Happy New Year!
Well, 2015 was…interesting.
I moved home three times last year, but I’m starting 2016 in a house in the rainforest. A house in the rainforest not very far from my first place on the Tablelands. There are pademelons,
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| Hello |
brush-turkeys,
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| one day old and capable of flying |
frogs,
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| green-eyed tree frog |
and snakes.
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| well-fed carpet python |
Quite a lot of snakes, as it turns out.
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| brown tree snake |
I’ve added one species to the life list — northern dwarf crowned snake (Cacophis churchilli) — and one to the life scared out of me list — a red-bellied black snake that wandered into the house one afternoon and took up residence under a book case. It stayed under there for several hours, unwilling to leave. Finally, I called a snake catcher, who relocated it to a more suitable habitat closer to the river. Everyone involved — me, snake and snake catcher — was happy with that solution.
Also happy with that solution were the yellow-blotched rainforest skinks (Eulamprus tigrinus), which would have made a nice meal for the RBBS. A small colony of these skinks lives on the ground floor. They get under my feet and leave their droppings everywhere, but they are useful as insect hunters and scavengers of crumbs. I have turfed them out of the house several times, but they find their way back in. Yet again, I am outsmarted by the wildlife.
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| avoiding my feet |
So 2016 looks as though it might be a good year. That’s based on the first sixteen hours, so I might be calling it too soon. But I have things to do and places to go, stories to read and stories to write, and a diary with a few more gaps to fill.
Here’s to a great 2016, everyone!
