Dangar's Lagoon

Eastern Australia has been deluged with rain over the last few months, and even the Armidale district, which escaped most of the drought conditions of the last few years, has witnessed a dramatic greening of the landscape. Even Dumaresq Creek which runs through town has flooded mildly from time to time and all the wetlands, which dot the New England Tablelands, have been rejuvenated. We set out early today to visit one of them, Dangar's Lagoon and, as the picture shows, the open landscape tot he east of it indeed looks lush and green.

The timing was not accidental as the forecast was for another heavy rain event this afternoon and we thought it best to see the lagoon in sunlight, if possible. However, the cloud scenes in the photos posted here testify to the impending storms. Our lagoons are areas of internal drainage not connected to the local river systems, so they contract sharply under dry conditions - aided and abetted by farmers who surreptitiously pump water for their own use, driving all the water birds away. Today, however, was just brilliant. The water level was highest I've seen it and the lagoon was teeming with families of ducks and swans (of the black variety).

The cluster of photos shows, firstly, the middle portion of the lagoon looking west and you'll probably make out three black swans in the middle among the reeds. Then we drove around the edge of the lagoon to a lovely hide provided by the national parks service where we could spy on the bird-life in a less threatening way. The second of the trio shows a black swan (they're all black in this district) on its nest atop a little mound surrounded by a variety of ducks. And the last of the three shows a bloke paddling a canoe around the lagoon with darkening clouds hovering overhead.

As you can see the scenery is very pleasant too, not to mention the peace and solitude.

AS

Spotlighting

Last night Dot, Max and I went spotlighting in the Oxley - Wild Rivers National Park. To be precise we headed to Dangars Falls, a 190m drop from the Tablelands into a deep gorge, at dusk to meet up with the National Parks & Wildlife Services rangers who conducted the event. There were perhaps 25 or 30 people there and we heard a talk on the ecology of the area and what we might see after dark up in the trees. They also had some stuffed animals to see and touch, pygmy possums, a spotted quoll and that sort of thing. By the time the talking had finished, it was pitch black - the falls, which were thunderous after heavy rains, are perhaps 20km from Armidale.

So we spent the next 80 minutes walking the nearby tracks close to the top of the gorge, which wasn't particularly dangerous as most people had torches or 'headlights' and the spotlight illuminated the tree-tops. Still, we kept a close eye on Max who romped along at the head of the group right next to the leader. He doesn't seem to know fear and I had visions of him falling off the walkway over the creek and being swept over a 190m waterfall in full flood. Such fears were unfounded, by our expectations were confounded. If there were rock wallabies, owls, ring-tailed possums, koalas, sugar gliders, and other nice furry creatures around they kept to themselves. So, fortunately, did the brown snakes! However, we did spot quite a few brush-tailed possums, one mother carrying her baby on her back, which was cute. The odd bat also winged its way through the illumination, and we heard a chorus of mating frogs and various other croaks and chatter from unseen animals.

I'm sorry I have no pictures to show ... for obvious reasons.

AS

Max Meets His Cousins

Max had a visit today from his two cousins, Hain and Abigail, who live on a large pastoral spread near Kentucky (New England, not the United States!). They came across with Stephanie, their mother and one of Max's aunts. The meeting lasted about 90 minutes or so and Max and Hain hit it off really well because they are both 6, with Hain slightly older. Abigail is only 3, so was rather out of the loop.

The two boys were soon outside in the wet garden and took only a few minutes to round up a lot of snails. Max had 5 on his arm at one stage as the photo shows, and Hain had one or two. The snails also found their way on to the kids' faces and their trails had to be washed off. Dirt and slime seem to find Max wherever he's located! Then they played hide and seek, marbles and the usual sorts of thing for six year olds.

AS

English Weather Again

It's a month into Spring and our weather has turned awful. I hope UK readers will excuse me if I complain about 'English weather'. We haven't seen the sun in three days and temperatures have been colder than charity - around 12 degrees instead of the 18-20 we expect at this time of year. And we're in danger of dissolving from persistent light rain - although a quick look at the on-line rainfall radars suggests that we will shortly be deluged. Mushrooms are coming up all over the lawn. We haven't had anything like this in years! At least the vegetation is Irish green. It's so gloomy at 6.15 pm despite the fact that we've gone onto daylight saving.

AS