excellent fried, broiled, roasted or presented in a casserole or a fricassee. Ezra would very much like his own guinea pig.