Sunday.  11th.  

Look at the trash I have to open my front door to...
Azaleas

Stu decided to cook for the week by ordering Dumpling Inn. Of course I ate way too much shredded beef.  Whoops.

Dumpling Inn feast

Watched some Jon Stewart and a two part birding video on Christmas Island.

Monday.  Awake from ~4:20.

Currawongs drinking

Mostly dealing with one of our mail servers which had a sad after a storage issue Sunday night. Leftover Dumpling Inn for dinner and Professor T 5.2.

Tuesday.  Got a new water meter. Caught a dog.  !!  I was out inspecting the new water meter they installed this morning and this staffie came wandering by sniffing at everything.  It wandered around the front yard a bit so I caught her.  And called the owner, who lived around the corner.  She came by pretty quickly and took her back.  

My bougainvillea plant has about 6 flowers on it this year.  Normally the entire bush is a riot of colour..
Bougainvillea

Have a couple of irises
Irises

Stu cooked a nice creamy mushroom pasta for dinner. Professor T 5.3.

Creamy mushroom pasta

Got a bit frustrated trying to figure out Jan Wegener's suggested settings for my camera.  Tested them on the sunset but it kept not focussing where I wanted it.  Like on the dirty window for a start.

Sunset

Wednesday.  Stu decided I should use up some of my excess flex to go bird watching.  And test the new camera settings.  So took the morning off and we headed out to the eastern side of Mount Ainslie reserve.  He went out there the other day and saw some new birds, so took me to show me as well.  And they were still there!  A couple of painted honeyeaters.  Along with at least four other birders also looking for them. 

Rabbit at Mt Ainslie Reserve

Bird watcher

We came across this pretty impressive kangaroo skeleton.  Intact!  Big boy too.  I reckon he probably got stuck in the fence and that's how he died.  I was surprised he hadn't been ripped apart.
Kangaroo skeleton

Qantas Dash8-400 VH-QOX

Jetstar A320 VH-VGA

The firies were doing some training.  Excuse the heat haze..

Firies

Firies

Stopped at the Scottish Restaurant on the way back to work.  I had a Quarter Pounder.  Which I really don't think I've ever actually had in my life!  It was just like a cheeseburger.  Only a little bigger.  With sesame seeds.  Although I don't remember getting a pickle!

Quarter Pounder

Spent the afternoon fighting with the sick mail server and trying to sort some stuff for the SOC. Leftover Dumpling Inn for dinner. Professor T 5.4.

Thursday.  More fighting with sick mail servers, think we got everything working properly in the end.  Also a lot of contingency planning for the ongoing storage issues.  Fairly quiet drinks.  Mills and Grills for dinner.  Professor T 5.5.

Mills and Grills Reef and beef and Mediterranean

Friday.  Dunno, mostly photo stuff I think.  Kievs for dinner and some birding videos (YouTube sux all kind of donkey balls on a phone - you can't skip the ads without crashing the whole thing).

Kievs and gems

Then went and watched The Sheep Detectives at EB's. Very silly but lots of fun.  I found this on IMDB: "When Hugh Jackman was first approached about the film, it was pitched as "Babe meets Knives Out"."  .. which is funny because I literally said out loud it reminded me of both Babe and Knives Out at different points.

Saturday.  Slept in! Til like 6:40.

If the currawongs don't steal them I might get some paver weed strawberries
Paver weed strawberries

Mostly photo stuff. Finished some frozen chicken fillets from the freezer and had them with potato and sweet potato. Watched USS Callister Into Infinity.

Buttermilk chicken fillets and veggies

Sunday.  Took forever to get to sleep - brain wouldn't shut up then got restless legs. Photo and Canberra photos day.

So the other day some woman knocked on my door, didn't wait, then when I came out asked if she could pick some lemons.  I said sure.  Her and her father then started to fill literal BOXES of lemons.  I went out and said come on, a few is ok but boxes is not ok (I was thinking they were probably stealing them for their business or something).  They were all very apologetic but I didn't buy it.  So yesterday I went and picked all the low hanging fruit.  74 lemons.  10 of them I put out the front and 8 have gone.  Will take some of the rest to work and juice the rest.
64 lemons

Captain Cook Fountain

Black Mountain Peninsula

Yellow-flowered clover

Did I mention the koels are back in town!? :)

Sunday.  4th.  Cooked up some veggies to have with leftover pork, then MacGyver.

Monday.  Took forever to get to sleep - epic restless legs. Photo and birdwatching day. I did try out Tidy Up the Arcane Library (20% off sale), but it really struggles on this computer as I don't have a fancy graphics card.

This was spicier than I expected - the Nashville McCrispy
Nashville McCrispy

Birdwatching at West Belconnen Pond today

West Belconnen Pond

West Belconnen Pond

Tuesday.  Woke up super early. Stressed and out of sorts all day. Don't think I achieved much all day.

My last long fingernail is very long...

Long in the nail

Also.. climbing roses!!

Climbing roses

Climbing roses

Stu cooked up some veggies to go with leftover pork, then we watched the second last MacGyver on the DVD, which seemed like it was the "last" episode as he essentially waved goodbye and thanked the audience.

Wednesday. Slept in! Til 6:27! Don't think I achieved much all day. Stu picked me up a bit early from work and we went up Percival Hill birdwatching.

Myrtacae flowers

There were So. Many. Kangaroos.  !!
Kangaroo and joey

Gungahlin

Mt Rogers

Crace

Mt Majuar radar

You can see why they call it Black Mountain..
Black Mountain

Belconnen

Belconnen

Kangaroo

Winged everlasting

Beeeeees!!!!!
Beeees

Leftover yellow curry for dinner then we watched the last MacGyver on the DVD. Looking at IMDB it looks like they both first aired on the same night but apparently out of order (ie, the last one they aired was filmed before the "final" episode).

Thursday.  Somewhat restless sleep. Fixed some stuff with Con's help.  Lunch at Gianni's with Neil (avoiding the mall).  This time we got the bruschetta (nice, but I preferred the garlic bread), and I got the calamari lunch special.

Gianni's bruschetta

Gianni's calamari

Fairly quiet drinks, Lachie came up which was nice.  My friend was back.

Australian raven

Australian raven

Rheingold much?

Brunhilde with sun

Pizzas and started Professor T season 5.

Mills and Grills Peri peri chicken and Hawaiian
Pizzas

Friday.  Somewhat restless sleep. The koels are back in town! When I first heard them here they reminded me of Sydney. Now they remind me more of Christmas. Went into see the Antarctica exhibition which wasn't too bad and didn't have toooo many feral kids (until near the end). Then drove around Canberra getting some 40 years (and other) photos.

Mt Ainslie panorama

2nd 1st Infantry Battalion

War Memorial

Gladiolis

Kievs and potato for dinner then USS Callister.

Kievs and potato

Saturday.  Didn't sing happy birthday to the brother type person. Mostly photo stuff during the day.

Currawong and plums

First irises

Went for a little bird walk in the afternoon.

Funghi

Finished the leftover pork and veggies for dinner. Then watched The Ballad of Wallis Island which was silly but sweet.

Had a sad looking at some of Mum's New Zealand photos from 2015 today.. she had perfect weather for almost the entire trip. Chances of me being so lucky? Slim to none. She also went on two helicopter rides, which would probably not be possible for us, not being part of a tour and all. Also found a bizarre error in some of my holiday masters from Europe 2016 - a dozen or so photos in the masters have somehow had their "date taken" time modified, so the renamed files are also wrong. And yet the resized masters are correct. Dunno how that could possibly have happened.

Sunday.  Mostly just photo stuff for the morning.  In the afternoon went over to Cypher for Wello's birthday (it's tradition!).  I tried two tasting paddles, so eight (very small) beers :)

Wello's birthday

We won't even mention all of the new birds I missed out on seeing today that the sweetie saw but I missed out on...!!

Mercury and Saturn

Tonight I had another go at photographing Mercury.  Yeah it was just a little blob.

Mercury

Here's what Stellarium shows

Mercury by Stellarium

But when I was looking at Stellarium I noticed Saturn had just risen and was near opposition!

How cool is this!?  It's over a billion kilometres away!  You can see the rings!!!!

Saturn

I shoulda tried for Titan as well heh... Next time...

Saturn by Stellarium

I was releasing a moth outside tonight and saw Venus just there.  With a bright spot to its right.  So I checked stellarium and it was in fact Mercury.

Excuse the powerlines I couldn't be stuffed going past the balcony.

Venus and Mercury

Then zoomed right in.....  how cool is this?!?  Hi Venus!

Venus phase

This is what Stellarium thinks it should have looked like..

Venus stellarium

18.9.26

I didn't even know this place existed.  I mean we drive past it all the time as it's right next to the Barton Highway.  I've just never been there.  Peeps have dug out their own mountain bike trails and jumps all through it.  And there's birds too.

Kookaburra

Kookaburra

White-winged chough

White-winged chough

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

And the beautiful black cockatoos

Black cockatoo

Black cockatoo

Black cockatoo

Black cockatoo

Black cockatoo

Black cockatoo

27.9.26

We went in from the Old Kingston side this time to have a look around.

Straight off I saw a new bird - apparently a little grassbird. I dunno they kinda look the same as reed warblers...

Little grass bird

Reed warbler .. yeah how am I meant to tell these little turds apart?

Reed warbler

Superb fairy wren

Superb fairy wren

Little pied cormorant

Little pied cormorant

Little pied cormorant

Little pied cormorant

Yellow-faced honeyeater

Yellow-faced honeyeater

There was a nest with at least three baby magpies which was pretty cool

Baby magpies

Magpie family

Magpie family

An Australasian darter, always cool

Australasian darter and little black cormorant

Australasian darter

Australasian darter

Managed to snap a couple of shots of a rufous whistler

Rufous whistler

Great cormorant

Great cormorant

I love Nankeen night herons .. so pretty!

Nankeen night heron

3.10.26

Even though a storm was heading right for us we went out anyway!  Fortunately we only got a few spots of rain and the storm moved to our northeast.

The first cool bird we saw was a sacred kingfisher!!  So pretty!!

Sacred kingfisher

Sacred kingfisher

Sacred kingfisher

A straw-necked bin chicken flew over

Straw-necked ibis

Another new bird!  A white-throated gerygone.  I didn't get any good photos of them unfortunately.  Little turds hide behind leaves.

White-throated gerygone

White-throated gerygone

Then the rest of the birds, and birdwatchers, I'd seen before, but still pretty cool.

Birdwatcher

Black-faced cuckooshrike

Black-faced cuckooshrike

Black-faced cuckooshrike

Reed warbler

Reed warbler

Little black cormorants

Little black cormorant

Little black cormorants

Little pied cormorant

Little pied cormorant

Yellow-faced honeyeaters

Yellow-faced honeyeater

Yellow-faced honeyeaters

Grey fantail

Grey fantail

Currawong

Currawong

5.10.26

Today was a mission to find a few birds that had been spotted there only yesterday.

The first was a bird I'd never even heard of, let alone seen.  And as soon as we got out of the car we could hear it.  It was trilling away like crazy - a white-winged triller!  So cute!  And a lovely sound!

White-winged triller

White-winged triller

Then there were some other birds

Some white-plumed honeyeaters

White-plumed honeyeater

White-plumed honeyeater

White-plumed honeyeater

Some Australasian grebes

Australasian grebe

Australasian grebe

Some hardheads

Hardhead

A pair of black swans

Black swan

And then the other exciting new bird - a great crested grebe!  So pretty!

Great crested grebe

Great crested grebe

Great crested grebe

Duck duck grebe!
Duck duck grebe

Great crested grebe

Great crested grebe

So two new birds for me - very exciting!

Sunday.  27th. 

Fresias

Cooked a yummy roast pork and veggies for dinner, which of course meant I ate too much.  Finished Good Knight MacGyver.

Roast pork

Roast pork and veggies

Monday.  Okish sleep. Windoze is useless. This morning I turned my monitors on and they were in "daytime" mode before 6:30. Then at 6:30 they switched to "nighttime" mode - with warmer tones and less blue light. How retarded is that?? It slowly came good though. Had a sad that David got a perfect day at Cradle Mountain. Sigh. Now my whole family has seen it on a good day except me. Then tried to get my super statements.. only to find out they're not being released until MID TO LATE OCTOBER?? WTF??? Fricken hopeless. Why is literally everything so trash these days???

Tuesday.  Slept mostly okish. Bit of crap and decom work. Leftover pork for dinner. Finally got around to watching the second half of the Last Night of the Proms (2025) which started off with Bohemian Rhapsody with Brian May and Roger Taylor which was awesome.

Wednesday.  Thought I slept mostly ok but yawning a lot during the day. Bits and pieces day, deleted some stuff in the afternoon.

Wisteria

Eastern rosellas!!
Eastern rosellas

Picked up the car from Natrads, they fixed the car's aircon! Then went back out again a bit later to get pizzas, on account of I'll be late at work tomorrow (trivia night) and the sweetie had had a day.

Aussie and Peri Peri Chicken, both good
Mills and Grills aussie and peri peri chicken

Recognised Larry Wilcox in MacGyver. A couple of years ago I recognised him when he was younger than he was in CHiPS and this time when he was quite a bit older. Fricken MOTHS are all through the house at the moment!! YouTube suggested a 60 Minutes interview with Magda Szubanski.  She got diagnosed with the C-Word literally the day before me last year.

Thursday.  Slept mostly okish although awake early. Bits and pieces day, deleted some stuff in the afternoon (take 2!). Drinks then a trivia night. Wasn't toooo bad this time, although the "Evil AI" round was pretty hard and there were wayyy too many Pokémon questions. Came fourth (by one point to the young people's table next to us who knew All The Pokémon) in the end. Also everyone seems to think that if I don't go to work Fridays I must have time to do All The Things for All The People, like Neil thinking I could prep a trivia night or DC thinking I could scan his slides, or Stu thinking we could do All The Birding. hmmmmm!!

Friday.  Awake around Dentist Time for a couple of hours. Spent a bunch of time tidying the garage and pulling out boxes to take for recycling, but you'd barely notice the effort. Then photo and Lego stuff and out to do some food shopping and take aforementioned boxes to recycling and *finally* got to Indepth Scuba when it was open (when I went on Wednesday it was closed because they don't open Wednesdays, and when we went at 12:50 they were closed, said they'd be back at 13:00. Sheesh). Kievs for dinner and Black Mirror. And all the RAIN!!

Kievs and veggies

Saturday.  Okish sleep. All the RAIN! And storms :( Spent all morning doing some patching for work.  Bit of photo stuff in the early afternoon. We did go out for a bird walk later in the afternoon, even though it was threatening to rain on us!

Clouds over Melba Wetlands

Clouds over Melba Wetlands

Melba Wetlands

This Virgin plane had to fly a bit further south than normal to avoid the storm
Virgin VH-YFY with Toy Story 5 livery

Later it stormed again, even with hail! 

Hail

We made a yellow curry with some leftover pork and watched Toy Story 5 which was ok but not great. And everyone's voices sound OLD!

Pork yellow curry

Sunday.  Quiet day of mostly photo stuff. IMDB has enforced dark mode on parts of their website now.  I did go out and take some photos of flowers.  We do have some at least!

Azalea

Climbing roses

Pink geraniums

Reddish geraniums

Pink azaleas

Pink geraniums