This will hurt me...

I ran. I ran so far away. Bellerive Beach, Bellerive. August 2013. This Theme Thursday I am thinking that if I were a LIP, which LIP would I be? Labium superius oris is nice, but Labium inferius oris is surely only inferius in nóminis only. The cupid's bow has autant de charme and the tuberculum labii superioris the kind of stout reliability only found in Hungarian washerwomen Golden Retrievers. I am told that women are attracted to men with masculine LIPS. That is, LIPS that are not too big or not too small, can chop firewood and know where and when to take her in hand. So if I were a LIP, I'd be a proud LIP. A LIP worth loving. A LIP worth loving, living and dying for.

Australian Hobby Falcon, Shag Bay. April 2013. The Australian Hobby [ Falco longipennis ] resembles the Peregrine Falcon, however it is much smaller and has darker plumage. It's a nippy little bugger, and can swiftly weave through the bush in chase of other birds. I've not seen too many around these parts, but this one happily sat in the tree for Ez and I to have a good gander at it. Poetry , Marianne Moore I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle. Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in it after all, a place for the genuine. Hands that can grasp, eyes that can dilate, hair that can rise if it must, these things are important not because a high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because they are useful. When they become so derivative as to become unintelligible, the same thing may be said for all of us, that we do...

Australian Hobby Falcon, or Falco longipennis . Shag Bay, Geilston Bay. April 2013. My apologies. Maybe next week...

Black-fronted Dotterel, or Elseyornis melanops. Marion Bay, Tasmania. March 2013. First Love, Last Rites , Ian McEwan: Cripes, these are some DARK short stories. The blackest of the are the standouts for me, but I suspect that many will have a problem completing. B- . Two Pints , Roddy Doyle: Two old Irish blokes chatting in a bar. D+ . What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank , Nathan Englander: An uneven collection of short stories that (largely) explores modern Jewish identity. Some of the stories completely failed for me, but when he hits - as he does in the powerful "Free Fruit for Young Widows" - Englander manages to widen the historical and ethical perspective and set the full, intractably complex burden of the Middle East conflict on the reader's shoulders. B- .

Flame Robin (Petroica phoenicea). Boat Harbour, Tasmania's North West Coast. March 2013. Wordless Wednesday.

Superb Fairywren (Malurus cyaneus), Sandpiper Cottages, just north of Bicheno. January 2013. Theme Thursday today and are we going to share SECRETS? SECRETS? Believe it or not, I'm not sure that I have any. SECRETS aren't much use to me. Sure, it's not uncommon that I come across matters or details that are confidential, personal and not to be shared; but they're not my SECRETS, and ultimately not particularly interesting to anyone other than those who own them. No, I have no abandoned wives or children. No tawdry affairs of the heart (or trousers). I don't know where the bodies are buried nor do I care to know. I've never stolen, borrowed or begged. Never bashed, molested or borrowed. Never been blackmailed, blackballed or blacklisted. I've never even received a parking ticket! Boring? Perhaps. Predictable? Hopefully! Consistent? Consistently. No, no SECRETS. No clandestine covert underground undisclosed surreptitious hush-hush fur...

Kookaburra. Knocklofty Reserve, Mount Stuart. January 2012. Tasmania has 19 National Parks . I was happy to revisit two this past week, which is a beautiful segue into today's Sunday Top Five : The Fourteen National Parks That I Have Visited [Thus Far] In Tasmania ! Freycinet National Park : Henry and Ezra managed the Wineglass Bay walk, swim included. Only one of them managed to make it up the mountain on the way back without being carried.... Douglas-Apsley National Park : The highlight here? One of us - who shall remain nameless - whipping the gear off and skinny dipping in the waterhole... Hartz Mountains National Park Ben Lomond National Park Cradle Mt - Lake St Clair National Park Rocky Cape National Park Narawntapu National Park Savage River National Park Mole Creek Karst National Park Walls of Jerusalem National Park The Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park Mt Field National Park Tasman National Park South Bruny National Park That leav...

Regal. Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. May 2012. Wordless Wednesday.

Good luck, seagull. Seven Mile Beach, May 2011. I shall be in Launceston by the time this post goes up, putting the finishing touches on the project that I have been working on for (nearly) the past year. It’s been a bit of a slog, and arrives just at the point when the government realises that there is no more money. Yet these things have a way or sorting themselves out. Then…? Something else. There’s always something else. I just wish that this something else was for a little more money.

The birds have found something! Howrah Beach, December 2010. I couldn't decide between these two photos so I have uploaded both, but you will notice that the birds have won pole position! I assume that the birds have spotted the same thing that appears the be drawing the orcas into the Derwent. Aside from angry Great Whites, you can find around these parts: flathead, whiting, flounder, Australian salmon, barracouta, bream, bastard trumpeter, trout, squid, leatherjacket, mullet, long-finned pike, garfish, silver trevally, jack mackerel and blue grenadier. I suspect that these birds have spotted a school of bastards that has set their tummies rumbling! Storms rolling in over Mount Wellington. Howrah Beach, December 2010.

A flock of Eastern Rosella ( Platycercus eximius ) grazing away at Geilston Bay High School, April 2010. At the moment there are a good eighty-odd Platycercus eximius currently calling the grounds of Geilston Bay High School home. A fiery parrot, these buggers don't take "no" for an answer. Indeed, just the other day, Henry, Ezra and I could be seen fighting tooth and nail with a gang of the crimson hooded toughs. It got so willing, that the crimson masks were so widespread that you could differentiate between man and beast!

When we went along to the Christmas parade, Ezra appeared more interested in these two ducks mucking about in the Hobart Rivulet than he was in the various X-mas goths, roller derby girls and blokes in skirts. Indeed Ez tried to scale a fence to join the two Pacific Blacks - that's Anas superciliosa to any twitchers out there - for a dip. I figure that as we are rapidly approaching the end of the year, I can knock of another Sunday Top Five very easily. This week: the My Favourite Five Books I've Read This Year ! That's books I've read and enjoyed, not books released this year. Death and the Penguin , Andrey Kurkov The Spy Who Came In From The Cold , John Le Carré Things Fall Apart , Chinua Achebe If this is a Man , Primo Levi Gold , Dan Rhodes Just missing the cut is a long list, the ones that stand out in the memory include: Billiards at Half-past Nine , Heinrich Böll, Border Crossing , Pat Barker, Union Street , Pat Barker, The Truce , Primo Levi, History of the Pr...

This gull is wondering why my post is so late today... Thus, today's Sunday Top Five is the Top Five Reasons Why My Post Is So Late Today! 1: Dirty nappies need soaking, and soaked nappies need washing, and washed nappies need hanging out. Toddlers refuse to help in such matters. 2: Pancakes don't cook themselves! 3: Ezra isn't allowed to play in the toilet water and someone has to guard the toilet. 4: I've been up to the top of the mountain and come back down again (photos to come). 5: I have a wife to tickle. Don't even get me started on mowing the lawn...

These seagulls were photographed down by Bellerive beach, right next to the local cricket ground. A man’s home is his CASTLE , they say. I am wondering if that holds for seagulls. It is pure speculation of course, but I believe that these seagulls’ CASTLE is the magnificent Bellerive Oval , home of the lacklustre insipid mighty Tasmanian Tigers cricket team! It’s Theme Thursday you see, and we are talking CASTLEs. Unfortunately, we have a severe shortage of CASTLEs, knights, princesses and all that rigmarole here in Tasmania, and even the illustrious Bellerive Oval - home of the 2006–07 Pura Cup Sheffield Shield winners [and now with added floodlights] - is about as impenetrable as Madonna’s knickers [zing!]. Thus, you get another photo of some seagulls, some nonsense about cricket and a lame really funny joke at Madonna's expense. I call that a win-win.

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

Here is an assortment of rocks, birds and flora along the Derwent foreshore (on the eastern side). This photo was taken as the lads and I enjoyed a stroll along the riverside on my day off last Friday. This Friday, we are off to see some tigers, lions, monkeys and maybe even a rogue wombat or two. Expect photographs. A four day working week is indeed a most excellent thing!

No blue in the sky today, we're back to hours and hours and hours of non-stop rain. That said, I can still fondly recall the seagulls gracefully searching for chips in that big blue sky of last Friday... As ever, I am remain incredibly busy, and can only apologise for neglecting you all terribly .

Ah, the wonders of a four day week ! Stricken by some kind of mucus producing virus, Henry and I slowly traipse down to the river and lethargically toss some food to a pair of geese. We then shrug our shoulders and look at the swings, then wisely opt to struggle our way back home to watch the clock until it is okay to go for our afternoon nap. It is a hard life.

The sea birds are taking advantage of the end of the football season and setting in on the Henry Fitzgerald McCracken Recreational Ground. Watch out for the rollers though fellas, cricket is just around the corner!

A pair of Eastern Rosellas spotted over the road from our place this time last week. They make a fine sight on a clear, brisk morning. My guesstimate would be that there are twenty or so pairs living within four hundred square metres of our house, so they can often be found. Things that are annoying me this morning: 1. the same old morons; 2. the burn I picked up on my right hand last night; 3. anti-vaccination idiots; 4. stubborn, hard to remove stains; 5. play dough.