More Darcy Cuteness

Firstly, we have Mr Darcy, the country gentleman on his noble steed. This one is particularly for Reegan as she is a almost as mad about horses as she is about Darcy.


Next, Darcy and I have a series of birthday party themed shots. My favourites are the ones with the cupcake (which is really a lipgloss container). I was a bit worried that Darcy would pop one of the balloons and scare himself, but he didn't.

And then there's the geek shots.

Darcy in Chicago

So, remember last year when Darcy and I produced a calendar for our friend, Reegan? After seeing all the different photo themes and props, Reegan requested photos of Darcy doing "Chicago" on stage. I think she was imagining Darcy dressed in sequins and a feather boa, or at least a top hat, but I didn't think he'd be very enthusiastic about that, so rather than spend my time designing and sewing him a costume I forgot about it until the other day (good thing too, because he got a bit pudgy while he was staying at Aunty Reegan's and wouldn't fit into it anyway). I've decided that rather than make another calendar, this year Darcy and I will give Reegan a photobook full of handsome Darcy shots so we aren't limited to just 12 themes. I thought a good way to start off the book would be the requested "Chicago" themed picture, so I put together a stage backdrop, made a new photo studio (a box with a hole cut out for the camera to go in), and stuck a cut out of a microphone onto a toothpick to get this shot. Darcy was very cooperative, enthusiastically "singing" into the microphone, in order to lick a tiny smear of peanut butter off it. What do you think of the shot?

I've planned a few different photo themes, but if you have anymore ideas that you would like to see Darcy do, let me know and if Darcy agrees, we'll work on it.

Gluepot Reserve

So, last weekend I went on a mini adventure to Gluepot Reserve, South Australia to do a bird banding course. Gluepot Reserve is a property owned by Birdlife Australia for the purpose of protecting its mallee scrub habitat. Its a beautiful reserve and is teeming with birds. I would definitely go back and spend a bit longer there.

Because I was headed out to Gluepot in the middle of nowhere and needed to take camping gear, food, and water all with me, I decided to hire a little campervan for the 4 days. I wasn't expecting to like driving a camper around Adelaide, but it turned out that Vinnie (what i decided to call the van) and I got along really well, despite him locking the keys inside (see previous post).

The bird banding course itself was really great. It was run by Wally Klaus who is one of Australia's most respected banders and has an OAM for his banding work. It turns out that it was also Wally's last banding course as he is retiring so I'm really glad I decided to go.

The rest of the post, I'll keep as photos rather than describing the ins and outs of bird banding as you probably don't find it as interesting as I do.

 Vinnie the Van

Gluepot Scenery

 

 

 

 

The Bird Banding

 

Two birds in a mist net - this is how you catch the birds to band them. This is a spiny cheeked honeyeater and splendid fairy wren (thats the bright blue one, obviously)

 

It runs in threes...

Right? I'm hoping it just runs in threes, anyhow.

So, here's a funny set of coincidences.

I've just been away in South Australia on a mini-adventure (more on that in a separate post soon) involving driving and sleeping in Vinnie the rental van. Vinnie and I got on really well and I felt quite comfortable driving him, but when Vinnie and I were parked at my friend Tori's (hi, Tori!) house we had a bit of a falling out. I got up to go to the loo early in the morning and Vinnie, apparently feeling a tad insecure, decided to lock himself with his keys sitting safely on his little kitchen bench with my wallet and my phone. Cue the embarrassment and inconvenience of having to get a roadside assist man to break in. I still maintain that Vinnie locked himself (the roadside man said that his sort of van have a habit of doing that) rather than me locking the keys inside, but it still made me feel like a bit of a girl. This was the only time all weekend that I had left Vinnie with the keys inside and thankfully it was when I had access to my friends phone rather than in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal like I had been for the rest of the weekend.

The next morning (yesterday), back in Tassie with my usual transport buddy, Barry, I had another issue. I jumped in, put the key in the ignition and nothing happened. This time it was my fault as I had left the interior light on the night before I flew to South Australia. I remember turning it on to find my car charger for my phone to take with me and apparently I hadn't turned it of again. Cue phoning the roadside assist man (different man, though) for the second time in two days and feeling like a bit of girl again.

Today, I went back to work. My colleague, Stevo, drove Col the Colorado (occasionally pronounced Colorectal) out to Cressy for the day and I drove it back. When Stevo had first started it in the morning, he had the strange experience of the clutch pedal being stuck on the floor, but it quickly came right and didn't seem to be much of a problem. When I drove it, the same thing happened, but it came right straight away again. We stopped at a farm machinery place on the way back to the office to price a spray pack for the back of the Gator, and when I jumped back in and started him up, the clutch was again stuck to the floor, but it came up with a bit of persuading and then stuck up, but really stuck this time and no amount of wiggling or stamping would make it go back down again.. This time it would not come right and we were stranded. Cue phoning the roadside assist man (different man again) for the third time in three days, being towed back to town and two hours of overtime.

So, three days, three roadside assist men, three different problems, three different vehicles - the only common factor is me. I'm really hoping that this is just one of those things that happen in threes, bot some kind of permanent curse.