calissa

20220516_143954 by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Here's a shot of more of the Fly Agaric I saw last month. It gives a better idea of how many of them there were and how big they can get, the way they change shape.

This week's volunteer shift started off a bit more lively with two calls coming in as soon as I switched on -- one possible juvenile quail found on the outskirts of the city centre (apparently there's native quail that live there!), and one Australian magpie caught in a shopping mall. The busy start is in contrast to how shifts have been mostly going lately... as well as life more generally.

Locally, the snow has remained on the hills. It's unusual for it to linger like this. Generally, it tends to be there for a day, then melt the next day, before returning in a week or however long. It has probably been facilitated by some grey weather. But today we got back to our classic winter weather: crystal blue sky, sunshine and utterly freezing. The snow has been pretty to look at, but I'm glad to have finally got some washing dry (like a decreasing proportion of the Australian population, we only line dry and don't possess a clothes dryer).

Lots of bits and pieces continue to get cancelled due to various people coming down with illnesses of various sorts. I was supposed to be running an RPG on Saturday that has been cancelled. I admit I'm a little disappointed, but the quieter weekends have been rather lovely. My reading has been flagging a bit lately and I have a pile of library books due back soon, so I might bundle up on the couch with the dogs.

Tomorrow night, my sweetheart is out with friends, so I signed up for another, longer volunteer shift. I had thought I'd do some RPG prep in that time, but with that cancelled I'm especially glad for the shift, since I think it will help combat any loneliness that might sneak in.

20220516_144049 by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Well, where to start?

I'm currently doing my first solo shift on the phones for the local wildlife volunteers. People call to report native wildlife in distress. It's my job to direct them to vets or volunteer carers, or to organise transport for the animal to the same. There's a lot to learn and I am feeling very nervous about doing this on my own for the first time.

Winter is a relatively quiet time for calls, which is both a blessing and a curse for training. On one hand, I'm less likely to be flooded with calls, making it less pressure. On the other hand, that can also make it hard to get enough experience.

There are limitations on what the organisation will do. Feral animals are handled by the state rangers, as are kangaroos, wallabies and adult wombats. These last few are just too big and unpredictable for volunteers. While volunteers will capture and care for the larger species of possums, removal from roof cavities gets referred to commercial handlers. I think snake removals do as well; it's really not the time of year for that to be an issue.

Mostly, what we seem to get are birds. Halfway through my shift now and I've had just two calls. One was a probable male blackbird which had flown into a window and stunned itself. It recovered and flew off while I was on the call. ( CW: animal death ) I don't mind all the birds, though, since I'm already pretty decent at identifying species.

Moving from the animal kingdom to the fungi kingdom, we're having a record year for mushrooms. The La Nina weather patterns have brought a lot of rain and there have been mushrooms popping up everywhere. A lot have been poisonous species, such as Death Caps and the Fly Agaric pictured above. Not ideal, but the latter are very pretty. I keep thinking the fairies must be having a bumper year.

20200814_131922 by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Spring is in full swing. The fruit trees everywhere are in flower and I've managed more than a few photos of bee butts. The peregrines are back nesting on the window ledges of Melbourne skyscrapers. The days have been warming up and I was able to go out for a walk in a t-shirt yesterday (carefully avoiding the routes guarded by nesting magpies). The weather is shifting, though, and we should get some rain tonight.

I've not really done any writing for a long time (perhaps a year or two now?), but I have felt some occasional stirs of creativity. Kathleen Jennings' posts on her observation journal have been a source of great delight. The current state of my health prevents me from keeping one by hand, so I have been experimenting with an electronic version. It's not nearly as satisfying, but it has produced some lovely turns of phrase.

There were no observations today, however. This morning I managed to step on my glasses. No lasting damage, thankfully, just popped out one of the lenses and needed to take them in to the shop. By the time I arranged for transport and had run the errand, most of the day had disappeared. I'm so very glad it was an easy fix. I fished out my old pair, but the prescription is a little different and even wearing them for just a few hours had me feeling the strain.

20200717_112143 by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

My sister and I went for a hike through Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve today.

( Read more... )

Cloudscape by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Noting here for closure that the Orroral Valley Fire was declared out yesterday. Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve is safe. I think I'm going to have to schedule a visit sometime soon.

New growth by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Currently Reading

Having blasted through a heap of reading over the last week, I'm kind of between books at the moment. I have tentatively started The True Queen by Zen Cho, but am only just through the prologue. I'm already glad I took the time to reread Sorcerer to the Crown though, since it has helped set the context... and it had been way too long since I first read it.

Currently Watching

I actually got around to watching the first episode of The Untamed today. It really does throw you in the deep end, doesn't it? So many characters! I've been making use of the primer from Reading the End.

Currently Observing

The photo at the top of the post shows new growth on a butterfly orchid that was rehomed with me. It was in poor shape when it arrived--standing in water had rotted many of its roots. I trimmed it up and repotted, and it seems to have recovered. I'm rather pleased. It seems I'm developing a bit of an orchid collection. My Australian native hybrid recently produced a new cane. I've not had success with striking these previously, but I changed up my potting material this time and seem to have been successful.

Current Mood: exhausted

All the Bookmarks! by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Currently Reading
Last Friday was the start of Tome Topple, a 2-week reading challenge for books of 500+ pages. Since Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke was on my list to get through this year, I thought I'd join in. The photo above shows how I've bookmarked the volume above, creating one section for every day of the challenge. I find this a useful way of eating the elephant and I think it was a trick I picked up off sweet_sparrow. It's served me well and I'm about 2 days ahead of schedule... which is a good things, since I forgot to allow time to reread this month's book club pick, due on the day Tome Topple finishes.

Currently Watching
Sahaquiel and I are about two-thirds through a K-drama called Hotel del Luna. A young warrior must atone for the crimes of her past by becoming the owner of a hotel for ghosts. Unfortunately, being halfway between the living and the dead herself, she needs a human manager to deal with some of the human administration of the hotel. She soon finds the man she has coerced into the role has a way of unearthing memories she'd prefer to stay buried in the past. The leading lady is materialistic, disrespectful and prone to taking her temper out on others. And yet, I love her. The actress handles the moments of vulnerability well. And she undergoes an average of four costume changes per episode, complete with matching manicures. The leading man complements her well, being steady, practical and compassionate. The series has been a delight so far.

I should mention it does have some mild horror vibes, though the overall tone is very much drama. People may want to steer clear if they have issues with possession and bodily autonomy. References are made to sexual assault and suicide. Plus, there's a 90-year-old ghost (who died in his 20s) dating a school girl, which may sit uncomfortably for some people.

Currently Observing
New section, borrowed from kaberett.

Trees everywhere are starting to turn. I wasn't sure at first that the Japanese maple in our courtyard was starting to turn yellow, since the leaves have burned a little this summer. But the pin oaks are starting to show splashes of red and yellow. The claret ash trees are that weird brown colour midway between green and burgundy. And the casuarina trees are decked out with seeds and pollen.

The waterways are running once again, after all the rain we've had. I actually heard frogs while I was out on my walk. And there was a cricket the other night. It has been so long since I last heard one that I didn't recognise it at first.

DSC_2264 edits by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

I've been holding off on giving an update about the fires because it has been a lot of "wait and see". Things would be quiet for a while and then flare up again. However, it has been a little while since I've been able to see the fire line from my house (whether day or night). The Emergency Services Agency have left their station nearby, where they had closed off the road leading to the fire-affected area. School went back this week and I noticed that the local school had painted thank-you signs for the ESA all along the route. Smoke still blows into the area from time to time (quite thick, on occasions), but, on the whole, we can breathe easier. It's even raining today.

That's the good news. The bad news is the fire is still burning out of control. The mountainous terrain makes it extremely difficult to combat. At one point, just 1% of the fire front was accessible from the ground. As of writing, the fire has burned through over 85, 000 hectares of the 236, 000 hectares making up the territory. Most of that is national park. The fire is currently heading for my beloved Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve--which was burned in our last severe fires in 2003, killing most of the emus and all but one of the koalas (Lucky remained the sole resident until he passed away of old age in 2007. A new koala population was introduced in 2013). Firefighters are working hard to protect Tidbinbilla. Hopefully, the rain will help.

The uncertainty has been wearing, playing havoc with my concentration. Even my reading has been scattered and unfocused! Fortunately, things are starting to return to routine. It will take me a little while to catch up on the backlog (does one ever catch up?), but I always find restoring order to be immensely satisfying.

ETA: I just saw Tidbinbilla have moved their breeding koala population (only 5 koalas) to the university for the time being to ensure their safety.

Smoky Sunset by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Current Alert
Woke up from my nap to discover the fire had been further downgraded. This means we can probably breathe easy until the weekend, when conditions are set to be at their most catastrophic. With luck, the fire might be more or less out by then.

Currently Reading
My reading is a bit all over the place at the moment. I started Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell but left that with my evacuation supplies at the in-laws, since it is a giant tome that is a pain in the ass to lug around (maybe I should just give in and buy it again as an e-book).

I have also been dipping into Uncanny Magazine, Issue 20 and Late in the Day: Poems 2010-2014. The latter is by Ursula K. Le Guin and I'm finding them delightfully domestic so far.

On audio, I've been listening to An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield, narrated by the author. This is a little bit motivational-speaker for me, but it has been a fascinating look into the training, mindset and experiences of an astronaut. I found it reassuring to listen to while preparing to evacuate, since it is a lot about preparing for worst-case scenarios (even if they don't eventuate).

Currently Watching
Down to the last three episodes of Love in the Moonlight. I can't say that the heroine has been any less passive. However, I am interested to see how they can possibly wrap everything up in the time they have left.

DSC_2148 edit by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

So, yesterday proved to be a bit exciting. The fire generating the smoke plume pictured in my last entry got quite a bit closer. Within about 10km, actually. I had a clear view as it came over the ridges around 5pm yesterday.

( Photo below the cut )

No official order was given to evacuate, but there are a couple of traffic choke points that can make getting out of the area difficult when there are a lot of people on the road. We also wanted to make sure we got the dogs to safety. So we left early and headed to the in-laws, a few suburbs away. They'd just made dinner and had enough for us too, bless them. Sahaquiel and I had been too busy packing up to have a proper meal.

We stayed the night. By this morning, the alert had been downgraded from Emergency to Watch and Act. So, we've headed home again for the time being, Sahaquiel staying home from work. When we went to pack up the car at the in-laws place, we found it had a light dusting of ash. We found burnt leaves in the yard and on the stoop when we got home.

Singed Eucalyptus Leaf by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Although there's no immediate risk, the fire is still out of control. Temperatures this week are set to climb steadily. Today is expected to reach 35°C/95°F, ramping up to 42°C/106°F on the weekend. So we're not out of the woods yet. I'm monitoring news sources.

But first, a nap. All the fuss left one of our dogs quite anxious (even though he frequently spends time at the in-laws place). He was determined to sleep on my face, so I didn't get a whole lot of sleep either.

Fingers crossed for better luck from here.

Orroral Valley smoke plume by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

I don't often post views from my place, but I thought I'd make an exception in this case. The smoke plume is from a fire burning 20km away in the national park, just on the other side of that blue ridge. The fluffy white cloud at the top is the beginning of a pyrocumulus formation, though it has since blown away.

I'm not in immediate danger. However, the forest and farmland between me and it are tinder dry. Tomorrow I will be dropping Sahaquiel at work so that I have the car and can evacuate with the dogs if it becomes necessary.

Canberra has been going through apocalypse roulette recently. We had a week of smoke-free air, which was glorious. However, last Monday a violent hail storm swept through. I only caught the fringes of it at my place--it brought some much needed rain and a tiny bit of hail (only a couple of centimetres wide). Unfortunately, it hit the centre of the city hard, with pieces the size of golf balls or cricket balls. Hundreds of cars were written off. It also smashed the glasshouses at the CSIRO, destroying years of research.

Thursday followed up with a dust storm. It wasn't as severe as in places west of here and it didn't cause any damage, mostly just leaving things looking grimy and tattered. That same day the airport was shut down when a local fire broke out nearby, burning through grassland and the local nurseries.

Most days, I'm doing okay, but the litany of disasters gets wearing after a while. I've noticed an uptick in anxiety among my friends--especially those already prone to anxiety. And most worryingly for the current situation, the temperatures for this week are expected to rise steadily to reach 41 Celsius/106 Fahrenheit.

Purple Clematis by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Currently Reading
I have been continuing with The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories which I am still enjoying. I just finished "Black Powder" by Maria Dahvana Headley. It was a gorgeous story with a fascinating take on the topic, but perhaps a bit too subtle for me because I didn't entirely follow it. Might give that one a reread.

I also just started on Rosa and the Veil of Gold by Kim Wilkins. This is one of the ten oldest books on Mt TBR that I said I would get to this year. I'm only a couple of chapters in so far, but I can't say I find myself connecting with it much. I might give it a few more chapters and then ditch it if it's still not working for me.

Currently Watching
Sahaquiel and I have continued with Love in the Moonlight and are enjoying it. However, I'm starting to find a few things annoying. On being outed as a woman, the female lead spends so much more time being passive. It makes her rather less charming than she was. The Crown Prince also displays some rather concerning possessive behaviour. What makes this worse is that the other point of this love triangle (a nobleman from a family seeking to undermine the Crown Prince) is the most sweet and considerate guy. Even though the Crown Prince is very handsome and charismatic (and does vulnerability so well), I would pick the other nobleman over him in an instant.

I've also started watching Fairyland Lovers. I'm a bit on the fence about this one, too. The main character is very Manic Pixie Dream Girl. At this point, I'm mostly sticking with it for Bai Yu (though he is quite a jerk).

Cloud Boomerang by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Currently Reading

I just started on an anthology called The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin. I'm not very far into it, but the first story (about a man who stumbles across a congregation of djinn at his mosque) was just so beautiful. And the contents page features some wonderful names (Amal El-Mohtar, JY Yang, Maria Dahvana Headley and Nnedi Okorafor, among others), so I have high hopes.

In audio, I'm also between books. After finishing off Archivist Wasp (which turned out to be excellent, so thanks to sweet_sparrow for encouraging me to stick with it), I took a bit of a break to catch up on some of my podcasts. I have An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield to start once I'm done with that.

Currently Watching

Sahaquiel and I have just started a light-hearted K-Drama called Love in the Moonlight. An orphaned girl has spent her life dressing as a man in order to go out into the world and make ends meet. She has a chance encounter with the (bratty, up-tight) Crown Prince in disguise which doesn't end well for him. This later becomes a problem when she is sold into the Eunuch Training Program by a criminal she owes money to. It is a comedy of errors with plenty of identity shenanigans. Both Sahaquiel and I have been enjoying it immensely.

Hebe Friend by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Currently reading
Just started on To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, a time-travel sci-fi. The Lady Vaults book club tackled this a month or two ago and I managed to miss it, so am catching up now. It has been a chaotic start, but a delight nevertheless. The voice is clear and witty. I also rather liked the introduction by Pat Cadigan, whose work I really need to track down.

Currently watching
Sahaquiel and I are about halfway through the first season of The Rook. Imagine the X-Men were a British secret service and add internal politics. The main character wakes up surrounded by bodies and her memory completely gone. Via letters her past self has written to her present self, she finds out she works for this agency and sets out to discover what has happened to her. The book was written by an acquaintance and I've been meaning to read it for years. Perhaps I'll get around to it after I'm done with the show.

Windblown by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Currently reading
I finished American Gods just an hour ago and am still feeling profoundly ambivalent about it. The only thing I can think of to say about it was that it was fine.

On the print front, I have started The Night Watch by Sergio Lukyanenko. It's an urban fantasy translated from Russian in which the forces of Light (the Night Watch) and the forces of Dark (the Day Watch) attempt to preserve a balance. This is the third time I've tried to read this book. It's well-paced and interesting enough, but I always seem to put it down at the end of the first part (probably about halfway through the book). I figure if I don't get through it this time, I'm going to jettison the series.

Currently watching
Just finished off season 1 of Upstart Crow, a British comedy about the misadventures of William Shakespeare. Plenty of in-jokes for those familiar with his work. I like the practical, down-to-earth personality of Anne Hathaway. I also have a soft spot for Kate, the daughter of Shakespeare's landlady. She's well-educated and desperate to become an actor but is stymied by the patriarchy.

However, a little of this show goes a long way, so I'm glad there's only six episodes in a season.

Casuarina Raindrop by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Currently reading
Currently about a quarter of the way through Vanity Fair. This one is going to take me a while.

As I've mentioned before, I'm starting to venture into audio books. I picked up a copy of American Gods by Neil Gaiman and that has been doing an excellent job of keeping me entertained through the housework. Since I don't have a whole lot of experience with audio books, I wanted to start out with something I didn't care too much about and wouldn't be bothered by missing if my mind wandered off. I'd seen the first season of the TV show but hadn't bothered to follow up the subsequent seasons. The book has also been on my TBR for years, but belongs to my dad. Picking it up on audio was a good way of tackling it without actually adding to my TBR pile.

I have enjoyed seeing the modern interpretations of the old gods and seeing manifestations of the new. It's a very dude heavy book, though.

Currently watching
Sahaquiel and I finished off S3 of The Dragon Prince last night, which continues to be a delight. I particularly enjoyed the way they've made the dragons seem truly massive. I also enjoyed the relationship developments.

I have no idea what we'll watch next. I'm not feeling all that excited about anything. Sahaquiel actually asked if I'd prefer to give up TV and the idea is not unappealing.

The Stages of Roses by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Currently reading
I managed to get my weeks completely mixed up, thinking that my book club was meeting next Tuesday, rather than the one after. So, I blasted through our next book, which is Indexing by Seanan McGuire. Reality is plagued by fairytale incursions who take over people fitting different archtypal profiles and forcing them to behave in waves that fit the narrative. Henrietta Marchen is a Snow White in waiting, heading up a rag-tag team whose job is to prevent such fairytale incursions.

It was originally a Kindle serial (who even knew that was a thing?), so it's structured much like a TV crime procedural. It starts off with a monster-of-the-week plus a bit of an overarching plot that gradually takes over as the Big Bad is revealed. I love crime procedurals and the only reason I haven't started reading crime is because my Mt TBR is already tall enough. Needless to say, I enjoyed it, finding the vibe at the midpoint between Seanan's two major series, October Daye and InCryptid.

Having had some issues with fatigue, I blasted through it in a day or two. So with that out of the way, I've started on Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. This is the oldest book on my TBR pile, having been acquired on 15 January 2006. One of my goals for this year was to read (or get rid of) the 10 oldest books on my Mt TBR. This is the last one to go and I'm determined to finish it before the end of December. I guess we'll see how I go!

Currently watching
Sahaquiel and I are about halfway through the second season of Legend of Korra and I'm thinking about calling it quits. The first season wasn't too bad, though I really wasn't a fan of having Asami and Korra being jealous over Mako. The ending was also extremely unearned and points to a penchant for magical cures (which I thought I remembered as being a bit of a thing at the beginning of season 3, but apparently crops up even earlier than that).

The second season is proving interminable. Korra's headstrong temper is just annoying and I can't say I'm finding the civil war among the Water Tribes very nuanced or compelling. None of the romantic relationships are at all healthy. Sahaquiel tried to assert that Varrik is the show's equivalent of Uncle Iroh... and just no. Not even remotely.

Redeeming points have been the gorgeous painted landscapes and the sibling relationships.

Convolvulus on Diosma by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Currently reading
Just a few chapters into Tam Lin by Pamela Dean. Because I'm predictable, I love the mythic atmosphere of it, though nothing much has happened yet. Even beyond the fantastical though, there's this feeling of it being in a slightly different world created by its 1976 setting. The idea of lugging heavy typewriters around seems quite strange to me these days. On the other hand, I can't imagine university dorms have changed much over the years.

Currently watching
Sahaquiel and I wrapped up Season 4 of She-Ra last night. On the whole, I enjoyed it, though I wanted to strangle Glimmer on more than a few occasions and I'm not sold on the treatment of the first genderqueer character. However, I did rather like the way they've developed Shadow Weaver and Scorpia.

With that show done, we've moved on to rewatching Legend of Korra. I've never revisited the cartoon before, so I'm interested to see how I find it, especially having watched Avatar: The Last Airbender so recently.

Pale Hardenbergia by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

Currently reading
I'm making slow progress through Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron. This is a YA secondary world fantasy with African influences. It has been slow going so far, both because I haven't had much time for reading lately and also because it's setting up a reasonably complicated world and plot. It hasn't yet reached the point where shit really hits the fan, but I don't think it's too far away and I'm enjoying it so far.

Currently watching
I'm no longer watching the 367 Collins St. falcons because both chicks have fledged and there's now nothing to watch. For those interested, here's the video of the last chick to take flight.

Elsewise, Sahaquiel and I have started in on season 4 of SheRa. So far we've only watched 2 episodes, but I'm finding it a little heavy going since the first episode focused on grief and Catra's ongoing abuse of Scorpia is painful (Scorpia deserves so much better, all the hugs).

Natural Flower Arrangement by Elizabeth Fitzgerald on 500px.com

A couple of weeks ago, my sister got a new camera (having ruined her old one by falling in a stream while photographing a wedge-tailed eagle nest). Since she needed to take the new camera on a test run, the two of us headed out to the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

( Wildlife )

( Flowers and Foliage )

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Calissa

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