Wednesday 21 January 2015

Jottings from the Tropics: 21 January 2015

I tried to think of a witty title and I failed.

Up to my neck in packing here. Because I'm moving into a considerably smaller property, I have to downsize (to use a dreadful bit of managerial jargon). So I'm also sorting and donating and chucking and shifting to the 'I'll deal with it later' pile, which is now about to overtake the Great Pyramid of Cholula in size.

And it's hot. Hot and humid like Townsville in November, not mild and humid as it should be in this part of the Atherton Tablelands in January. The monsoon trough made an appearance at the start of the month, but didn't hang around. There's rain to the north and south. There's even enough rain in Central Australia to make the Todd River flow through Alice Springs. But there's not much rain in the Wet Tropics.

I've started a new bird list for 2015. I expect it to plod along for the next eighteen weeks, until I finish these Long Overdue Projects. But then — then! — there'll be birding, invertebrating, photography, inept botanising and roaming the broad, sunlit uplands of creativity like a roamy, creative person who is not above stealing Churchill's words.

Eighteen weeks.

But I'm not counting.