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Rescuing This Baby......

Rescuing this baby mantis from my bedroom after I caught a glimpse of it scurrying along the curtains was a bit of an adventure for the tiny being, it moved like lightning as it ran along the material until it ran onto my finger and was safely taken outside. 

How it ended up in the house is a mystery of its own.

It did not want to get off my hand once outside and each time I attempted to place it safely on a leaf it ran back up my arm, after a few minutes I finally succeeded in placing it safely in the sun.

Placed on the jasmine where it really did seem content, happy to be out in the sunshine, and dare I say posing for that first photo, although getting a clear shot was difficult as it kept moving its head checking out the world around it.

The magnificence of the world around me never fails to stop me in my tracks, I was lost in awe of this perfect wee mantis as I watched it enjoying the warmth of the morning sun......

Visiting An Art.....

Visiting an art exhibition that one of the people I support each week has in the Ellenbrook Art Gallery yesterday was quite the event, Amanda has given permission for me to share her work on my blog for all to see, she did tell me to state that all paintings and sculptures are for sale.

Amanda has an intellectual disability so this is such an accomplishment for her.

Amanda's mother was an aboriginal woman from the Yamaji tribe found in the Murchison and Gascoyne regions of Western Australia. When Amanda was a child her mother told her stories from their tribe and from these stories Amanda paints the little scary monsters her mother spoke about.

Amanda was full of pride as she showed me each painting, and I particularly loved the little pink sculpture. 

Although Amanda can't relay the stories her mother told, she uses her art to relay these creatures which Amanda tells me are super scary. For me they all seem rather fun and quirky, a colourful collection of some really unusual creatures.

Amanda was also commissioned to do a mural on one of the walls in the art gallery, a piece of it is seen in the last photo, we couldn't get into the room to get a full wall shot as there was a workshop underway, but we will go back at some point to see the whole wall.......

"YOU ARE A CHOSEN ONE!" (you're meant to watch this)

The More......

Discovering This Amazing.....

 Discovering this amazing little spider as I was about to walk under the veranda, something prompted me to look up, so look up I did, I have learnt not to ignore promptings from my intuition, because it always leads me to moments of wondrous delight. Seeing this tiny spider drew my attention immediately, I had never seen one before and had no idea what kind of spider it was.

After watching it and admiring its delicate beauty I did a bit of research to discover it is a green lynx spider.

They are totally harmless to humans, but for their prey they are not so kind.

They are apparently fierce predators, and they will eat just about anything it is said, not only do these spiders eat wasps, bees, butterflies, beetles, flies and grasshoppers they will also eat other spiders.

The green lynx spider does not use a web, it will stalk its prey and pounces like a cat to capture its prey.

The green lynx spider is beneficial in the garden as it kills so many bugs that damage plants, having a chemical free garden this is great information to find, research has shown that green lynx spiders can be found in crops, not only eating the moths that damage the harvest, they also eat the larvae too, pretty helpful spiders indeed.

Apparently the only time it is known to become aggressive towards humans is if the female is disturbed when she is guarding her egg sac.

Discovering something new in the garden is always a special moment, gardens are wonderful places, they are kingdoms all of their own, filled with all manner of stunning and unique creatures, and some like this tiny spider are rarely seen even by avid nature watchers like myself........

Hummingbird Pool Party Number Five!

Casanova Charlie........

 Casanova Charlie cuddling sister Nala, he is such a gentle loving little soul who enjoys nothing more than spreading his affections to his sisters.

Precious moments of pure love so beautiful to witness....

Project Number Three......

 Project number three which is the most exciting is the replacement of the veranda all the way around the cottage, with day two of this project being done this week I am really beginning to see what the end result will be.

It involves a lot of hard physical work on my part which I am totally enjoying, it really is so gratifying being a part of the transformation in this way instead of paying someone to do all the work and standing back and watching the process, being hands on gives me a real sense of accomplishment.

The back of the cottage is where we decided to begin, I have hours upon hours of painting still to do and the more I do the easy it becomes.

Next time the patio extension will be constructed, this will give me a place to entertain outside and to have a really functional seating area instead of having the chairs scattered around the cottage willy nilly, it will also mean I can get in and out of the backdoor without getting drenched when it is raining.

It still looks like a bit of a mess as all construction sites do while in process of change, but that is okay I am learning to live with the chaos, knowing that the end result will be well worth the wait.......

Another Project......

 Another project currently on the go in the back garden is digging the grass out from around the trees and shrubs, I wanted to have more defined pathways around the back garden much like the front and now the plants are all large enough to give me guidance of where the paths should go..

This grass is very invasive and tends to strangle the plants, it is tough going as it does not come out easily, and after a full day doing this I didn't get very far, I am also not happy with the amount of insects that get killed when the grass is mowed, so less grass is much better all round.

I had hoped that with the trees a getting taller that the grass would not be able to grow with limited sunshine, but still it thrives.

So I shall keep at it, slowly changing the view of the back garden and giving the chickens more areas to turn over with their daily search for bugs and worms...............

Filling In........

 Filling in this large hole that was dug four years ago by the travelling Frenchman for a pond in the back garden is well on its way to being completed. 

Unfortunately all his hard work was in vain, as the amount of leaves falling from the neighbouring trees made it the wrong place for a pond so large.

So, I am shifting barrow loads of soil from the chicken space to fill the hole after first laying bigger pieces of wood and then a layer of cardboard so that it can all breakdown and enrich this space for more food to be planted.

The chickens were really happy with all the earthworms that wriggled around in each barrow load and were happily scratching around for hours.

It has taken quite a few days to move the soil, and I do need to do another day or two of raking to bring the level of this arean down so that I can begin to plan the area for planting, I also have to still take the remaining dead acacia trees out and break them up for firewood, so a few more days of hard work still are waiting for me......