Have You Ever Been So Embarrassed...

...that you have had to go hide your head in shame?

Have you?

I have.

It was, fortunately, I long time ago. Not recently, of course.

I felt kinda like this:




I'm sure glad I don't do things like that anymore, WHEW!

*****insert sound of gears grinding as they shift*******

Did you know that there is a species of Aussie cockatoo that is black? With a yellow tail. They are called, quite unimaginatively of course, yellow-tailed black cockatoos.

The first time I saw one --it was a pair of them-- was early in the morning while I was on the bicycle. I'd gone through Cherry Gardens and past the golf course just before Ironbank. I was on my way out to Lenswood via Deviation Road and was going to loop back via the Onkaparinga road, south to Nangkita and heading back via Kangarilla to head back towards the 'burbs of Sturt. Long day.

Anyways, I saw a pair of yellow-tailed black cockies just past the golf course. The sun was barely up and they alighted in a tree right next to the road. They were beauties! Never have seen them that close since.

There's a flock of them that hangs out in the southern Adelaide Hills that Wifey-Poo and I see every once in a while. I do have several picks of black specks that are them, but no sense putting them up.

I do however have a decent pic of a single one.

Would you like to see it?

Of course you would!





Next random topic: Shrooms! I love me some mushrooms!

Here's one that I twisted out of my shroom farm the other day:



Big sucker! It weighed 150 grams. That's 5.33 ounces, or one-third of a pound. It tasted soooooooo good!

Next up: A teaser.

This coming Friday, July 30th, at noon local Adelaide time I will be live tweeting and live blogging an event. For those of you who have no idea about international time zones, I'll give you some handy times.

If you are in Alaska, the event will occur at 6:30 PM, Thursday July 29th.

If you are on the US East coast, the event time will be 10:30 PM, Thursday July 29th.

If you are in France, it'll be 4:30 AM, Friday July 30th.

If you are in Sydney, check in at noon-thirty on the 30th, no worries.

Beer will be involved. And maybe yoghurt. Probably a toilet.

The event should last no longer than 30 minutes. 45 max.

Any guesses?

Sarah Palin Plotting The Demise of Anonymous Bloggers!

And oh boy we had all better watch out! The Mean Girl Sarah Palin is definitely on a roll and has her groove back! I also have a candid picture of her plotting just how she'll get us and take over the world!

See, look!


If that's not an face hatching evil plots then I don't know what it is!

Just one glance in my direction of that mean girl glare of hers totally shocked me!





That evening I decided to channel my "inner" Sarah Palin and cook up some critters:




Mmmmmmm, soup stock in the making! I wonder if $arah Palin knows this recipe?




I then found peace and solitude with my chilli plants...




until I noticed one of her spies recording my every move!




Aiiiiiiiigh! Run away! Run VERY FAR AWAY!


*For you newbies here, I named one of the female galahs that hangs around in the backyard Sarah Palin. Not sure where I got the name from, but it sure did make for some interesting visitors to this blog in late 2008.*

Damned Good Just Ain't Good Enough For Yours Truly

Nope, it is not. Especially when it comes to 3d artwork. And especially if I KNOW there is a way to fix it.

Remember the previous post? Ti mentioned that I did any abso-posi-lutely great job on the sunset. And, well, yeah, it was damned good.

But I just knew I could make the reddish, fiery, cloudy cave that can sometimes appear over the ocean in warmer climates as the sun dips down into the ocean. I know cus I seen 'em.

Needless to say, I learned a lot about 3d stuff today.

May I humbly present to you a tropical sunset which was done 100% by Yours Truly --don't swoon ladies, I'm human.






Click on the pic to embiggen it to 1280 by 960 and then feel free to use it as wallpaper, no worries.

You know, the more I looked at it, the more I thought that I could get the sun just dipping down into the ocean... I then came up with this:






Again, just embiggen it and snag it for your computer wallpaper.

Even then I wasn't satisfied...

So I blew the dust off a 17 year old morphing program --that was light-years ahead of it's time-- and played God as I made the sun set.







Yeah, I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. Oh, I had to zoom way in on the sun the get the control points placed properly. Yes, I was actually wearing my darkest sunglasses with my nose about an inch away from the monitor.

If anyone likes my 3d stuff and would like to continue to see it appear RIGHT HERE then puh-leeeeeeez let me know. Comments are always open.

*sound of grinding gears*

Switching gears now! Guess what didn't get done today as I played with pixelly pixies? The algae was not getting scrubbed off the pool walls. I admit I have been a bit lax about cleaning the pool as it gets on towards winter down here. Do I really want to go for a swim when the water is 22 C --that'd be 71.6 F for those of you calculationally-challenged folks? Would you? No, thought knot.

I even have proof:





Next topic that I have time to write about before I go made dinner... I have new mushroom spoor for this season! About 4 kilos worth!!!! In about a month I'll have fresh shrooms all winter long! Woo-Hoo! Yay me!

I guess I'll share some with Wifey-Poo.

Alien Abduction Act IX... Alien Ship Identified!

Yes folks! You finally get to learn the identity of the Alien Space Ship that abducted me while I was an undead, lightning-charged, sledge-hammer wielding, brain-eating, Zombie!

I'm not like than anymore. In fact, I'm back to my normal, sane, healthy self! For what THAT'S worth...

Before you get to read about Act IX, can I tell (write) you a few things? Yes? Great.

Firstly, this years' total tomato(e) tally was *drum roll please* 1,287. That's a nice lot of tomatoes I must say. Oh, my ultra-hot chillis are ready to be harvested --always let them not only ripen but start to dry while still on the plant that way they are even spicier.

Nextly, another Thing You Won't Learn About Me By Reading This Blog! I was tagged a while back and I'm kinda doing one thing per post. Perhaps one of my regular readers could let me know when I reach 7? Ta. Here it is: I didn't garden or grow nuthin' back in Alaska. Seriously! For one thing I was too busy working. And I've found out that flora grows very easily down here. Heck, take a dry stick and shove it in the ground, next time you look at it it'll be a full grown apple tree! Easy-peasy!

And the final thing before I turn you over to Act IX, I have some nice rainbow lorikeet pictures for you. 4 of them, in fact.










Please feel free to caption them if you so desire --comments ARE enabled and have always been.

And one more thing: We just had our fall equinox down here (and yes, the moon is upside down here also, too) which means it's now frightfully cold. 90F in the shade, 84 F in the pool, and 118 F in the sun. Sigh, someone wake me when summer comes back, wouldja?

Alrighty! Last we left our hero (that'd be me) I was still a zombie and was being transported up to the alien ship after smashing the pyramid on top of our house with my lightning-charged sledgehammer. I'm sure I don't have to remind you this is a TRUE story.

Oh, I just had a thought! How's abouts a quick photo recap for those who came in late? Don't worry, I'm using smaller sized pics so it should load quick.













There! Everyone knows what is going on now? Good, perhaps you could tell me --just kidding.

As I was approaching the alien ship in the transporter beam I distinctly remember seeing some lettering on the ship. Obviously this must be the ship's name and registration number. I mean c'mon, Gene Roddenberry PROVED that all space ships have the name and rego on them in a language that we can all read! I think right now the US space ships are identified by the drug of choice of the previous prez. At present it's Coke. And before then it was Viagra! And when there's a new prez then the labeling will be changed to Marlboro.

Ok, back to the story...

So would you all like to know the name and rego of this alien ship that abducted me? Since I have a fotografeek memory I just plugged myself into the ole scanner and shot this image into the ole series of tubes:


I reasoned it of course was an abbreviation of Alien Space Ship. Not very imaginative are they?

The rego (aussie slang for car registration number) confused me. In my zombie state I couldn't think of what it may stand for...

C4P-PFP2012??? What in the world could that mean??

But I didn't have time to dwell on it as the transport beam shoved me headfirst into the A.S.S. designated C4P-PFP2012. In my zombie state all I could think about was just how juicy and tasty and HUGE the brains of the aliens must be!

Coming up soon: Act X: onboard the A.S.S.

Muh-muh-muh-muh My Tomatoes!

Ah yes, 'tis that time of the year again. What time would that be, dave? It'd be the time of year when I get to talk all about all the juicy, fresh, ripe, sweet, wonderful, organic tomatoes we grow each summer!

BTW, did any of you notice the title of this post? Some of you may remember a song called My Sharona from 1979. Some of you may not. Some of you might now have the annoying lyrics from that song stuck in you head.

I was going to put the Sharona lyrics up, and then my own lyrics centered around --take a guess-- My Tomatoes. But I decided not to.

Why?

Firstly, you all already know I'm funny (looking) so I don't need to prove it.

Secondly, My Sharona is actually about an older guy having the hots for, shall we say, younger women. Quite young. I, of course, am above such things!

Thirdly, it seems to be trendy now to rewrite song lyrics on blogs and I AM NOT A SHEEPLE!

Fourthly, I'm just too lazy after lounging around in the pool.

OT: I've promised on my Twitter account that I won't make fun of, or make any inappropriate jokes about the difference in temp betwixt my hometown in Alaska and where I am now. I'll just leave it at this: Fairbanks, AK is -22 F. Outside the window overlooking the pool right here the temp is +106 F. Just stating a fact, that's all. Nothing mean or malicious about that now is there?

Another OT: To Rebecca in NC, lemme know what kind of critter pics (koalas, parrots, roos, etc) you want for your screensaver, no worries --email is alaskandavedownunder(at)gmail(dot)com.

More OT: To some new friend/lurker/stalker in Maryland, USA who has visited over 150 times this past week: Hi!!!! Welcome to Oz and you're invited to join the fun! And thanks for visiting too! I hope I didn't embarrass you, sorry if I did. Don't worry, no one here bites.

Just some more OT: Regarding the previous post, yes that is the foot of an emu. Don't know what an emu is? Why don't you let "ma google" 'splain it to ya?

Back to My Tomatoes! Oh, wait. Gotta tell ya there will be pics of another momma and baby koala at the end of this post.

I planted 12 tomatoe (flashback to Danforth Quayle!!!!) plants this season while Wifey-Poo took pictures and High Royal Highness, Prince Bagheera helped by keeping the bricks warm. You'll get pics next time, but not today. Why not? Ummmm, haven't downloaded and looked at them yet (dang, a month can really fly).

Last year we did one cherry tomato truss and 6 Mighty Reds. Mighty Reds grow very well in Oz. Ended up with around 330 by the end of last season. This year we are hoping to get around 600 to 700 tomatoes!

Good thing WP and I like tomatoes, eh?

Growing tip: when planting your tomato plants, mix half potting mix with half dried cow poop. Top dress every 2 weeks with a bit of dry cow poop. You'll get LOTS and LOTS of fruit. Also, plant some basil. The two plants love to grow together.

We went with a medley of plants this year:

TomatoBerry -Never seen this one before. It'll grow to 2 metres and it produces tomatoes that are heartshaped and about the size of raspberries. This is a "pluck the fruit and plop in mouth" type. Should look like a Christmas tree. Should I decorate it?

Italian Tomato -Not your standard Roma. Full bodied, very sweet and juicy.

Beef Steak Tomato -Late maturing with globular fruit. Very good for sauces.

Sweet Bite Cherry (x2) -Should get over 100 sweet cherry truss tomatoes from each plant.

Large Cherry -About golfball sized fruit, very sweet.

Apollo Improved -Supposedly disease resistant, large globes, firm and great for grilling.

Black Russian -I'm so looking forward to this! Traditional, meaty tomato with a strong flavour. And it should look really cool too.

Health Kick -This is a new roma type tomato with 50% more lycopene than a regular tomato. Mmmmmmmm, lycopene... drool...

Reggae Roma -Early maturing, sweeter than a regular Roma, and very prolific.

Cherry Red Truss -Could easily get 150 cherry tomatoes off this one alone!

Yellow Tomato -This one needs side pruning. Low acid, very sweet and a neat colour. Should get 2 metres tall.


Well, thanks for putting up with reading about Muh-muh-muh-muh Myyyyyyy Tomatoes. As a reward (gee, just like you'd train a dog, eh?) here's some pics from Belair National Park. BNP is the oldest nat park in Oz, btw.

Do I even need to tell you what kind of bird this is?
Yes, it's a kookaburra.



Saw another momma and baby. This "baby" is just about ready to go out on his own now.



And just so you know which is which...




Don't forget, coming soon to this blog: Full Frontal Nudity with Yours-Truly! Hmmmm, I wonder if I'll get paid as much as Levi?

Name This Horse!

This'll probably be the easiest critter guessing game I've ever put up. Once you see the size of this beastie I'm *sure* everyone will know it!

One of these horses easily pulls the tram loaded with people. Impressive!





And just so there's no mistaking the size...




Please don't think these horses are mistreated in any way. There's a total of ten of them and they only "work" 2 or 3 days a week for about 3 hours each day. The rest of the time they hang out on a 100 acre spread nearby and start and finish their "working" day by hanging out on the beach and prancing in the surf.

"Work" involves leaning forward ever so slightly and trotting slowly along the causeway. No strain, no sweat, no hard breathing. I doubt they even notice the weight!

Ok, that should be enough clues.

OT, my african violet has been blooming for 5 months now. Very pretty.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho! It's Off To Brew We Go!

Ahhhhhhh, that wonderful amber liquid called beer... Mmmmmmm

Did I mention I've started home brewing? Yes, I have. It's very cheap and easy too. But before I tell you a little bit about it, would you like some galah pictures?

What's that you say? You wouldn't? Well, tough shit cus youse is gittin' em anyways!

Here's one where I tried to be all artsy-fartsy with the shadows and framing:




This next one is a great pic of Mrs Tweedle doing what the missus' do best (that'd be running around waving their arms and screeching):




Mr Tweedle then flew so far up in the tree to get away from the above screeching that I had to use the digital zoom to get him (apologies for the "noisy sky"):




Last post I asked what kind of tree the galahs were on. Well, it's called a Native Frangipani. When we first moved in the this abode (the abode with the pool) I thought it was a Champac tree. But after looking at the leaves closer, it's definitely a Native Frangipani. Very fragrant flowers in spring time too. It also survives in the Adelaide climate --NOT an easy thing to do!

Speaking of climates... it's going to get warm again in a couple of days. Sigh... guess that means I'll be spending even MORE time in the pool...

Oh yeah, wasn't I supposed to tell you just what I did in the pool during the previous warming spell? Well, you'll just have to wait cus I really wanna draw this out! :)

Next Topic: BEER!

and the brewing thereof

Coopers brewery has made this just so darned EASY! We are talking simple, simple and very cheap. The whole brew kit was AUD$99, and only $15 of that was consumables. Consumables being the hopped malt extract, brewing sugar, yeast, and secondary fermentation tablets.

This means that each batch of 60 beers costs $15 in aussie currency. That's $10 US'n. Not too shabby, eh?

I've already got my second batch (the first was a standard lager, second is a standard ale) in the main fermenter. The third will be either a cider or a Mexican beer.

In ten days from now there will be 60 lagers ready, 6 days after that there will be 60 ales, and then in another week there'll be 60 more.

Yeah, I'm ready for the heat wave! HA!

I'm going to be talking about just how cool Cooper's is and how awesomely environmentally friendly the brewery is is forthcoming posts.

Ho, Ho, Ho!

And a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!

Hey, ain't this holiday season cool? I mean everyone is posting so much more than the last few years. I guess I'll follow suit...

Firstly, I need to let you know that I am no longer counting the tomatoes on the vines. Why, you ask? Well, cus the plants are in the direct sun and standing out there on the hot bricks while counting tomatoes seriously encroaches into my pool time... harumph! So we'll just go with the number harvested... 201. Yes, less than halfway through the season and we've plucked 201 juicy, sun-hot, ripe, delicious tomatoes off the plants.

I won't bore you with the details of how juicy and tasty they are cus I know you'd just get upset.

It's been rather chilly here lately. Why just an hour ago I looked at the shade temp and it was 93 F. The sun temp was 118 F. I gots to ask ya: Just WHERE did summer go?

Wifey-Poo and I persevered somehow and had our traditional walk along the beach on Christmas morning. Snowpants, parkas, and bunny boots were needed... but we managed. Pics will be showing up soon cus there were some crazy aussies setting up pavilions and barbecues on the beach at 8 am. Crazy bastards!

Here's a pic of a dog that doesn't mind chasing the seagulls through the frozen ocean water:




I've got some pics of some Aussie birds for those of you who only visit for that, so here you are. Please note the bright blue sky.

For this first one, I had prefocused about 4 inches in front of the branches. I was hoping to catch her just before landing. Well, as you can see, the shutter was late (not my fault!!!!!). But just look at the focus on that left wing!




Quick! Make a wish!

Go on and try! I dare ya!



There's this odd growth out of the timber of the pool shade...





Clear the runway! I gots me no brakes!



We will now switch gears --no clutching needed. So if you are here just to see the purdy burdies, then it's time for you to leave... But if you'd like to see some pool pictures, then please continue.

It has come to my attention that several blokes and blokettes Way Up North (thank you Johnny Horton) don't think I spend enough time in the pool. This is because they think I am pale, pasty, and alltogether way too ugly to be living in a sunny, year-round summer paradise.

These next few pics are just for those folks.

I took this shot while laying in the 85 F degree water. This is the view of one of the fences where the flowering vines flower year round.




This next one is the same view, but I'm in the shot. Please notice the beer is on my chest cus it was getting too warm in the dual armchair beer holders on the pool lounger.




I will let you make up your own caption for this one.




Here's lookin' at you, Ish!




Is that barbecue heated up yet? I'd really like to grill the steaks soon...




The hat helps keep the laminar water flow around my back from becoming turbulent:





Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh......

Merry Christmas from The Land of Oz!

Ho, ho, ho! Hee, hee, hee! Yep, it's that time of the year! The holiday feast is upon us. This means that starting in 2 days from now I'll be chained to the table post in the kitchen to prepare boatloads of goodies for all... Although "they" don't know that I know where the spare key is hidden so when "they" leave the house I can then go jump in the pool.

'Course, I'll bet some cranky bloke way up north will tattle on me...

Before I get to the Christmas Greetings part of this post, I thought I'd tell you that on the latest bushwalk we saw 7 koalas, 2 emus, 3 yellow-tailed black cockatoos, a pair of kookaburras, 2 bilbys, numerous galahs, magpies, rosella parrots, and we heard around a dozen Bunyips (horrid creature, look it up!).

Here's proof:

I also have a tomato update for y'all. So far we've harvested 153 ripe, juicy, sun-hot, fresh-off-the-vine tomatoes. There's 232 still on the plants (and they keep producing more and MORE and MORE) so we figure we'll get around six to seven hundred tomatoes by the time the season is over. Not too bad for AUD$35 (USD$23).

It's finally getting warm and it might actually stay there for a while --FINALLY!!! It's 86 F in the shade, 118 F in the sun, but the pool is still a freezing cold 76 F. However, the pool should be in the high 80's this arvo. And that's a good thing cus I've got to scrub the pool walls later today. If that water was any colder I'd need a drysuit, or at least a 5 mm wetsuit! Sigh...

Went for a walk on the beach the other day. Yup, took lot's of pictures too. But I won't put any of those up since I don't want to antagonize anyone going through winter right now. And I especially won't put any pics of when I saw a group of 20-something year-old girls playing beach cricket. They had string bikinis on. I was going to take a picture but since WP had threatened to separate various body parts from my main body part if I did... Well, you get the idea.

To make it up to you blokes in the frozen north, I thought I'd show you some vids of how Aussies celebrate Christmas.















And here's a lesson in 'stralian:







And here's just a couple of commercials for two of my pals up north, Ish and KC:

What Kind Of Bird...

Yup, here's another post where you get to hone your research skillz to razor sharpness. Heck, a few more of these and your researching and critter identifying skillz will be a sharp as my wit!

Before I get to the critter, I've just gotta tell you we are up to 106 tomatoes harvested so far. 202 still on the vines, and more appearing daily. Tonight's dinner will be bruschetta with fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden, a tossed salad with lots of tomato and basil, and mexican risolles with a fresh tomato salsa for topping.

I've also been tagged! However, she who tagged me still hasn't completed hers with all the rules, so I'll have to wait. Sigh...

Now, I *sure* you'll all recognize this bird due to the distinctive pose they strike. However, you need to find out just what KIND of cormorant it is.









I'll even give you a hint: it's the kind that nests in trees.