Outstanding

Awesome nearly 100-year-old Japanese Maple

I had my performance review today at work. I'm "outstanding". Yay. Hopefully outstanding enough to get a pay rise, because my rent is going up soon. (Boo.)

Luke made creamy chive mashed potatoes the other night, just like you get in nice restaurants, with lashings of butter and cream. Delicious. Will eat again.  

I had a lumbar puncture on Friday (not a gleeful event, although it was much less painful than anticipated). I asked the doctor what spinal fluid looks like and she showed me a vial of my own spinal fluid, which is kinda cool. Surprisingly, it looks exactly like water: clear and...watery. I thought it would be more viscous. 

Misty, but still colourful 

Luke and I visited Cloudehill Gardens in the Dandenongs on the weekend and it was lovely, despite the rain that started not long after we arrived. It was awkward trying to juggle an umbrella and keep the rain off my camera lens, but mostly it was quite delightful being in a garden in the rain, listening to the sound of drops pattering onto leaves and seeing the clouds close in around us. 

The lyrebirds seemed to like the rain too - we saw four of them! I'd only seen four in total in my whole life until then. They look funny when they run and I never noticed before they have big feet.

Lyrebird not hanging around for photos

Flowers and bees and a mantis

I cut through the south end of the Botanic Gardens on my way to catch a tram on St Kilda Road this morning. As soon as I set foot inside the gate near Guilfoyle's Volcano I was greeted with a riot of beautiful cactus flowers.  

  

A bee photobombed some of my flower pics, which always pleases me. I asked a bee-keeping friend about the blobs of pollen on the bee's leg and she told me bees collect pollen in "pollen baskets", which delights me. Baskets! They are also called "corbicula", which also delights me because I love words that end in "icula(r)", like funicular...and other words I can't think of right now. 

I visited the gardens three times today. I cut through again on my way home just after lunch and then I had a more leisurely wander around on my way back from the city. 

This fuzzy ferny bud was conveniently located in a shaft of sunlight in an otherwise shady spot. I didn't notice the little insect on it until I uploaded it to Instagram. 

I visited the Ian Potter Children's Garden on my longer wander because I haven't been in there in years.  There's some ace stuff in there, including fruit trees, herbs, vegetables and flowering gums that are just starting to burst into bloom. I think I was the only person in there without a child in tow, but my inner child enjoyed it.

This bee was so intent on filling its pollen baskets that it was oblivious to my camera hovering right over it. 

 Pretty flower

Anyone know what flower this is? 

I unintentionally made a praying mantis very cross. I was taking photos of some shrivelled berries and I was so focused on them that I didn't realise I'd invaded the personal space of Mr(s) Mantis. It gave me a little scare until I realised what it was (or what it was not).

Do you mind? I'm trying to pray here. 

Just before I left the gardens a Nankeen Night Heron landed nearby and sat there...and sat there...and sat there...I was hoping to see it catching its dinner, but maybe it couldn't see anything because of the weed cover, so it just sat there like a little birdy hunchback. I was still happy to see it. 

Platypuses and wombats and devils oh my!

We went to the Wine and Wildlife event at Healesville Sanctuary today. Despite living in Melbourne for 20-something years, I've never been to the sanctuary before. I guess I prefer to go see more exotic animals like they have at the Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo, but  I did enjoy seeing my first platypuses, Tasmanian Devil and conscious wombat. 

I don't have any pictures of the platypus and Tassie Devil worth sharing because they were constantly on the go and it was dark in the platypus house, but here are my other photos. 

 A critically endangered Orange-bellied parrot

 This leggy fella is a curlew (also endangered)

 A rather bedraggled Tawny Frogmouth

 A more dignified Tawny Frogmouth  

 Some other bird I don't know the name of 

 Sooky young wombat who just wanted to hide 

between her keeper's legs

 Awe-inspiring massive Wedge-tailed Eagle, Australia's largest 

bird of prey with a wing span up to two metres

 Baby freshwater crococile

 I spy with my snakey little eye...

We visited the animal hospital where a stick insect was among the patients. The vets actually operated on it and put it under using gas. When they were done, they used superglue to 'stitch' it up! I don't know how they knew it was sick or what was wrong with it, or how they worked out how much gas to use so they didn't kill it. 

Oh, I also tasted some wine and chocolate.      

I'm walking, trivia, tooth fancier

I walked all the way home after work today for probably only the second or third time this year. I've been walking half way home quite often, but I've decided I need more exercise, so I'm going to walk the whole way more often. It's a 40-minute walk at a brisk pace.  

I've actually missed the walk - seeing the reflections of the city lights on the dark river, keeping an eye out for water birds and, of course, avoiding crowding on the tram. 

I only caught a glimpse of a bird on the wing tonight, but I did see a few patches of mushrooms on the river bank. 

My firm is having another trivia night in a few weeks. Yay! I love trivia nights. My team came fourth last year, so our aim is to better that. Or, you know, win. 

Are you gomphipothic? The meaning is as amusing as the word itself - to be excited by a lovely set of teeth. Whatever floats yer boat... 

Big sleep, sausage Sunday, parrots

The beginning of the golden hour this afternoon

I had a very big sleep in today. Very big.  

Today is Sausage Sunday! That's sausages, potato salad, sauerkraut and dill pickles for dinner, for those who have just joined me. 

I forgot to mention a strange sight I saw at the market yesterday - a woman walking along with one parrot sitting on her hand and another on her shoulder (no, she wasn't a pirate.) I wonder why they didn't fly away?  

A spontaneous Sunday adventure

Great Ocean Road from Teddy's Lookout, Lorne

Luke and I made an impromptu visit to Lorne on the spectacular Great Ocean Road yesterday. We had lunch in a little town west of Geelong called Birregurra just for a day out somewhere different, but rather than head back home on the highway, Luke suggested we head south to Lorne since it wasn't that far away. It's hard to say no to zooming along the GOR. 

With our bellies full of lamb snags (Luke) and beef burger (me) supplied by farms in the Birregurra region, we set off. The trip took us from farmland, through the forested Otways National Park to the coast.

Fabulous old petrol bowser at Deans Marsh 

A ghost sign on the building behind the bowser

While in Lorne we took in the view from Teddy's Lookout and visited the lush spendour of Erskine Falls - my first time there. It's not the mightiest waterfall we've visited, but the setting is beautiful. Cool, green and cavernous. 

 Erskine Falls near Lorne

Kookaburra sits in the old gumtree

We dropped into the secondhand bookshop in Birregurra (naturally) and while we were there, the owner dropped a bookstand on the floor near my feet. I picked it up for her and she said that meant I would get a surprise. Apparently that was a thing when she grew up - if someone drops something and you pick it up for them, a surprise will come your way. Country karma, I suppose. My surprise is due on Wednesday. I assume it's going to be a nice surprise. 

It might have come early actually. I thought the interest I pay annually in November for an investment thingo hadn't been debited from my account, but today I realised it had; it was just much smaller than usual. This means nearly all of my tax return can go towards other, more tangible things, like saving for holidays next year.  Yay. Oh, OK; I did buy some shoes too.    

Mt Buller weekend

Sunset near Yarra Glen (taken from moving car)

We stopped at a fish n chip shop in Yarra Glen for dinner. The burgers were delicious...I'd go so far as to say mine was better than a Grill'd burger. It's a bit far to go for our regular Friday night burger though. 

Rainy afternoon - the view from the lodge we stayed at 

It rained in the afternoon both days, with thunder and lightning on Saturday. We could see the forks of lightning while sitting in the living area of the lodge.

 Trees killed by bushfire 

We set out to walk from the Mt Buller to the peak of Mount Stirling on Saturday, but it was hard going (for me anyway). The track was rocky and difficult to walk on and steep in parts, and it turned out to be a longer trek than we expected. I pulled the pin when faced with a long, steep incline that I just didn't have the legs for. (You know that mental note I made after walking up Mr Oberon in January about going to the gym more often? I have been exactly twice since. Still, considering I've had so little energy lately, I was pleased I managed as well as I did.)

 Very tall/long fallen tree (hard to see the scale here) on the walk to Mt Stirling

 Eye of the tree

 Dead trees, purple undergrowth

 The beautiful snowgum

 A female mountain katydid...

We spotted this large insect (body about 3cm long) on the track on the way back home. It wasn't keen on posing for photos and kept turning around to try to get away when we stuck our cameras in its face. If you look closely at the photo below, you can see it has a faux face on its back end. Didn't scare us!

Bumface 

I found out what kind of creature it is by coincidence. Very early on we'd seen another unusual large insect on the path with vivid blue and red stripes on its abdomen, which it was pointing at us, obviously agitated. I googled 'insect red blue abdomen' and the first picture I saw was of the insect above! Turns out the stripey one is the male mountain katydid and the brown one is the female.   

 Rocky whirlpool

 Raven and dead trees

 Raven and lichen

The view from near our lodge

 Mailboxes beside the road between Mt Buller and Mansfield

 Another beautiful tree

Storm clouds and dry grass

New Year road trip day 5: Mt Kosciuszko

Today was the day we were to summit the highest mountain in Australia. That sounds impressive, but there's no actual climbing involved - you can walk the whole way to the peak on a purpose-built metal pathway - and at 2,228 metres (7,300 feet) above sea level, it's a baby mountain by world standards. 

Nevertheless, we did it! There was rain and possible storms forecast for late afternoon or evening and Luke thought we should probably change our plans and go only as far as the Mt Kosciuszko lookout (a 5km round trip compared to the 13km to get to the top and back), but I was having none of that. Pffft. Rain. Possible storms. I hadn't come all this way to not get to the top. 

Mother Nature was on my side. We made it up and back just in time to beat the storm.  

You don't need to be super fit to do the walk, but I found it challenging, especially the first few kilometres which just went up...and up...and up in a straightish line (those times I stopped for a sip of water or to blow my nose? I was mostly just trying to catch my breath). Despite numerous but brief rests, we completed the walk in under five hours while the official tourist info says it takes four to six hours.  

It turned out to be my favourite part of our trip, not just because we made it to the top, but because it's just so damn pretty - the wildflowers, the trickling streams and little waterfalls, the amazing panoramic views, the craggy peaks of other mountains, the couple of patches of still-unmelted snow...it was all so picturesque. 

And here is the (abundant) proof:

Going up on the ski lift to the start of the walk 

(My first time on a ski lift and there's no snow!)

 Stream

 Little waterfall

Yeah, another stream

 Crags

Could it be...a stream?

 Luke (walking path at left)

See that bump mid-shot? That's Mt Kosciuszko. 

Yeah, I expected it to be more impressive too 

 A patch of snow

 Wildflowers

Nature finds a way

 Lake Cootapatamba

 More rocks

 We made it!! (Photos of me are in Luke's camera)

 Heading back down

 Crow

 A murder. There were a lot of crows up there but not 

many other birds, oddly

The storm closes in. We got to the ski lift  just as it

 was closing because of the risk of lightning strike

 And back to our car before the heavy rain started

We continued on to Corryong (and back into Victoria), along winding roads through the forested mountains with, at times, pounding rain. It stopped by the time we reached our destination and checked into a motel. The Mountain View Motel, in fact, and they aren't lying. 

Over the back fence of our motel

It was pretty humid and my body was weary and (mildly) sunburnt, so I went for a swim in the motel pool (after dipping my toe in to make sure it wasn't freezing cold). I was only in for about 10 minutes, but miraculously I woke up the next morning without screamingly sore and weary muscles after walking up a mountain the day before. This must be why footballers go swimming in the sea the morning after a game. 

Even the pool has mountain views

We had dinner at one of the local pubs. I opted for the chicken for a change and it was very average. Lesson learnt.