
I love it when dinner guests bring flowers š, as I rarely buy them for myself.

I love it when dinner guests bring flowers š, as I rarely buy them for myself.

Rhea sent me a kookaburra audio clip, which reminded me of the time during lockdown that Dr Farvardin Daliri built a huge kookaburra statue complete with soundtrack, and towed it around Brisbane to make people smile. Sound on!

Section 7 is in the books. Most of this trail was new to us, and we enjoyed it a lot. The steep uphill sections and exposed ridge might not be fun on a hot summer today, but right now theyāre just lovely.

Itās Groundhog Day! The groundhog, also known as the woodchuck (along with a bunch of other monikers), is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Despite the popular tongue-twister, the etymology of the name woodchuck is unrelated to wood or chucking. It stems from an Algonquian (possibly Narragansett) name for the animal, wuchak.

This week in the perpetual journal. Milkmaids are one of the earliest wildflowers to appear on the shady banks and slopes of our local oak and riparian woodlands. They are in the Brassicaceae family.

These are going in the ground today.

Leucadendron is a genus of about 80 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, endemic to South Africa. We have the Wilsonās Wonder cultivar growing in a pot on our patio, where it looks good all year around, but especially when itās displaying its yellow cone flowers.

Spent 10 minutes in the garden before heading off to work at Malibu Creek State Park. Just time to quickly record some of the sights and sounds.

My friend always picks āOne Little Wordā for the year (as do I). But she tends to forget what word she picked. So this year I made her a reminder to hang on her wall.

Iāve been hiking in these boots for at least 25 years, and I donāt think Iāve ever conditioned them. But this winter, my socks have been getting soaked, so it was time to apply some waterproofing. I found an ancient can of Nikwax under the bathroom sink; it had separated into a sticky thick orange wax, and a light creamy grease. Hopefully the grease will do the trick, because that’s what I rubbed into the leather. š„¾