Blossoms and Hatchings

It's the season for new life, however brief.

November 6, 2017

Last night our Peruvian apple cactus (cereus peruvianus, just to prove we looked it up) had its first blossom. It was gone by 11pm so they are really short lived. Thanks to lots of torchlight I got a reasonable photo of it. There are lots more buds so we'll be heading down to our front gate every evening for a while to see the display.

When I got home from lapidary club yesterday Anthony told me that he'd seen a duckling emerge from the Australasian Grebe nest on our dam. I thought I saw it, but wasn't entirely sure. Today I clearly saw not one but two ducklings (greblings?) climbing around the nest site! I've set up my camera in my office but I'm shooting through glass so they're not great photos. They're very nervy birds so outdoor, closer photography isn't on the cards without a hide of some kind. Next year, hopefully.

At lapidary club I'm slowly progressing with cutting and either polishing or cabbing and polishing the thunder eggs Anthony and I collected at Mt Hay back in 1991. I still have over 80 to cut open, but only a small number of those are large enough to slice (and, if suitable, to shape into cabochons). Here are the handful I've done so far. I can see all the imperfections so will be re-working many of them, but I'm happy with how my skill is progressing.