I am a crab - born in the sign of Cancer, and I like my home comforts. Accordingly I am a little out of sorts at the moment. We are moving to Brisbane, and the movers invade on Wednesday and Thursday. I know I should take a glass half full perspective (and there are definite advantages), but I choose to believe that I am hardwired to protect my cave.
There are advantages:
-We don't have to do the packing/lifting/loading/driving/unloading. If you have to move, then a full service move has to be the way to do it.
-We have been able to have a clean out of stuff we no longer need/want/use. For natural hoarders, this can be a blessing.
-We are moving closer to family. Big plus, and we are also moving away from the tropical humidity. Even bigger plus.
We won't have a new home for five weeks, and by then will desperately want to get into a home routine again.
As a part of the preparations, we have to ensure the gardens are as they were when we moved in (this generally means bereft of any living thing, on the off chance that the next tenant will have no interest in things green). This is easy enough to do, unless a Curlew decides to make a nest in a garden. Which they did this week.
The Curlew is a ground dwelling bird from the same family as the Road Runner, but doesn't go "Beep Beep". It has a high pitched kind of wail that sort of sounds like its name. They are endangered, and looking at how they breed and nest it isn't hard to see why. They are actually a pretty cool bird. They have excellent camouflage, and will often just lie flat on the ground as you walk past.
This is our curlew on her nest. Nice position - although she does get sun for most of the day!
When you get close to her she will come off the nest (technical construction...)
...Spread her wings, and hiss. Quite startling if you haven't seen them, and they come up behind you!
With a nest like this, it isn't hard to see why they are endangered!
MacK loves to watch the nest, but the birds get too agitated if he is close. All he wants to do is wave at the birds, and say "Hello Curlews", but they freak out a bit! He now sits inside, where he can make sure they are safe.
Jane had her birthday last week, and we combined a farewell brunch for work colleagues with a birthday cake. As it was Jane's birthday, we had lots of chocolate including Jane's favourite chocolate croissants. In addition, we had chocolate, prune and espresso sourdough, sausage rolls, feta and cherry tomato quiche, raspberry and passionfruit friand, mango, pineapple and mint salad, caramelised popcorn and banana chocolate muffins.
The Cake - Chocolate cake, with a chocolate and cognac icecream centre, and chocolate ganache. Wicked!
We had a lovely morning, and now I think we are done for entertaining in Townsville. Time to start packing, finish cleaning and then to get on the road.
This morning I was breakfasting with MacK. He was finishing his weetbix, and asked for some of what I was having (chocolate prune and espresso sourdough). When he tried it he smiled and said "Yummy cake". I told him it was bread, to which he simply replied "cake!" This exchange went on for a bit before he gave me that look which I translated loosely as "you can call it whatever you want. You and I both know that it is cake. Or it should be. Stop trying to pretend its healthy. Oh - and give me some more, please!"
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