art?

Arts classes are in full swing again. Our teacher is Alissa Hall, who is a well-known oil painter. Here's my first portrait. I'm kind of happy with most of it except for the hair. It's of Tristan who has up until this point been one of the students.



And this is our current project - a still life with lots of patterning on the objects. We've only had one lesson and mapped it in on top of the pre-prepared ground using white only. This Sunday, we'll start on the colour. The week after, on the patterning.

walking on rocks

Muffy doesn't go outside much any more and she is unsteady on her feet walking on rocks.



Sometimes its necessary though.

ancient carvings are revealed by receding waters

Angler fish



Shark



Wink wink



Tropical fish of some sort



Depressed



Martian



Poltergeist



The ancients sometimes embellished their carvings with what appears to be a primitive spraying technique:

the flood giveth and the flood taketh away

Lots of soil was lost during the last flood but we gained more than we lost in the form of rocks, gravel and silt. This is our new beach:



Erosion uncovered an ancient and badly rusted digging device:



At the height of the flood, the river is brown with sediment. When the river's velocity drops and the sediment begins to clear, the water always turns a teal green colour before returning to its usual clear transparent state.

what does a flood look and sound like?

Car breaks down on Richardson's bridge due to rising flood waters:



Darcey to the rescue part 1:



Darcey to the rescue part 2:



Darcey to the rescue part 3:



Darcey to the rescue part 4:



Flood waters engulfing our tree planting project. Some of the higher ones escaped:



Floods waters over tree planting project part 2:



Looking at where Richardson's Bridge would be just after the height of the flood:



Another one of Richardson's Bridge underwater as the flood is just beginning to recede:



Vistitors to our place will recognise the viewing platform which is on the riverside in front of the cabins:



The flood as filmed from the verandah of our house:



From the eastern side of our house:



Richardson's Bridge area - flood receding further:



Saying hello to someone trapped upstream on the other side of the bridge:



Receding more and beginning to reveal some damage:



Many thanks to Fiona McMullin for providing all the above footage.

wompoo

The Wompoo fruit dove (Ptilinopus magnificus) is a large and dramatically beautiful rainforest pigeon, almost twice the size of other coloured fruit doves. It is up to 56 cm long, with a pale grey head shading into rich green back and wings. There is a broken yellow band across each wing. The breast and belly are plum-purple and the underparts are yellow.

It's conservation status in New South Wales is 'vulnerable'. A 'vulnerable' species is likely to become endangered unless the circumstances and factors threatening its survival or evolutionary development cease to operate.

Here are some photos of one taken from the verandah of our house. It was busy eating the fruit of a white cedar.









What needs to be done to recover this species?

• Plant locally-occurring fruit-bearing trees and shrubs.
• Protect remnant rainforest patches during burning-off activities.
• Retain forested corridors that link east to west migration routes.
• Encourage and initiate weed control programs.
• Protect known and potential food trees.
• Protect rainforest and moist forest habitat.
• Initiate and support rainforest regeneration projects.

The white cedar was being shared by the pigeon with a group of Pied Currawongs (Strepera graculina) who were also feasting on the fruit and a lone Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) who was using the tree as a lookout post for catching worms and insects on the ground.

3rd flood - our changing riverbank

The retard fencing that we installed as part of a rivercare project has shown its worth during this flood. Where there was once grass that we kept short with the ride-on, there is now a layer of rocks and silt that seems to have been deposited because the retard fencing slowed the river down. We think that without the retard fencing, a lot of the soil would have been gouged out and washed away. Unfortunately, the many trees that were planted on the foot of the slope down to the river, also part of the rivercare project, have been either washed away or covered by rocks. Monday 24th:







Tuesday 25th (with a little sunshine):