Category: Uncategorized

Caterpillars

Six of these little critters are chomping down on my bolwarra bush. Not their usual food as far as I can make out.

Reading Helen Scwenke’s & Frank Jordan’s Create More Butterflies tells me that an Orchard Swallowtail will lay her eggs on any tree or bush in the citrus family.

Yet I thought I saw a large blackish butterfly in this bush. The caterpillars somewhat resemble the instars on p33 and there is a very small sandfly bush beside the bolwarra.

The caterpillars as you can see have a much closer resemblance to those of the Fuscous Swallowtail on p20. There’s only the lime berry mentioned for host plants for thst variety of swallowtail.

Here’s one doing its weird standing-up-in-the-sun move. Never seen that before.

The whole event is pretty exciting and was one of the reasons—the possibility that butterflies would visit my balcony garden—that I decided on a level two apartment rather than, say, a level seven place.

To top it all off, me getting an in house companion in the form of a cat is what made it possible for butterflies to visit. Before I got Moggy noisy miners, a pernicious sort of bird visited the balcony despite my efforts to keep them away, and clean out all insects good and bad. They even had a go at catching my fish. Moggy keeps them away and the caterpillars are safe.

The Same Old New Rules

Rather than becoming habits, after about two weeks of mindfully performing new rules and routines, I start to take my attention off them.

Fatal! Because I’ll start to forget them. And I bet nearly everyone one of you have the same issue.

So … a new rule I’ve been trying to make into a forever habit for over four months now, is getting mobile while using the mobile phone. IE walk around the house while talking with friends and family.

Yesterday did I do that? Hardly. Spent most of my time lounging on the couch despite hearing hints, along with the call, of busy diligence in the background.

Life admin calls need a different strategy. They usually need reference to paperwork and online forms. Although there are often lengthy waits involved, you can’t walk too far from your desk.

Such as when I called the RTA (Residential Tenants Authority) about the return of my rental bond pertaining to my unit in Coorparoo. Which I left back in March this year, about eight and a half months ago.

I was 23rd in line to a call center I was informed by a ‘kind’ call center robot. My heart sank. But I was updated every 60 seconds.

Surprisingly it only took about twenty minutes for that call center to work through that number of callers. The matter is not yet resolved, but since it was Friday afternoon, I arranged to call back next week.

My social caller a few weeks back … when I walked around the house and did almost 1000 steps toward my daily goal … and I discussed whether Brisbane will be ready for its go at hosting the Olympics eight years from now.

He doubts it. I wouldn’t know. He’s in building and has not seen any of the promised new venues even begun. Though eight years seems plenty of time, a really big venue will take that amount of time and all the available expertise all by itself.

We decided there should be a new rule. Any city taking this on–hosting the Games–should use what venues they have. Is it really necessary for the Games to grow bigger and bigger? A howl of protest would go up, I’m sure.

There. I’ve reminded myself to get back on the path to getting more active. Maybe this time I’ll remember to keep going!

Sunset at Coorparoo

The Build 7: Nov 22, 2024

I see it’s been over a month since my previous post about the build. On the 28th of October there was a day of excitement as topsoil from the Banchory-Court-side of the site was piled onto the Carindale-Street-side of the site. One of the large old excavators in charge of the spreading and piling, while the two dump trucks took turns dumping their loads, while perhaps the other old excavator worked the loading.

In that time the majority of the work was done in the section nearest the gate into Surbiton Court. Pipes of several sizes put into the ground … huge concrete pipes in the pic below

And much smaller diameter, some kind of plastic. These often used as guttering drainpipes, in my experience, but here with the red coloring I assume are to house communication and electrical ducting.

Every time it rained work had to stop every second day unless there was a storm as well. The back lot–the parts that I can see from my balcony–filled with puddles and finally a pond-like sheet of water. The pic below is a couple of days later, with grass now growing well.

Birds are starting to congregate though I think it’s more likely that they are snacking on worms rising up and drowning, than fish miraculously appearing in the ankle-deep water and mud. I saw an ibis arrive this morning as well as a stone curlew. The plovers never went away. The approximately forty strong murder of Torresian crows that live in the trees alongside Carindale Street don’t seem to care who visits their grounds, I guess they get enough food across the road. (Carindale Shopping Mall)

 And finally, a mystery object pulled out of the ground?

Well, I know what it is. It surprised me to see one so near to a city center … Cattle grid? I wonder whether when the first village was built back in the 1980s, cattle roamed along the creek?

Another Day, Another Storm

I’m really enjoying them …

Holey moley I didn’t even see this develop

Only a couple of minutes later the outlook was this …

I head to retreat indoors, found the perfect viewing gallery with the windows in front and the dark curtains at my back …

Be warned, it’s a mite long but I dearly wanted to catch a lightning strike …

The sound is good too … and all this before sunset … The following clip after sunset. Even darker

And all this with just an old iPhone!