This will hurt me...

Ezra with creature. Our front yard, Geilston Bay. June 2013. Theme Thursday for June 6, 2013 - It's EVOLUTION in action. Car park EVOLUTION. Hobart is indeed well endowed with car parks. We have more car parks than you can poke a stick at. We have so many car parks, that people never stop complaining that we don’t have enough car parks. The problem with car parks, you see, is that you build car parks and more people get a car to park. The more people with a car to park, the more car parks we need. Then, the more car parks there are, more people get a car that they need to park. Therefore, you build more car parks. So you build more car parks, and even more people will get a car that they need to park. I don’t even drive a car! But we get more car parks. Ever more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and...

You know that part where Tom Cruise is in his undies and dances around to Bob Seger? This is nothing at all like that.

Rosemary. East Derwent Highway, Geilston Bay. September 2012. Wordless Wednesday.

A pair of crackers eating a pair of crackers. Crackers!

Evil magpie. Our front yard. East Derwent Highway, Geilston Bay. December 2011. Sunday Top Five again and today I venture somewhat into a self help territory: The Top Five Things That My Life Is Far Too Short For Me To Tolerate! People who bring me down . There are an awful lot of people in the world, so I don’t really understand people who waste their time with poisonous people. Relationships should be enjoyable, not painful. Find people who you get on with, who entertain you, not drag you down. A career that I hate . There are limits to this, as you have to keep paying the bills. Nevertheless, if the opportunity arises, I don’t see the point on settling on a job I’m not keen on. Keep looking, that’s what I’m doing! Unnecessary miscommunication . I can’t apologise for this one. I say what I mean and mean what you say. If we’re conversing, please speak clearly and frankly. Ask questions. Clarify things until you understand them. Life is too short for games. Unhealthy habits...

Christmas Day eyelashes!

Hobart in the summer. Our front yard, Geilston Bay. December 2011. Today's photograph is an appropriately wet one for Watery Wednesday . Taken last Monday at (about) 4:04 pm, you can see how a sudden deluge saw our front lawn flooded. For a while there - as the waters rose and Henry and I were hustling as many animals as we could find (which amounted to some grasshoppers and a bunch of ants) onto a makeshift raft - we were quite worried. Then the rain stopped. Aside from a bit of pine bark that floated away and a bunch of rocks that were pushed downhill by the stream of water, there was not much to show of the whole affair,

Ready for the hot coals!

I haven't even bothered to worry about how far away we are from accessing remote controlled children. I'm still waiting for the instillation of volume controls!

Yeah... that one there. That one is a Great White... No, it's a Grey Nurse. No. Look at the nose. It's a Great White . The things we discuss in Tasmania...

Someone has rushed this. Geilston Bay, August 2011. Now time for part II of yesterday's stolen questions : 20) Have you ever flown a kite? Of course! 21) Do you wish on your fallen lashes? Not that I am aware of. Am I supposed to? 22) Do you consider yourself successful? It depends on one’s measure. Some days I think that I am. 23) When was the last time that you made an obscene phone call? I never have. 24) Have you ever asked for a pony? No. They make me sneeze (no good if I was on the run from the draft board. 25) Plans for tomorrow? Work. 26) Can you juggle? Very badly. 27) Missing someone now? Always. 28) When was the last time you told someone "I love you"? This very morning. 29) And truly meant it? I have never once said it and not meant it. 30) How often do you drink alcohol? Once in a blue moon. 31) How are you feeling today? Spritely. 32) Have you ever tried to write a meme? Who hasn’t? 33) Have you ever been fired from a job? Never. Can you believe it? 34) What...

Four million push-ups? No problem . Stay in bed all night? No chance.

Couldn't you just see this face on a bottle of salad dressing?

Ezra here is set to start chomping on a snail he has found. Quick tip for begginers: we generally kill, clean, gut and cook the snails in garlic butter first!

Snails really are the most interesting creatures. Geilston Bay, November 2010. Two books read this week, and what a pair! I managed to complete parts two and three of the Lucifer Box trilogy. After reading The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss a few weeks back, I leant of the library and score numbers two and three. # 2 is The Devil in Amber , and takes place twenty years after the Edwardian adventures of #1. Lucifer is now middle aged, traumatised by the Great War, and under the pump from a new generation of secret agents. Of course, he remains as beautiful lithe as ever – and informs us on a regular basis – but seems a little less cocksure and a little more vulnerable than the earlier tale. Without giving too much away, the story is a little darker as Lucifer battles a horrible gang of Fascists with a bent for Satanism. It is not quite the romp of the first, and the maudlin tone of the interwar period is well captured. Finishing the set, we shoot forward another twenty-or-so years into a...

Wasp or bee? You decide! Geilston Bay, November 2010. Just like this bee (or is it a wasp?), I like lavender. Other things I like? Tulips. Oliebollens. The sound of waves. Swimming in a rainstorm. The colours generated by a low-hanging sun on a summer's evening. The delicate caress of a beautiful woman while the grasshoppers chirrup away outside. Winning. What is it that you like?

"You want me to do what? FORGETABOUTIT! Here Ezra does his best Tony Soprano impression...

We now have FOUR [4] regular magpies around our joint these days, looking for a feed. It's getting ridiculous ! Today's Sunday Top Five ! Top Five Birthday Treat Foods From Henry's Birthday Party: Party Pies Sausage Rolls Mini Frankfurts Potato Crisps Crocodile Cake

Henry here is taking a break from helping out with the gardening to get some practice in on his horse-riding. All we need is a saddle. And a horse. And some jodhpurs. And a whip. Hang on a tic, I don't even like horses. They're too gamey.

Ezra has a James Dean in East of Eden kind of vibe going on here. No, there's no Cain and Abel subtext, and he's not even interested in fast cars, but at the very least, he's the right height! While Ez remains an ebullient character, with a foudroyant smile, a mellifluous laugh, has even added the fine art of waving to his oeuvre, his recent tendency towards equal parts wailing and sleeping during 'nap time' in the day is rapidly wearing thin.