Jottings from the Tropics: 18 December 2012

I have moved out of my rainforest cottage and am now house sitting while looking for a new place. The new place will almost certainly be a rental property, given that it could take a year or more to find the right spot to buy. The next Snail Shell will have more land and fewer neighbours. It will also have pademelons, riflebirds and forest dragons. It might or might not have cassowaries. Unfortunately, it almost certainly won't be the 360 acre property that I keep looking at in the real estate guide. It is adjacent to Mt Bartle Frere and includes a volcanic crater. Of course, if I owned a volcanic crater, I'd have to build a lair with shiny surfaces and moulded furniture and brush turkeys with frickin' lasers on their heads, so it's probably for the best that I can't afford it.

– o O o – 

It's hot. The grass is crackling under foot and the North Johnstone River is a trickle. Or would be, if it could be bothered to flow. Even the blowflies are too lethargic to be a nuisance. They are resting in the shade and sipping gin slings while complaining about the damnable heat. One of them is wearing a Panama hat.

– o O o – 

After visiting a friend in Atherton, I returned to my car to find half a shed snake skin next to it. I think the skin had belonged to a green tree snake (or possibly a brown tree snake, a.k.a a night tiger), but as it was the rear half, it was a bit difficult to tell.

I congratulated myself on not leaving the car windows down. And then I noticed that I had left them down on the passenger side — the side next to a tree.

Every time I get into the car, I remind myself that I could have an uninvited back seat driver.