This will hurt me...

Henry and Ezra tame the wild beast.

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.

Doesn't he look delighted with this urchin?

Australian Fur Seal, Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney. September 2012. This Sunday Top Five I thought that I'd share with My Top Five Favourite Words That Rhyme With 'KNOW'! Beau Dough Faux Schmo Woe

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...

Ezra does his best impression of a fennec fox. Now with added BONUS Henry impression of a fennec fox!

Relaxed and comfortable. 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.]

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.

Flipper, is that you? Melbourne Zoo, Melbourne. April 2011. The seventh seal? Kiss from a rose? United States Navy SE a, A ir and L and team members?' Andre? Seals and Croft? Australian Fur Seal or Kelpie without legs? Melbourne Zoo, Melbourne. April 2011. Something or other...

Just how many tigers are too many tigers? Melbourne Zoo, April 2011. I expect that three or four tigers probably constitutes too many tigers. Once you get beyond a couple, they start to bicker and argue, and the food they require to keep that healthy sheen and lustre to their coat becomes quite expensive. In fact, I’m just about ready to rule out those eight tigers I’ve been bidding for on E-Bay…. Sunday Top Five. Already? I’ve got it! Today’s top five is Five Words That I Commit To Using In Everyday Conversation In The Course Of The Next Week (And That You Should Too)! Anencephalous : “You see, the fundamental problem with that guy is that he is anencephalous. That’s the long and the short of it. Bloviate : “Her tendency to bloviate in times of crisis makes her completely unsuitable for leadership. Gobemouche : “His capacity to immediately identify and bring round every gobemouche in the room makes him a man worth knowing.” Ornery : “Yeah, I know him. He’s a particularly ornery fello...

Doctor Doctor, help me, I'm seeing stripes ! Melbourne Zoo, April 2011. I like zebras. They look good. They make cute noises. They trot about like show ponies. They have impressive backsides and powerful thighs. There are worse-smelling animals in the world. Yes, if I can swing it, I think that we'll be aiming to get Ezra a zebra for a pet next birth. Zebras keeping an eye out for marauding giraffes. Melbourne Zoo, April 2011. Well, a zebra and a penguin.

The crown jewels? Melbourne Zoo, Melbourne. April 2011. I’ve always been more of a tiger man than a lion . Tigers are bigger, stronger and all-together more fearsome than the frequently lazy lion. They’re better swimmers, better hide-and-seekers, and don’t palm their parenting responsibilities off onto others. How the lion became the signifier of strength and nobility, I’ll never know! Brother, I’ve seen some , Kabir Kabir Brother, I’ve seen some Astonishing sights: A lion keeping watch Over pasturing cows; A mother delivered After her son was; A guru prostrated Before his disciple; Fish spawning On treetops; A cat carrying away A dog; A gunny-sack Driving a bullock-cart; A buffalo going out to graze, Sitting on a horse; A tree with its branches in the earth, Its roots in the sky; A tree with flowering roots. This verse, says Kabir, Is your key to the universe. If you can figure it out. Keeping an eye on the wild dogs. Me...

The tigers of Richmond. ZooDoo, April 2010. There are a couple of Bengal Tigers to be found at ZooDoo in Richmond. Fortunately, these are fine and healthy specimens, more than capable of tearing your head off and using it as a play toy. Unlike some other Richmond Tigers that come to mind... On that, is this the worst Richmond side ever? I mean, the great teams of 1987-89 were atrocious, but were they THIS bad? Does the absence of Richo mean that the dross running out (and coaching) in 2004 would trounce today's toothless Tigers? Would the likes of Brian Leys, Mick "Don't kick it!" Laffey, Chris "Remember him" Pym, Richard "The Pres" Nixon, Des "Socks down" Ryan, and Mark "Useless" Eustice get a run in the current line up?

Henry is on far firmer footing with the rabbits than he is with the emus. He likes them especially slow cooked in a nice red wine sauce...

Here is Henry with his new best mate, Diane the koala. Contrary to nonsense spouted by idiots popular belief, koalas are not bears. Rather, they are are thickset arboreal marsupial herbivores that are native to Australia. You'd be amazed at how many people don't know that.

Let us not forget the forgotten victims of the torrents of rain Hobart has seen for the past four months: the worms . I photographed this worm holocaust in a Battery Point park. Yes, it is the broken bodies of millions thousands hundreds dozens tens of worms drowned in a ditch. It was a difficult image to capture through the tears.

We went for a walk the other day and spotted this little bloke lurking on a rock. Henry was keen for a look, but didn't want to get too close and risk losing an arm. Some thoughts: Chickens have a certain grace and charm that is far too often overlooked. Polish food is underrated. Issues of insecurity dominate the current age. People are annoying. All generalisations are false.

Can you believe that it is time for Theme Thursday already? Today we are not talking chocolate , toddlers , mess or ignominy . No, today we're dealing with ANIMAL . Now I could have posted a picture of a possum, numbat, wombat, wallaby or any other furry killing machine that roams our fair isle, but I figure that I'd use a far more deadly creature as an example of an animal . Some people - I know them as fools - have chosen to embrace that highfalutin idea that human beans are for some ungodly reason superior to animals. Of course, what these imbeciles seem to forget is that were are simple animals ourselves ! Anyone with a baby, toddler, teenage boy or Queenslander in their household could tell you this. Look at Henry [above]. One chocolate frog in the back of the car on a sunny day and all of a sudden it's Elagabalus meets Bacchus for a quick shandy in the Serengeti and we're down on all fours carrying on like a cat in heat. Fair dinkum, anyone who chooses to ...