The July Report -- so late!

It's safe to say that spring has sprung, even if it doesn't actually feel like it, much of the time, to humans. The paddocks are full of lambs, birds are nesting ... yep, it's spring. Humans feel the cold -- or is it just me? Grey skies and rain only have so much charm, even if we also deplore the summer heat and our potential for a wildfire. Warmer, brighter days are on my mind now. Every year, we promise ourselves we'll get out more on nice winter days, use that parks pass and spend lovely mornings at Belair NP. Four years ago, Mom was in her final days and I was sooo ill, so it didn't happen. Three years ago, I was hopelessly lame following an accident. Two years ago, we did manage to get there, as I recall ... last winter was a bust, since we spent it mostly in lockdown! This winter, the weather has been so awful, we didn't do much at all, with the result that I'm sure I have an attack of what Alaskans call "cabin fever." You're just sick and tired of being inside, starting to feel claustrophobic about walls, even though it's so cold, wet and windy out, you can't go out for very long! The human condition. Check. But I have been managing to get out now and then, and get mobile and motivated --

A couple of weeks ago, we got up to Laratinga, at Mount Barker ... naturally, I managed to fall down in the muck (it was slithery after rain) and bash up my right knee. That took a week to come good enough to try again, and this time we found ourselves at the Swanport Wetlands, where I got some reasonable birdie pics, including a Personal First ... this, right above, is a Swamp Harrier. Never managed to capture one before, and even though this isn't a closeup (which won't, can't, happen before I get a very much better camera than this one!), it's actually a fairly good picture. It was a day for photographing little birds, but they weren't going to cooperate. I've never had so many images of birds' tails as they run or fly in the other direction! They just wouldn't cooperate! But I did get some good shots...

Yes, I know, it's "only" a sparrow ... but he was up among the swallows' nests, with not a swallow in sight. This year's nests seem to be ready for occupancy. They're right on the underside of the road bridge at Swanport Wetland, the bird sanctuary, and I'm amazed these birds can tolerate the noise and vibration. Swanport is nice, but the noise from the road, and bridge, is colossal. It bothered me, walking around there for a couple of hours, but these birds live and breed there. Nature never ceases to astonish. There's nothing to be done about the noise; the bridge is just there...

Otherwise, the last month or six weeks has been about the computer ... the new one, still under warranty, which isn't working properly, and has been in and out of the workshop like a yoyo. New CPU. New PSU. New motherboard. New GPU. Crash, crash, crash. It's under warranty, but there's still a lot we have to pay for, and it's not coming cheaply. Every time it comes home, it comes back upgraded and more powerful, but all you can do is hope. It's under warranty for another four months, and one would imagine its problems will all be sorted by then! In between breakdowns, it's doing fabulous work; the art is better than ever...

I've got a gorgeous fantasy world going here. I love living in it, and having the computer in the workshop is a jolt of reality I don't appreciate, and don't like. I'll survive. There is one more piece of news which is The Big One, so I've saved it for last:

Note: not my picture! Borrowed from the interwebs.

Finally, finally ... "In the Company of Ghosts: is going to appear! It'll be in the October 24 issue of Sylvia Magazine, and I'm thrilled to bits about this. Sylvia is a an eZine, so there'll be no print copy, but the online mag is beautiful, and my little story is a terrific "mesh" with the spirit of the e-publication. This is marvelous news, and I'll blog it again, when the page goes live. Save the best for last? This report is so late, we're almost in the the middle of August, and in fact this news is really August's news; but I wasn't going to wait, to blog it in The August Report! However, I will try to get that one done before September wears away...