I've been away for a couple of days, having a mini vacation at Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia:

I stayed Friday night at Motel98, & Saturday night at Country Comfort. Both motels overlook the Fitzroy River:

Look at these gorgeous Hugo and Andy leopard print/snakeskin shoes, from Stompin' in Rockhampton Shopping Fair, which is perhaps the most droolable shoe shop in Rockhampton:

 

Actually, next time I'm there, I must check out "Shoes on East" at 141 East Street, Rockhampton, having just found their website.

It's now "Beef Week" in the "Beef Capital of Australia", & Beef2006 starts today.  There are themed, painted, & humorously named bull statues all over the city of Rockhampton, including this one (maybe it's "Rock-a-bull"?) which was outside Stompin':

There is a gorgeous cathedral, I think it's called St Paul's Cathedral, in Rockhampton, which I tried to take photos of from a moving car:

I shouldn't have had the zoom lens on for that one.

An ibis between the motel & the riverbank:

 A 20 minute drive to the north is Capricorn Caves, which are made of limestone.  This is the entrance:

It reminds me of the scene towards the end of the movie Aeon Flux, after the wall is broken down.

 

 

 

I keep going outside with my camera too late, just on dusk, so most of my photos are turning out too dark, but of course the flash does work, up close:

I believe that's a Mock Orange, Philadelphus lewisii, which is a fragrant shrub.

The berries are cute, too:

Remember my butterfly photos?  Well, I reckon the same butterfly, which I photographed on the 10th, is still fluttering around within about a 5 metre radius of my back door!  This leads me to believe that butterflies are territorial, & by Googling that phrase I have discovered that I'm not the only person to think so! 

I feel sorry for this particular butterfly, because he/she may be missing the lovely long green grass, which has been mowed recently. 

"...The average life of a butterfly is around two weeks. Some species only live a
day or two and other species are capable of living around nine months..."

Click on that phrase to read more butterfly faq, from The Butterfly Farm.  You can also find out how to attract more butterflies to your garden!

 

Two days ago, at dusk, in my front garden:

(A peewee being noisy.)

(Elegant gumleaves.)

(Gumnuts, with sunset in the background.)

(More gumnuts.)

I watched King Kong, starring Australian actress Naomi Watts, & Flightplan, starring Jodie Foster, Saturday night. 

I enjoyed Flightplan the most.  Wouldn't we all love to have more knowledge than those around us?

I was impressed t hat King Kong had more realistic dinosaur movements than any other movie I've seen.  There was only one computer simulation/animation that seemed fake, & that was of a native swinging on vines towards the ship, although his last swing looked realistic enough.  I was also impressed with the depth of feeling shown in Kong's face.  A friend of mine cried three or four times when watching KK!  hehe

Last night I went out to dinner with friends.  Bring on the smoking ban in clubs, I say, the sooner the better!  I don't like having to breathe it in, nor my hair & clothing smelling of smoke afterwards.

Today has been a busy day (& night) of meetings, work, & driving in & out of town three times.  I even received a call from Today Tonight (tv current affairs show) this afternoon!

 

Happy Easter everyone!

I've been down at the farm in SE Qld, with lots of extended family members.

I should have taken some photos of black swans or magpie geese for you, but I was too lazy.

I've shown you lots of birds in the past, so here are some bees, which I saw beside the verandah of the old Queenslander:

 

I think that one is a bumble bee?

Ever wonder at the phrase:  "The Birds & the Bees"?  Here's one person's view:

"...Sex education of less enlightened days often consisted of a few oblique references to birds laying eggs and bees pollinating flowers.  The parent, satisfied that an unpleasant duty had been accomplished, then left the child to make his own dubious inferences regarding reproduction as it applied to the human species..."

At this time of pagan fertility festivals - er, I mean Easter, I think this is an appropriate topic!

Bird photos from a couple of days ago:

A double bar finch in a monkey tree, by the birdbath:

I think these are turtledoves, they're like small pigeons anyhow:

More elusive rainbow lorikeets. I haven't yet managed a good photo of one:

Do you know how hard it is to capture a butterfly in flight?!  This one (or perhaps there were more than one) was teasing or taunting me, flying back & forth, close to me, too quickly.  The second one looks like an artist's impression of a butterfly in flight:

Lastly, a couple of good closeups of some Apostle Birds in a tree:

Whew!

 

 

I had a movie fest at home yesterday, & watched 3 DVDs!

Saving Face: 

I didn't know that it would be in Chinese with English subtitles!  There should be a warning printed in large letters on subtitled foreign language films!  The biggest shock however was the lesbian love scene!  I never want to see two pairs of naked breasts that close together again, thank-you!  Joan Chen, who plays the mother in this movie, has such a beautiful face.  Her daughter, however, looked undernourished to me.  Her lesbian lover looked like trouble.  The glamorous 50ish  ;Chinese ladies were a delight to see. despite their being bitchy.  

Seducing Dr. Lewis: 

Another surprise:  this one was in Quebecois (French Canadian French) with English subtitles.  It was quite cute & funny, but I would have liked to have seen more aesthetic transformations.  Men look so grubby (dirty & unkempt) with grey hair, wrinkles, & stubble or other facial hair, yuck!  I would have liked to have seen community effort to transform the 'ugly house' into something beautiful.  I did enjoy the gentle humour of this film. 

All You Need: 

I found this movie quite violently confrontational in the scenes portraying alcoholic behaviour.  The dubbing was just ridiculous!  It's rather confusing to see a person saying one thing, but hearing something else instead, eg seeing one of the actresses say "bullsh*t" & hearing "baloney" a microsecond too late - plus all the voice dubbings were recorded under different sound conditions, & that was so obvious!  The star, Kellie Martin, has the annoying face of a bratty child, & her character was not likeable.  By the looks of her husband, it was a guy he cheated on her with - & her sister's husband, who came on to her, looked so gay, too!  The grandmother had had way too much plastic surgery, oh dear.

Would I watch any of them again?  No!

 

 

Some months back a stray dog found his way to our home, & we soon found his owners because he had a 'phone number on a tag attached to his collar.

Thursday evening a small stray cat, a Chinchilla Persian, arrived, all skinny, wet & bedraggled:

Compare her condition to how Chinchilla Persians can look (click here).

She looked so bad that at first that I feared she was feral!  We soon discovered that she was affectionate, however.  We gave her salmon, tuna, & milk.  She was hungry often, but could eat only a little at a time.  Our dog just wanted to play with her, he couldn't understand her at all, but he was so excited.  A group of Apostle Birds were tormenting her earlier today on the verandah.  You know I love birds, but I wasn't too impressed with them.

A next door neighbour mentioned her to a fellow she was speaking with on the 'phone - or perhaps she knew this story & rang him:  two months (!) ago a visiting Chinchilla Persian went missing from his home.  He rang me & also left a message on the possible owner's machine.  Sure enough, Mini Ha Ha (we had been calling her Grizabella) was reunited with her delighted & emotional owner this afternoon.  God knows how such a pampered indoor long haired cat survived for two months in the wild!

On another note:  as a child my mother showed us the beauty of the intricate lace-like wings of some small moths.  Here is one I found on a picture frame last night, which had somehow found its way inside our home:

 

 

Yesterday evening was just perfect for a tramp around my front yard with a camera.  The sun had just set & the moon was already up:

That's a fig tree in the foreground.  I _love_ fig trees!

I found a butterfly convenient ly perched in a tree:

It patiently waited for me to take a closeup:

That's closer than I usually get to my photographic quarries!

Perhaps it was a Wanderer Butterfly, although in nearly all the photos I've seen of Wanderer Butterflies they were mostly orange in colour?

Look what I found hiding in the photo, to the right & a little lower than the butterfly:

 

It's a dragonfly.

Aren't dragonflies what fairies use for air transport?  :-)

 

 

 

Grandma decided to be remembered via yellow butterflies, & I have seen so many since she died over five weeks ago!  Here is a little fluttery one which I photographed yesterday, in my front garden:

I also saw a large fast flying butterfly, but it was too fast to capture on film!

Actually, at the graveside in Maryborough after Grandma's funeral service, the minister had to pause because of the very loud noise some black cockatoos flying over suddenly made.  They were like heralds!  I glanced to my right just then, & saw a yellow butterfly flying along!  Of course, that made me emotional.

Yesterday morning I was 'on the prowl', trying to photograph an elusive willy wagtail:

They're cute in profile:

These two rainbow lorikeets were being very quiet, hiding together high up in a tree.  I haven't managed to get a good photo of rainbow lorikeets yet.

They are cute by nature and have a beautiful appearance, with gorgeous colouring - hence their name.  A few years ago we looked after a young rainbow lorikeet for a few days.  I think he'd flown in to a car or fence, & was a little hurt.  We called him Lorry the lorikeet.  I knew he was getting better when he flew from the laundry into the loungeroom & sat in one of my indoor plants!  We let him go outside after that.  A few days later it was raining, & our large garage roller door was up.  Lorry flew in to say 'hello'!  They're lovely birds.