Echidnas, and an Entomological Enigma, Etc.

Eeeeek! - I seem to have missed a few letters for ABC Wednesday ... Actually this post got saved as a draft and missed a couple of rounds! ... I started writing a post for B ... but then I got Busy! ... but just Before I got too Busy, I found the perfect C post half done and saved as a draft on the same blog I did the A post on ( http://spot-theblog.blogspot.com/ ) although I was also planning on doing a C post on here (Covering some stuff about Crochet, and Cairo ... and maybe even Canberra and a few other C things) ... and I was too Disorganised to catch up in time for D (I did think about Doing a late D post about a Deluge, but I think I prefer to call it a Flood anyway so it can be part/all of my F post, if I don't get too busy again) ... so now we are up to the letter E
but I didn't post this when I wrote it almost a year ago ... I must have run out of Evening, or "Eventually" didn't happen yet, or something ... can't remember if I did an E post last round ... this is the one after! ... this time around I did do posts for A, B and C ... but they were all a bit late ... and I missed D (pity - I had 2 ideas for that and Didn't get to Do Either of them ... but they can get Done later/Eventually ;-)

I was thinking of what to post about, like a lot of my ABC Wednesday posts, this one is probably rather Ecclectic - but someone has already called their post that - lol
I did think of calling it "Emu, Etc" seeing the Emu is one of the creatures on Australia's coat of arms ... but I am not sure if I have a photo of an Emu that is Easy to find ... but I should be able to find at least one of my photos of the last couple of Echidnas I have seen ...

Except that I have probably already put them on my blog  ... in fact there is a close up of one in this post - http://aykayem.blogspot.com/2009/02/fur-nd-prickles.html  yes - my F post for a previous round of ABC Wednesday - lol - and my E post just before that ( http://aykayem.blogspot.com/2009/02/eek.html  ... er ... I nearly called this post "Eek!" - but luckily I did have a vague memory that I may have already used that title, and thought of something Else - LOL) has more photos of the same Echidna. But ... I think I have taken a photo or 2 of another one since then and I have a sneaking suspicion that I have probably already blogged about that one too ... hmmm ... there was another round in between those Echidna posts and now (but my E post didn't have any photos ... and it was Extremely weird ... )
I guess I should open up my image Editing software and have a look for it (I could just look for it on the computer without using the program I am just opening - but if I want to crop the photo or fiddle with it Etc then I already have the program open, and the photo there ready to play with - lol)

Found it - and it looks like I probably didn't get around to posting it anywhere because I don't have a cropped or otherwise fiddled with version saved (which I probably would have done - because I just did that now - lol) ... so here is the Echidan I saw about 1km from here, in July last year:
(er - make that July the year before last ;-)

hmmm - I didn't notice that broken top of a toy car next to it when I took the photo!

I possibly could have Done a Dodgy and used this photo in a D post if I had Done one - I took the photo while I was out walking the Dog, here in Dunlop - we were walking along the Dirt path next to the Dunlop grasslands and I heard a noise beside me - so I looked over the fence and there was the Echidna - Digging Down into the Dirt ...

Er ... I am now running out of Evening ... actually I did run out of Evening - hopefully I will remember to come back and finish this E post ... hopefully tomorrow ... or if not - then Eventually ... Er ... I guess it is now "Eventually"?

had a few other things I was thinking of including jotted down here

Entrails?

I will be nice and spare you from that one now (mainly because I don't know where those photos are and don't have time to look right now)

Energy ... what engergy? (my get up and go got up and went)

... and I am still looking for it I think.

E is also for Event ... like the Four Wheel Drive show that I was involved in on the weekend (Er ... about this time a year ago actually - LOL) ... but that may be the topic of my F post ... (which I did mention might be about Floods ... which it still will be if I post about the 4WD show - because it kind of rained ... rather a lot ... lol) ... although I might change my mind and post about Fungi ... (although I could leave them for next time around, or include them in G for greeblies or something ...)

oops - don't think I did any of those ...
(the Fungi idea should happen Eventually ... I have an Excess of funghi photos - I seem to keep taking them - lol - so they can be either F for fungi or maybe M for mushrooms and mould or something - lol)

I was also thinking of doing my E post about Extreme weather (and using the stuff I was going to put in my half typed D post I forgot I had started Doing) but I decided that seeing I still had a pile of photos and stuff to go in there I might just do that some other time ;-)

hmmm ... if I post this now, it might even be Early!!!!!

Except tea is cooked, and I was going to see if I could find an Extra photo or 2 to Extend this post a bit ... lol

[Andrea goes and eats tea ... and ...? comes back Eventually?]

ok ... it is now about 3 hours later - I have Eaten my tea, Entertained myself in front of the TV for a couple of Episodes of TV shows we had recorded, and Excercised the dog ... and as the Evening is almost over DH has gone to bed, and I should do likewise, seeing I also have to get up for work in the morning ...

but first ...

one more E thing, that is both recent and old (well that seemed like a good Excuse to make it fit in with the rest of this Eccentric post ;-)

I recently found the answer to an Entomological Enigma ... Entomology being the study of insects, and the Enigma being something that was puzzling me ...

A few years back, Er ... it would have to be about 7 or 8 years ago considering where this started - at the school I used to work at before the one I am at now (and I have been there for at least 6 years) we had a glasshouse, with some tree seedings being propogated in there - and I found some weird looking caterpillars on the seedlings ... also found a few around here (at home)... and a couple of members of the Landcare group I am in also noticed them Eating a few of the plants around the area ... I just happened to have an old leaky fish tank handy at work, so I decided to "adopt" a few as pets ... turned out to be Easy to look after because I found that they wouild Eat all sorts of weeds/etc that I put in there for them to munch on ... and they Even pupated, turned into really weird moths, which bred with Each other and laid Eggs ... which hatched into more fuzzy caterpillars!

hmmm ... just realised I can work out when I had those caterpillars - from the dates I took the photos I am just about to put here - LOL - back in 2002 ... (found them the other day when I was looking at puppy photos - we got Diesel (our dog) in 2002 ;-)

Talking about Diesel - here he is on Christmas morning - sound asleep with his head hanging over the table leg!

I guess he was Exhausted after all the Excitement of the unwrapping of presents and stuff ...
(btw,  I moved the dog's head OFF the table leg just after I took the photo ;-)

Now for the caterpillar/moth/etc photos:

A couple of caterpillars - one on my finger and one on a box:

 This is when I had them in the old fish tank at work.
(at the end of the school year I brought the fish tank of caterpillars/etc home, so I could keep looking after them)

This is looking down into the fish tank - a caterpillar on the right, and the weird lumpy looking thing in the corner of the tank on the left is actually a female moth.

Here are some eggs, laid on the remains of the cocoon the femal emerged from - they don't go far away to lay the eggs because the females don't have wings to fly:
(the males are attracted to the females and come to them to mate)

Here is a female moth, some eggs on a cocoon (that might be a pupa in there still, or it might just be the skin the female crawled out of) and a sligty scruffy looking caterpillar:

and here is the male moth, who can fly:

and here are some more caterpillars ... on the thing I was using for a lid in the fish tank (glass over most of it and this wooden frame with fly screen mesh on it so the air could get in)

At the time I didn't have a clue what they were, and I wasn't sure where to go/look to find out ... I might have done some searching on the www, but there might not have been so many good insect/etc websites out there at the time ... that or I didn't find them ...

But the other day someone in the landcare group found a caterpillar (different sort than these) and e-mailed a photo ... and it looked like something I had seen before so I got curious, and did a bit of "googling" and found a really good insect website or 2, and found out what that other caterpillar was ... then I remembered I had been looking at dog photos and found these ones, and wondered if I could find out what they were as well - and yes - I did ;-)

- They are a species of Tussock moths  ... probably Painted Apple Moths

The website I found that info on is here - http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/ 

For those not in Australia (and those who are but want to know about the rest of the world ;-) these 2 websites are also quite interesting:

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/category/caterpillars-and-pupa/moth-caterpillars/tussock-moth-caterpillars/page/2/ (that link goes to the info about Tussock moths, but you can click on the title or a link to look around at other stuff ;-)

http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740

and now it is Extremely late (well not as late as I was staying up a couple weeks back ;-) 
... I spent an Excessive amount of Extra time looking at a whole pile of Entomological stuff ... and now I must Exit the room and Exhibit some sleeping behaviour before I again have to Emerge into the cold hard world of getting up and going to work in the morning ... sigh ...

btw ... it might be a point to Excercise some caution if you are as mad as me and like picking up fuzzy caterpillars, or their hairy cocoons (or even poking your fingers around where they have been and left hairs) - some species have hairs that can be irritating (or in some cases even poisonous) and they can cause irritation/itching (in some cases to anyone who touches them, in others it might only be those who are sensitive to them)

Crochet stuff and a few other things that start with C

I have been meaning to post some photos of some stuff I have Crocheted for ages ... so ... needing something for a C post for ABC Wednesday seems like a good excuse to actually to do it ;-)

... now I just have to find the photos I have taken ... and see what I don't have photos of, and actually FIND the items I don't yet have photos of so I can take some ... no wonder I drive myself Crazy!

ok ... I found some crochet photos, and some other C stuff ... now I just have to put them in here ... hopefully it won't take long - I spent too long finding and editing photos (some needed cropping and stuff) ... and I WAS going to be in bed by this time of night ...er ... morning ... because I have to get up for work in a few hours ...

I will start with the crochet ones ...
... and first - some shawls I actually made a couple of years ago, but didn't take photos of until late last year:

A green (wool) and black (who knows what sort of yarn it was) one:



with a rather cluttered background ... must take a better photo sometime ... or (even better but harder to organise) get someone to take a photo of me wearing the thing ...

A pinky purple/black/silver one:


done in a couple different fancy yarns.
And another one I actually made even earlier ... this thing is HUGE:



That is the top edge of the shawl stretched out down the passage - the but under the cat's tummy is the bit that goes on the back of my neck ... the bit that hangs down the back is actually draped over the dog's paws and he has his head on it - LOL
btw - the last few rows on this ended up so long that not only did it drive me mad, but each row took TWO balls of yarn!
(and it still drags on the ground after I wrap it around myself ... but it is nice and warm so I could probably use it as a snuggle rug or something ... or as my costume next time I am invited to a fancy dress party and want to go as a wookie ;-)

This is my "rainbow shawl" that I finised a year or 2 ago:


It is made from some fine wool I was given, and when I finished crocheting it this is what it looked like:


and yes that is asphalt under it - I spread it out beside my car, in the mostly empty car park at wiork, to take the photo.
This is what it looked like after I soaked it in some vinegar for a few minutes and then arranged it in the bottom of a large ice cream tub, attacked it with various colours of food dye, and zapped it in the microwave for a few minutes (until it was hot, so the dye would set):


hmmm - if you click on this to see it bigger you might see how clean the kitchen floor probably isn't - lol

This is something weird I crocheted last year:


it was for the Summer challenge for the textile art group I am in - we had to do a hand of some sort, on a stick - they were then displayed at the exhibition later last year. I crocheted a hand with long pointy fingers ... then I was mucking around and tied knots in the fingers ... and decided I liked it that way.

Some crochet vines I made for the textile art exhibition last year:


The light green one is some weird green wool I had in my yarn stash, and could be worn as a scarf if I want to. The darker one is some even stranger fuzzy yarn I got from the op shop, with flowers made from some fuzzy yarn (same sort as in that huge shawl) and the pods are made from felted dog hair - so maybe it is a dogwood vine? (hmmm I wonder what dogwood actually IS ... something I have seen mentioned in books I have read, but it isn't native to Australia ... I might have to "google" it sometime ;-)

This is a green cotton shawl I made last year ... in September/October - mostly in the car on the way to/from Queensland (and some of it in front of the tv/etc at Mum and Dad's place, and the last bit at a friend's place here in Canberra just after the trip to Qld.) ... so I call it my "travel shawl"



the danby bits were fun to make ;-)
this is the back of the same shawl:



I also made another (smaller) one in cream coloured cotton, but I have not taken a photo of it yet (I think i took these photos while I was still crocheting that one) I started the second one while i was part way through the green one, because I wanted something smaller (without such long rows as I was up to with the green one) to test out if the pattern I had in mind for the last few rows would work ok, and to work out how many stitches I needed to have in the row when I started the pattern bit ... so once I worked out the pattern and how many stitches in each repeat/etc - I had a miniature shawl - so I kept adding to it until I ran out of that particular yarn (in fact I did run out of yarn part of the way around the edging but I had something else that was similar enough to use for the last bit of the edging and not show up as different ;-)

These are some quilted fabric Coffee Cup Coasters I made in December:


I used 6 of them as part of the Christmas gifts I gave to the science teachers I work with (we seem to have a tradition where everyone puts a little something on each other's desks at the end of the school year ;-)
The other 3 are on our coffee table, but I am not sure they get used ... or even noticed ... lol
This is a beetle ... it wasn't in the B post, and it IS in this C post, because I took the photo during the Canberra Quilters meeting last week - I found it on the floor near my feet during the raffle draw (after which everyone gets up and stomps around packing the Chairs up) so I picked it up to save it from getting Crushed underfoot - and it Crawled around on my fingers and on my lap, making Chirping noises!


...  much to the amusement of the few people sitting Closest to me ...
(not a very Clear photo - it wouldn't stay still! ... so I Clicked about 8 photos then Chucked it out the door)

I found some Cloud photos too:


I often take photos of Clouds .. I think these are Cumulus, probably in the process of becoming Cumulo nimbus (those big tall thunderstorm clouds) Because we had a Crashing big thunderstorm not long after I took this photo last week.
This one was taken from very Close to the same place as the other one (a Couple of metres away probably)
but it was a Couple of days later ... and there was an even bigger storm even sooner afterwards ... with Crazy purple streaks of lightning and rain so heavy it was hard to see where I was driving ...



During the storm I just happened to be picking a friend up from work and driving us both to her place ... I live thunderstorms and she ... doesn't  ... so every big flash of purple lighting I would say "wow" and she would say "s..t" (or worse ;-)
And last (beCause I have well and truly enough photos in here already) 3 videos of a spider - Argiope sp. (not sure which one - but this is the genus the Saint Andrew's Cross spider is in) ... although it could be a Nephila sp. (which is another genus in the same family - the Golden Orb Weaver is in this genus) .
btw - yes I guess it is a long stretch for a C thing - but it was Creeping and Crawling around it's web, next to my Compost heap:











I know - too Creepy? lol

... and too late ... to make the Cut off for adding to the linky thingy, for the letter C posts, before it Closed ... oh well - I will just have to put the link in a Comment ...

hmmm - a C post and only one photo with the Cat in it (and she had to share that one with the dog!) but I am sure she will Cope ok with that.

Birds and Bees and Beetles and Bugs and Butterflies and Bark and a Basket and Bob

... Because they are all B things that I found in my photos and realised I could Bung in here for my B post for ABC Wednesday ... The sort of all vaguely relate to each other (well I say they do, so therefore they do ;-)

Now I just have to find them all again, and upload the B#$^$%^ things to Blogger ... LOL

(I found a few others Besides those I originally was thining of too - so I had to add a couple more words to the title of this post ;-)

I won't be putting in as many photos as I did in the Arachinid one that is Before this one though ... (well ... I don't think I will ... lol)

Btw ... These won't be in the order I mentioned them in the subject line ... most of them might Be in the order I took them, But there might Be some that are not ;-)

First (Because I took this one Back in Febuary and most of the others are a Bit more recent) I have a photo of some tree Bark:



which I think looks wonderful Because the rain has wet the Bark and Brought out the colours.


A grass Basket (Bowl?) that I made early in the year at some basketry/grass sculpture workshop thingy at the museum.



At the same place (Before the Basket I think) I also made a Bird out of grass and sticks But I don't have a decent photo of that ... But I can take one of that later Because I do still have the Bird (I don't still have the Basket - I used it as a Bird's nest in the tree in that Garden Tea Party textile are exhibition and the tree was being donated to decorate a primary school library - and I figured the nest belonged in the tree so when we were packing it all up, I took a cople of photos of it and donated it ... if I want another one all I have to do is find some grass/hay/whatever, some string, a needle, a Bit more red/etc fabric (that bit is optional I guess ;-) and a comfy spot to sit outside where I can make a mess, and an hour or 2 of spare time ;-)


Bean pods on a tree ... not sure exactly what sort of trees - whatever species they planted as street trees in our street, and quite a few other streets nearby.



I liked the colour of these. They start off green and usually they just seem to go dark brown when they get old ... hmmm - maybe the trees in our street are a slightly different variety than the older ones a few streets away, that have been growing pods for longer than the ones in our street?


Bob, the sponge



I have a friend who likes a certain popular cartoon character, so for his birthday I made this ... er ... replica ... from a bit of sponge and pipe cleaners and felt ... weirdest pair of pants I have ever sewn - LOL

Beetle on a post:



if I didn't have so many photos I would have included a photo of what was hiding on the other side of the same post - a Huntsman - LOL  (He might end up in an ABC Wednesday letter H post, if I get around to that ;-)

A puff Ball:





A Bedraggled Butterfly




A Black Beetle


On my finger ;-)

Beetle Bum:



(this is what often happens when I try to take photos of Beetles, or Bugs etc - I often end up with a Backside, or just a Bit of the Beetle/Bug ... or the photo is Blurry ...)


 Bug on Banksia leaf




Buzzing Bee


Blurry, But I like the feeling of movement with the Barely there wings ...


Bubbles in a Beaker


Quite pretty really ... (not sure you will agree once you know what they are ;-)

Bottles and Beaker ...  (same Beaker the above Bubbles are in)


 This is fake urine, made for a science class to do a forensics practical lesson ... made with urea and yellow food dye, among other things, and some have egg white in them - was supposed to be powdered albumin (the protien that egg whites are made of) but I didn't have any - so fresh egg white was the next best thing ... it did the job fine ... But it made Bubbles in the "pee"... LOL


Lady Beetle


somewhere in Tasmania.


 Big Boulders on a Beach


(also in Tasmania.)


A video of Birds:


(one of the several things I have recently added to youtube ;-)

The same Bird - a crow - who was being pestered by those 2 Willy Wagtails until it flew away to this tree:



however it flew away from this tree just as I clicked the photo! Bother! LOL
(actually in this case I quite like the result)


Birds having a dust Bath



But looking a Bit wary Because they could see me.


Bug on the Back of my hand:


glad it is not as Bitey as it looks ... that pointy dangerous looking Bit is actually a sticking out leg - lol

Birds having fun on a fence


there were about 8 of them ... some kind of parrot.

More Birds:



another kind of parrot - sulphur crested cockatoos ... looking white against the blue sky, but not as white as they could have looked if they had not been so brown and dirty looking - lol

Beetles making more Beetles


(different beetles, and different day, than a similar photo in a previous post ... but might be the same bush in my garden ;-)

Bonkers looking Bird nest:



not sure if this is finished, unfinished, or falling to Bits - but look at all the odd Bits of stuff in it! LOL

Bug on the Back of my hand:


itty Bitty Bug.

Another Bizarre Beetle:



same beetle, different angle:




Butterly on some Blossom




another Butteryly with different Blossom


Yet another Black Beetle:


This one was at a friend's place on Christmas day.


While I was digging around in my youtube videos - I realised I had another Bird video:



... not that you can really see the Birds - but you can hear them ;-)

I also found this Bug video that I took a year or 3 ago:



I found it on something, picked it up, took a photo or 3 of it on my finger/hand, then put it on the post to take more pictures and it laid a dozen eggs - LOL

Boy I have a lot of photos of Birds and Bugs and Beetles and stuff ... and that lot is all just last year's photos!

Maybe just 2 or 3 from this year?

A Beetle with a wolf spider:


(yes I know - any excuse for more spider photos ;-)

A Banksia plant at the Botanic Garden:



yes - really weird, but quite Beautiful.
And ... last but not least - I found another excuse to include yet another spider photo ... I took this one a few nights ago - and can include it here Because this post title starts with "Birds and Bees ..." and - these 2 spiders are Bonking!


Yes - I think it is female on the left and male on the right - I can sort of see one of his palps reaching out to (or maybe even into) her ... I saw this while out walking the dog at around Midnight a few nights ago - as I was walking along the path I could see yet another Orb spider web in a tree - "oh goody - another spider to try and get a decent photo of" ... then I noticed "oh goody - there are 2 spiders in that web, I wonder if one is a male" (usually it is the female who builds the web ... I think) and then my question was answered because they ran toward each other did a bit of a high 5 with a few feet and flung their arms around each other and stayed like that for the few minutes it took for me to take about a dozen photos - LOL (most were blurry but one or 2 came out ok ;-)

Hmmmmmm - talking about birds (not that I was) ... lots of twittering outside, and it is getting light - maybe I had better go to bed!!!
(I tend to sort of change time zones when I am on holidays and don't have to get up in the mornings ... and I seem to do it even more when DH is also doing night shifts every few days - LOL ... I am going to have to change back to this time zone in the next day or so though - because I have to go Back to work on Friday ... sigh ...
By the way ... Blogger is Botching up the photo layout again ... But it is not too Bad so it can stay as it is for now ...