Bats

 03/04/2012
 Decided to take a chance and remove all the sand bags which have been protecting us (not) from potential floods. It hasn’t rained for days and the forecast is for dry weather for the foreseeable future. No troughs or cyclones around, in fact on the satellite overview of Oz, there isn’t a cloud in sight! In all I moved 88 bags of sand and spread it over the grassed area, you can’t really call it lawn ,but it’s getting there. As we move into the dry season it will mean lots of watering through the night, though we are supposed to turn sprinklers off at 9 pm. Removing the sandbags could be the kiss of death as the wet season doesn’t officially end for another 4 weeks. Also the stinger nets will be taken away and we will be able to swim anywhere we like in the sea, though I bet there will still be one or two of the little buggers lurking about.

 04/04/2012
  After the beetles have come the bats……….hundreds of them. Mostly they are the big flying foxes with a few smaller ones mixed in. We don’t see them too often up here in the northern beaches, as we don’t have many fig or mango trees. They have come looking for the blossom that has just formed on our gum trees, arriving well before dusk to settle into the tops of the gums.  They make a lot of noise not to mention the crap and debris as they munch their way through the blossom.
  Today we spent a couple of hours at the hospital fracture clinic, the result being that Jackboot Jane has to persevere with her leather and Velcro black boot for another couple of weeks minimum as her old bones aren’t healing as quickly as those of a younger woman. ( I knew I should have gone for a later model!)
 We treated ourselves to brunch and cappuccinos at our favourite coffee shop on Cairns Esplanade, before doing a very good cash deal on 2 new tyres for the van, better than half price. I got a re-tread also in a new pair of flip flop, we refuse to call them thongs!
 The bamboo screening is now in place around the pool which will stop the poor people from gazing in at us as we lounge about with our coldies. They can go and play with the stingers.

 05/04/2012
  I need to amend my estimate of bats. Tonight Jackboot and I watched as a couple of thousand flew over in the space of about 30 minutes. It’s an amazing sight as they as they head north, dropping off in numbers as they fly over the Mallaleucas (gum trees) to roost and eat the flowers.
 Yesterday whilst we were in Cairns we bought some swordfish steaks from a fishmonger that had been recommended to us. There are a few fishmongers down by the docks and it seems their produce is a lot cheaper than up here in northern beaches. Anyway, swordfish is to die for and here in the Southern hemisphere it is a sustainable species, so that’s another thing we have learned. We will definitely be buying it again. Meaty and delicious, quite a delicate flavour.